{"id":151254,"date":"2026-10-11T22:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T02:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=151254"},"modified":"2026-10-11T22:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T02:36:10","slug":"clean-team-workforce-september-employee-of-the-month-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=151254","title":{"rendered":"Clean Team Workforce September Employee of the Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(ALLENTOWN, PA) \u2013 The Clean Team Workforce congratulates its Employee of the Month for September, Kariem B.<\/p>\n<p>Kariem faced a difficult childhood. He grew up with six siblings, from two different fathers, in a household that experienced daily domestic abuse. Kariem\u2019s mother struggled to raise seven children, while his father battled alcoholism, leaving Kariem to navigate life on his own. Turning to the streets as a teenager, he found the attention and acceptance he was missing at home.<\/p>\n<p>After years of living on the streets and hustling to survive, Kariem finally realized he needed to make a change. He believed he had \u201cgood inside of him\u201d and wanted more out of his life. So, Kariem moved to Pennsylvania and found employment. Unfortunately, the online distribution company did not survive market competition, and he lost his job. For a few years, Kariem bounced around from job to job but couldn\u2019t make ends meet. Determined to avoid a return to the streets, Kariem came to the Allentown Rescue Mission for help.<\/p>\n<p>During his stay in the Emergency Shelter, Kariem discovered the Mission\u2019s pathway to self-sufficiency. Seeking a lasting change, he entered the Transformation Program, where he developed life skills and was exposed to the Gospel message. Kariem credits the program for helping him \u201cfocus on being a responsible person.\u201d After graduating from the program, he knew he would immediately qualify for a job with the Clean Team Workforce.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, July 10<sup>th<\/sup>, Kariem graduated and started working for the Clean Team Workforce the following Monday as a street cleaner. Instantly, he stood out as a reliable, hardworking person. A few weeks later, an opportunity arose to work at a local auto salvage yard through the Clean Team Workforce. He accepted the challenge without hesitation and continued to impress his employer.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Kariem has been hired directly by the auto salvage company and is working on saving money to secure an apartment and complete the independence process. About his future, Kariem stated, \u201cI love having a job where I feel appreciated and know that I\u2019m somebody in this world.\u201d He looks forward to his new life as \u201ca soldier of God, following Him, and knowing that God will guide him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Allentown Rescue Mission, a 501c3, 145 bed non-profit homeless shelter has been providing shelter to men in crisis since 1900. In addition to emergency shelter services (365 days a year), the Allentown Rescue Mission offers a faith-based residential life skills program, and transitional employment on the Clean Team Workforce that\u2019s available for hire to the community. The Clean Team Workforce pays the men above PA state minimum wage\u2013 helping them save a nest egg to transition back into the community. In a typical year, the Allentown Rescue Mission provides shelter services for nearly 1,000 men and serves more than 60,000 meals to men in need.<\/p>\n<p>To refer someone to the Allentown Rescue Mission for services or to learn ways you can help make a difference please visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allentownrescuemission.org\/\">www.allentownrescuemission.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nStefanie Appel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(ALLENTOWN, PA) \u2013 The Clean Team Workforce congratulates its Employee of the Month for September, Kariem B. Kariem faced a difficult childhood. He grew up with six siblings, from two different fathers, in a household that experienced daily domestic abuse. Kariem\u2019s mother struggled to raise seven children, while his father battled alcoholism, leaving Kariem to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=151254\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Clean Team Workforce September Employee of the Month<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\r\n\r\n{excerpt}\r\n\r\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Kariem-B.jpg?fit=672%2C372&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151256,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151254\/revisions\/151256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/151255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}