“GCF worked with me to build my professional profile – they taught me so many ways to serve my community.”
Brian Cruz (he/him)
Graduated: 2024, Cohort 27
From: Staten Island
Current Position: Job Path, Direct Support Professional
Job Path helps people with autism and other developmental disabilities find jobs, live in their own homes and become involved in community life.
Tell us about your current role and daily responsibilities:
“As a DSP, my job is to help people with disabilities participate and connect with community organizations and activities, and essentially lead them to live the life that they want. I start my day by meeting the participants that I will be working with for the day. We discuss our schedule and what we plan to work on to further accomplish their goals. We will often travel to certain events and locations in their community where I will work to encourage and assist them to create connections in their community.”
Describe your career pathway. How has your GCF experience helped you?
“GCF worked with me to build my professional profile – they taught me so many ways to serve my community. I had originally started my career with the intention of being a carpenter. I thought that helping create the very homes people would live in was my way of serving the community, so when I found Green City Force, I thought that it would be a step in the right direction. I was totally right. In my time at GCF I found a strong interest in serving my community [in various ways]. At GCF I was able to see the faces of the people that I was serving and I knew that what I was doing was helping people.”
What advice do you have for current Corps Members and other Alumni?
“Make sure that everything you do matters to you. Show up and show out – the most important thing to remember when doing anything, you never know when you’ll impress the right person.”
Achievements at GCF:
“All the connections made in my community. I also won 1st and 2nd place in the photo contest and I was a Mariners Harbor Houses community food advocate.”
What’s your favorite GCF memory?
“All of graduation, going up with my team and taking our final picture together, and uniform ceremony.”
GRADUATION TESTIMONY:
“My time with Green City Force has been a great one. I was fortunate enough to have wonderful experiences every day that I came onto site and I could not be more grateful for them. I was nervous to start my service term but almost as soon as I got to meet my fellow Corps Members I knew I was going to have a great six months. Whether it was our boot camp or our uniform ceremony, food advocacy, or any of the full cohort days, there was always unity amongst everyone even though we were coming from many different situations. It was a really great thing to see. I have Green City Force to thank for teaching me so much and setting me up for a better future. I enjoyed every single day of my term – it was because of the ‘unity amongst our community’ that it makes me proud to call myself a Green City Force alum.”
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