Bangor Safety and Hospitality Ambassadors

Two Bangor Streetplus Ambassadors walk through West Market Square on a sunny day.

Downtown Bangor Partnership is excited to introduce you to our Hospitality and Safety Ambassadors.

They’re easily recognizable in their bright orange Downtown Bangor shirts and they are here to help residents and visitors alike.

Downtown Bangor is now benefiting from a friendly new addition—our own Safety Hospitality Ambassadors, who are local people dedicated to making the area more welcoming and vibrant. Dressed in bright orange shirts proudly displaying the Downtown Bangor logo, these ambassadors are always ready with a smile, eager to assist locals and visitors alike. Whether it’s giving directions, sharing information about local events, or just offering a warm greeting, the ambassadors are there to make downtown Bangor a friendlier, more connected place. The ambassadors are present throughout the day and night, contributing to a positive and welcoming atmosphere for all who visit or live in the downtown area.

The ambassadors are “here to help.” Their primary goal is to foster a friendly environment, provide a visible presence, and conduct observation patrols within the boundaries of the downtown, making it a welcoming, safe, and attractive place for businesses, visitors, and residents. They will engage with the public, offering directions, answering inquiries, and providing helpful information about local events and activities. In their interactions, ambassadors strive to create a sense of community, ensuring that visitors and residents alike feel supported and informed.

Beyond their hospitality role, the Ambassadors also play an important part in maintaining public safety, including providing security escorts for downtown workers. Trained in CPR, first aid, and public communication they are prepared to assist individuals in need, engage and refer those on the streets in need of services. Committed to both hospitality and security, the Ambassadors prioritize deterring disruptive actions, complementing the efforts of local law enforcement and community organizations, ensuring a safe and pleasant experience in Bangor’s most densely populated area.

The six-member team has taken the time to familiarize themselves with key areas such as Bangor’s parks, waterfront, Pickering and West Market Squares, and Kenduskeag Stream Trail. They have established relationships with local businesses and residents, further enriching the connections within the community. Additionally, their work includes helping to maintain the cleanliness of public spaces by addressing issues such as graffiti and litter, contributing to the overall attractiveness of the downtown district.

In partnership with local organizations including the Bangor Community Action Team (BCAT), Bangor Police Department, and Health Equity Alliance, the Ambassadors collaborate to support the city’s goals of fostering a clean, safe, and welcoming downtown. The use of GPS-enabled technology allows them to efficiently respond to service requests and document their interactions, ensuring a high level of accountability and service.

The introduction of these Ambassadors marks a significant step in enhancing both the safety and vibrancy of Downtown Bangor, ensuring that all who visit or work in the area feel welcome and secure.

About the Bangor Streetplus Ambassador Program

The number one priority for visitors, residents, owners, and of downtown Bangor is the enjoyment of our unique downtown for everyone without compromising the ability of one group to enjoy it versus another.

The recreation economy in Bangor is strong, with established parks and trails, public art, and various visual and performing arts venues of nearly every size. Downtown Bangor is home to a casino, a race track, a world-class art museum, and performance venues. There are few communities, certainly not of this size, with so many assets in play.

Safety and security remain top concerns for downtown residents, visitors, property owners, businesses, and workers.

While there are many services available for those struggling with homelessness, addiction, and mental illness, there are no 24/7 options outside of the police department, leaving downtown particularly vulnerable during nights and weekends

The StreetPlus Ambassador program helps address these challenges by providing a visible, friendly presence to deter unwanted behavior, protect property, and offer assistance to those in need. Ambassadors handle a majority of incidents without needing an armed response, making them a cost-effective solution to enhance safety and maintain quality of life in downtown Bangor. Their 24/7 presence supports the city’s public safety efforts and its mission to create a vibrant, secure community.

This service is essential to ensuring downtown Bangor remains a safe, welcoming, and enjoyable space for everyone—residents, visitors, and business owners alike.

Bangor is Maine’s third largest city, and while we often think of ourselves as a rural place, the Bangor metro region has all the hallmarks of an urban center – it is a continuously built-up area with high population density, substantial commercial areas, transportation networks, and an economic dependence on trade and service. We enjoy the benefits of being in an urban environment. Still, we also have many challenges typical of modern urban environments.

Bangor’s downtown is the city’s most densely populated and mixed-use neighborhood, with a high concentration of residential, commercial, and office spaces within a relatively small area, allowing for easy walking and access to various amenities.

Our historic downtown is the heart of our city, where all the parades, festivals, and civic celebrations take place. It’s also home to important public spaces like museums, the library, and parks. Making sure everyone can enjoy and access these spaces is a matter of fairness and equity for the entire community.

The Bangor community contributes a great deal of compassion, support, and resources to the most vulnerable members of our community – those who are unsheltered, struggling with addiction, or facing mental health challenges. Unfortunately, resources are limited, and Bangor shoulders a disproportionate share of the impact.

StreetPlus is an industry leading expert in the place management field. The urban safety, cleaning, and hospitality service is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, and has contracts throughout the United States, including business districts in Manchester, NH, Worcester, MA, and New Haven, CT.

Working with Streetplus presses the fast-forward button on how to implement an ambassador program, with their industry-leading training program developed over 35 years and through servicing over 100 communities of various sizes.

The Safety and Hospitality Ambassadors are all local people who live in the area, each of whom has skills, experience, and education supporting the goals of making a friendlier, safer downtown in Bangor. Streetplus provides initial and ongoing training and support for the team, which benefits from Streetplus’ extensive training and expertise. As employees of Streetplus, the team members benefit from full-time employment and a large company’s benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plus short-term disability and accidental death benefits, PTO, free uniforms, and paid training.

Ambassadors help the considerable efforts of the city to change both the public perception of Bangor and the unfortunate realities of the destruction of property, harassment of visitors and workers, theft, safety, and quality of life concerns – all issues that negatively impact residents, businesses, and visitors to downtown. Their main focuses are to keep people safe, help those who are unhoused, and cater to visitors and locals.

Streetplus Safety and Hospitality Ambassadors patrol assigned areas within the boundaries of downtown Bangor, ensuring a welcoming and safe environment. With a friendly and observant approach, ambassadors engage pedestrians, offer personal safety escorts, and interact with panhandlers and homeless individuals to connect them with services. Well-versed in local ordinances, ambassadors address unwanted behaviors, provide assistance and directions, and conduct business checks.

Working closely with the Bangor Police Department, they also report safety concerns to maintain public safety. Ambassadors will also address cleanliness issues, like picking up litter and removing graffiti, when possible.

Incidences of inappropriate behavior are reduced when likely to be observed; ambassadors are a highly effective, less expensive solution to the challenges downtown.

More than 90% of interventions don’t require a police officer with a weapon. Most people are willing to edit their behavior when requested, allowing our police department to focus on the most critical issues. Additionally, people feel safer when there is a visible professional presence, which the Ambassadors provide.

Ambassadors receive training for handling confrontational situations, and work closely with the Bangor Police Department, to which they will report safety concerns. Each team member carries multiple communications devices, including an GPS-enabled app that shows their location and which is used to note all interactions with the public.

Ambassadors work in collaboration with and support of the Park Ranger program, BCAT, Maine Health Equity Alliance’s HEART center and numerous other programs dedicated to helping those in need are all welcome and important factors in improving safety and the perception of safety in Bangor.

Ambassadors serve Bangor 24/7, including during inclement weather. During the winter, the ambassadors will wear high-tech, expedition-style winter gear designed to brave even the harshest environments.

Ambassadors can share resource options directly with individuals who could benefit from such services and can directly connect with one of the collaborating organizations in the region. This one-on-one outreach is effective in helping individuals access services in other parts of the country, and we expect it to be successful here in Bangor.

A perception exists that issues such as homelessness, substance abuse, and mental health issues are new. While the visibility of these issues has increased in our region, they are not new issues in general. Bangor and its ambassadors benefit from Streetplus’ experience in areas where similar issues are even more prevalent.

Every department in the city is working to reduce the impact of these issues, and many resources may be unknown to individuals who would benefit from them. Ambassadors can provide information on locally available resources and services and even contact representatives from various organizations who can assist individuals needing services.

Downtown Bangor Partnership has supported initiatives to expand services for people experiencing homelessness and for services at “points of service” for people experiencing substance use disorder and in need of mental health services.

Streetplus Ambassadors undergo a comprehensive training program that has been developed over 35 years, tailored for the over 100 communities they serve. Their pre-assignment training, which is mandatory, covers a wide range of essential topics, including non-physical de-escalation techniques, sensitivity, and diversity training, effective patrol methods, ethics, and professional conduct. Ambassadors are paid for their training at their regular rate, ensuring they are fully prepared before interacting with the public.

Training includes non-physical de-escalation techniques to help ambassadors effectively manage challenging situations. The aim of initial training is to equip them with the skills to interact positively with all community members, including those who may be experiencing homelessness or other vulnerabilities.

Ambassadors receive specific training for working with vulnerable populations, including the unhoused. This training emphasizes empathetic engagement, providing referrals to local services, and de-escalation skills that avoid physical intervention. Additionally, our ambassadors partner with local resources, meeting with organizations such as the Bangor Police Department, the Bangor Community Action Team (BCAT), and the Health Equity Alliance, which operates the HEART Center.

Yes. Downtown Bangor is the intersection of residential, commercial, and recreational activities. Funding for this project is directly tied to downtown via the TIF and special assessment. Other neighborhoods could work with the city to finance similar projects and services in additional locations.

No. This service has no impact on current tax revenue. The Downtown Bangor Partnership led the creation of the program through a combination of the special assessment that downtown property owners pay and the unassigned revenue fund, which is a fund created from unspent funds from previous tax years.

Future funding will come from the downtown TIF (municipal tax increment financing), which reserves a percentage of funding from downtown taxes – contributing more tax dollars per square foot than any other part of the city – earmarked for projects in the downtown district.

The ambassadors have been quietly working downtown since early August, though not in uniform while still in training. Their uniforms make them much more visible, allowing community members to identify them quickly as people ready to help.

The project was approved and provided with funding starting July 1, 2024, after nearly four years of research and requests for funding. A contract was signed later that month, followed by hiring and providing newly hired ambassadors with Streetplus training.