ROCHESTER, Minn. - The city of Rochester is about to get a little cleaner, and a little safer, thanks to a new program!

The Rochester Downtown Alliance is spearheading the Clean and Safe Ambassador Program.

The effort will provide daily cleaning, safety, hospitality and connection to outreach services to Rochester's 44-block downtown district.

Clean ambassadors of the program will be tasked with jobs like picking up litter, pulling weeds, and removing graffiti.

Senior director of placemaking Karli McElroy explained, "It is kind of the fine tuning work. It's not replacing anything that the city is doing. It's just enhancing it a little bit more so there's a perception of cleanliness and safety for the downtown."

Safety ambassadors will be tasked with free public safety escorts and be an extra set of eyes for the Rochester Police Department.

"A lot of other downtowns also offer these services because the amount of cleaning these ambassadors will be doing
or just the extra set of eyes and ears they're a lot for the city to essentially take on themselves," added McElroy.

The city of Rochester, Mayo Clinic and DMC are providing funding for the program. It's set to begin on April 1st.