He has been employed part-time to support project co-ordinator Dayle Fraser and to supervise offenders.
Offenders - mostly youths - are referred to the project through Child Youth and Family, the court, youth aid or the community diversion programme and given community service tasks.
Jobs include sweeping footpaths, cleaning up graffiti, picking up litter, waterblasting and maintenance jobs around the town.
They will also be involved with a garden plot at the community gardens.
Sam has first-hand experience with the programme, having been referred about a year ago.
He did some painting and picked up rubbish and said it "definitely" had a big impact on him.
"It made me not want to get into trouble again."
Sam, who had been on ACC since a car crash, also said it was good to be "doing something".
Waitaki community safety co-ordinator Alison Banks said Sam was as a very good worker while in the programme and had helped with the Drive 2 Survive initiative.
He will work 20 hours a week with Community Clean Up for a year, through Taskforce Green, the Community Trust of Otago and the Waitaki District Council.
The three-year-old programme was going "extremely well" and the rate of reoffending was quite low, Mrs Banks said.
