“I love outreach,” Racheal Dulaney said with a smile and a laugh.
For Racheal, who will be sober for six years this May, outreach isn’t just something you do. It also fulfills a promise.
“I promised myself I would help people out if I ever made it out,” Racheal said. “It really is a hopeless cycle.”
Racheal started at Street Roots in 2015 as a way to make money, but it quickly grew into a passion for her. In 2023, she joined the Ambassador Program at Street Roots. The program teaches participants everything they need to know to become outreach workers. The team hands out supplies at campsites, interviews people for surveys and runs cooling and warming stations, among other tasks.
“It’s the connections I make with people,” Racheal said, describing the Action Team and the Ambassador Program that was born from it. “The Ambassador Program now is a very permanent thing now and it helps people in the community become functioning members of society.”
In the Ambassador Program, Racheal was able to become a certified recovery mentor and will soon start a job as a resident assistant at Fora Health, where she will help people on their addiction recovery journey.
This passion and drive are reflected in many other areas of her life. Racheal was born in Redding, California, but grew up all over, attending 15 schools by the age of 14.
“It was a really complicated situation where my mom was trying to keep us safe from our father,” Racheal said.
Despite the difficulties Racheal faced in her upbringing, she managed to foster a varied assortment of hobbies that she continues to practice to this day: skateboarding, reading and painting — just to name a few. Growing up, Racheal loved to watch her mom paint.
“She made these wonderful intricate pieces that were all made of singular brush strokes and lines, (so) intricate and beautiful I can’t even describe,” Racheal said. “Each one would take her months to complete.”
In addition to painting, Racheal is a voracious reader. She recently counted the books on her bookshelf, and they total exactly 86. But it’s never enough.
“When I pick up a book, I’m usually done with it in about two to three hours.” Racheal said, describing her deep love of literature. “And if it’s over 1,000 pages, that lasts me about eight.”
When she was 14 years old, she learned how to skateboard. After surviving an attempt to take her own life in 2017, she taught herself how to skate again to help with her recovery.
“I just do it around. I’m not a trick rider,” Racheal smiles, remembering. “I’m just going to coast. I don’t care.”
Racheal sells her papers outside the Safeway on Southeast Cesar Chavez Boulevard and Powell Boulevard. You can also support Racheal through @StreetRoots on Venmo by entering her name and badge number (434) in the memo.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
© 2024 Street Roots. All rights reserved. | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext.
This article appears in March 26, 2025.