By Israel Bayer, Staff Writer
Here’s a brief recap of Street Roots over the past year:
Newspaper
Street Roots published more than 600 community voices in
2012. The newspaper partnered with more than two dozen organizations that ran
op-eds in the newspaper on upstream approaches related to health care, prison reform,
equity and other important social justice issues. The organization continued
its relationship with Portland State University Capstone class on journalism.
The newspaper continued to strengthen its journalism by
reporting on a range of issues related to poverty in our community. We took
home five awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, including two
first place awards for our reporting on traumatic brain injury, culture and
health care. The newspaper began running interviews with socially responsible
musicians with the hopes of bringing a new audience to the newspaper. We
published dozens of poems and artwork from people on the streets, giving
readers an inside look at people’s creative skills and expression.
Vendors
Street Roots was open for 365 days last year to vendors, for
the 14th straight year. Vendors and Street Roots work with more than 60 local
businesses in the community. The organization helped house more than 60
individuals through the sales of the newspaper and with the help of partner
agencies. We help prevent another 100 people from becoming homeless through the
vendor program. Through the sales of the newspaper, we help put more than
$300,000 into the hands of our vendors last year.
We dedicated a 1,000-square-foot day space for vendors to
access. Vendors are able to use computers, get mail, get hydrated and converse
in the office. We also developed a successful weekly writers group.
Advocacy
For the first time ever, with the support of the Oregon and
Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s offices, the Multnomah County Health
Department analyzed medical examiner records of homeless people who died while
not under a physician’s care. The report was initiated and co-authored by
Street Roots. The goal of the report is to better guide the community’s
response for health care and services. Look for the second annual report this
spring.
Street Roots helped lead a campaign to preserve millions of
dollars in the Portland Housing Bureau budget for homeless and housing services
through the “I support the Safety Net” campaign.
Street Roots continues to advocate for the civil rights of
people experiencing homelessness and for a range of policy efforts that effect
people on the streets. Street Roots isn’t afraid to speak truth to power, respectfully,
and sometimes write about and say things that may be unpopular on the poverty
front.
Rose City Resource Guide
Street Roots published 106,000 guides that were distributed
to more than 250 organizations and institutions throughout the metro area. The
guide serves as the most comprehensive list of services for people experiencing
homelessness and poverty in the region. It allows local services and
institutions the ability to create relationships with people in the community
and educate individuals and families on what services are available.
Organization and capacity building
Street Roots launched its first official volunteer program.
The new program entails a monthly orientation and a point person for volunteers
to access the different programs within the organization.
Street Roots partnered with the local tech community and launched
a new organizational and news website, news.streetroots.org. We experimented
with social media strategies to raise more awareness about the issue of poverty
and our work. We upgraded our internal communications systems so we could
better communicate with one another and added a paperless, digital vendor
database to track vendor sales and information. We became a Personal Telco
node, meaning we are providing a free Internet signal to the areas surrounding
Street Roots.
We expanded our offices, adding a 2,000 square feet of space
for our editors, writers and development team. We built a new ADA restroom for
vendors and the public.
We continued our relationship with the Jesuit Volunteer
Corps Northwest and other organizations working to create social change in our
community.
In short, we did a lot this year (with a fairly small
budget) with the support of people like you and through partnerships with local
businesses and foundations.
Looking forward
In 2013, you’ll see Street Roots become more active on the
web by bringing in a variety of new voices through the news site. You’ll see
the newspaper continue to deliver quality journalism and voices from the
streets. Portland will continue to maintain new and old relationships alike
with vendors. We will continue to work with local housing organizations to gain
access to housing for our vendors. We will expand and publish more Rose City
Resource Guides and our advocacy will take on smart and winnable campaigns that
help change the lives of people in poverty and the entire community for the
better. We look forward to spending the next year with you.
We thank you, and sincerely appreciate your support.
This article appears in 2013-01-04.