OPINION | The Ambassador Program emerged from the pandemic, and now, new doors are opening
Doug Marks smiled broadly standing outside the former Econo Lodge in Washington County where more than 40 people now reside in the Greater Good Northwest Shelter.
He told me how he had stayed up late the night before, getting “everything ready for work, getting all my outfits ready for the week, pressed and laid out.” The day I visited him, he donned a dapper derby hat.
“But when I woke up, I was so spry and full of energy. I couldn’t wait to get to work.”
He was starting his second week working for Greater Good Northwest, one of five Street Roots ambassadors that Executive Director Eboni Brown hired this month into jobs that pay housing wages and provide benefits.
This is a story of shared visions. It’s the story of carrying forward opportunities that arose through the adverse conditions of the pandemic.
The Street Roots Ambassador Program emerged as a pandemic response. In March 2020, when we were just coming to grips with living amid an aggressive virus, then-vendor Raven Drake led teams of vendors to help unhoused people cope with the pandemic, fanning out to far-flung camps to deliver accurate information and supplies.
By November, thanks to grants from Meyer Memorial Trust and 99 Girlfriends, Raven Drake joined the staff to create the Ambassador Program, an opportunity for Street Roots vendors to step into new roles doing outreach and surveys, tapping the skills and talents of people who’d experienced homelessness.
That same month, big things were happening at the state level. The Oregon Legislature approved $65 million in grants administered by the Oregon Community Foundation to buy up former motels around the state and transform them into shelters and eventually housing, a program called Project Turnkey.
The Econo Lodge in which Greater Good Northwest now hosts its transitional housing program was one of those motels. In total, the funding — including an additional $9.7 million this spring — purchased 19 motels throughout the state of Oregon.
By January, Raven trained 10 Street Roots vendors as ambassadors to take on projects all spring, including vaccine outreach to unhoused people. By this time she had met Eboni Brown.
“Doug and I would talk and then he was like, Oh, you haven’t met Raven,” Eboni told me last week when she stopped by Street Roots on her bike for a chat. Doug Marks was staying in a Do Good Multnomah shelter where Eboni worked.
“So I came down here, Raven was, you know, running around like always.”
Raven, who stood nearby out front our Old Town office, laughed. “Raven and I just formed a bond. We would talk about our lofty goals and how they matched.” Those lofty goals included recognizing the talents and expertise of people on the streets, and employing them.
“We can’t expect people to just all of a sudden not be houseless, not be in poverty if we’re not willing to give them opportunities that are actually going to get them out,” Eboni told me.
Soon, Eboni Brown was in prime position to act on those lofty goals. She stepped into the role of executive director for Greater Good Northwest, an organization that spun off of Do Good Multnomah to house and support historically and presently underserved communities, focusing on BIPOC LGBTQ+ and formerly incarcerated people, offering behavioral health support, case management, housing vouchers and other services.
“Of course, you can’t offer culturally specific services if you’re not willing to have your staff match that culture, so that’s where Street Roots comes in, and the ambassador program,” Eboni said. “We were allowed to bring on staff that really represented our participants.”
Doug Marks couldn’t be happier to be on staff to do a job he refers to as “a passion.”
“It feels so amazing to give back,” Doug said. “Now here I am, and I’m looking at all these people that nobody wants to take a chance on and I’m like, I can’t give up on you because they didn’t give up on me.”
Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots.org. Follow her on Twitter @mkaiasand.
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