Born from the needs of the pandemic, Street Roots’ ambassador program is now a seasoned option for vendors to build skills by serving the community through paid work. Participation in the ambassador program often leads to new jobs.
Raven Drake, ambassador program manager, brought on our third cohort July 14. The 10 ambassadors will serve through June 2023. Last week, they trained with Drake as well as DeVon Pouncey, vendor program director, and Gary Barker, MoJo coordinator, learning skills in deescalation, trauma-informed communication and active listening.
“Now that the program has been established, and people have been able to watch it grow and develop into what it is, we have a very robust group of people who are super excited,” Drake explained.
A case in point is Diamond, who sells papers at Walgreens in the Lloyd District on Northeast Grand Avenue.
“It's a blessing to be an ambassador,” she said, explaining her eagerness to “help other people.”
Many readers are familiar with the origins of the ambassador program. In early March 2020 — days before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic — Raven Drake pitched a medical tent at her camp alongside Interstate-5, including a cot where, should anyone be stricken by COVID-19, they could be isolated to keep the virus from spreading.
Soon, Drake was bringing these skills to Street Roots, and many vendors began working with the COVID-19 Action Team, supporting Multnomah County Health Department efforts to get accurate information out to unhoused people. We formalized these efforts into the ambassador program in November 2020 with early funding from 99 Girlfriends and Oregon Community Foundation grants, as well as contracts through the Joint Office of Homeless Services.
While many of the efforts were centered around the pandemic, they also had to respond to the weather disasters of climate change. They warned people about fires and imparted ideas to lessen fire danger, ran an emergency heating space during extreme cold, as well as a cooling tent during the heat dome. This week, in fact, the new cohort will run an Old Town cooling tent. They also ran a number of surveys, working with the Portland State University Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative.
Barker, who, like Raven, began as a Street Roots vendor and then worked on the COVID-19 Action Team, developed a related program as another track for vendors, the mobile journalism program, or MoJo. (I’ll update you on the MoJo program in a future column.)
The second Street Roots ambassador cohort began in July 2021. This group worked with PSU HRAC to evaluate the Portland Street Response program in Lents, and then citywide when it began its expansion. They also participated in civic engagements, giving talks and tours with students from Portland State University, Pacific University and the Northwest Academy, as well as leaders around the state through the American Leadership Program.
“My two hours with the Street Roots Ambassadors re-opened my eyes to the realities of houselessness,” Roseburg City Councilor Brian Prawitz wrote to me after he joined the ALF tour. “I have been involved in learning and searching for solutions in my rural city for several years, but our tour was unlike anything I have ever seen. While my brain wanted to argue over politics and perceptions, the truth of the lived experience of the ambassadors was simply indisputable.”
Ambassadors also worked with the Coalition of Communities of Color to give feedback to the Portland Charter Commission, which informed the ballot measure this fall.
Along the way, eight ambassadors have secured jobs. The largest employer is Greater Good NW, which has prioritized hiring Street Roots ambassadors for social service jobs. This is a particular area of focus for the Street Roots ambassador program: many people who’ve experienced homelessness bring particular skills and understanding to the very occupations that are, at the moment, understaffed.
“We've had a lot of great success stories,” Pouncey said of “people who are able to find careers after going through the ambassador program.”
Now, he wants to “see more of the same and just be able to see people continue to build and grow in their own life's journey and hopefully opportunities will open up to them as well since they all require different skills by way of the program.”
What’s ahead with this cohort?
“Civic engagements are going to take multiple forms,” Drake explained, including speaking engagements, tours, and community conversations.
Ambassadors will also continue to work with PSU HRAC on the evaluation of Portland Street Response, do outreach to unhoused people, and, where ambassadors determine they want to place their efforts, advocate for other unhoused people.
Ambassadors work on teaching skills to better engage with and support unhoused neighbors and will soon have short online videos on deescalation that they’ve made with Outside the Frame.
The ambassador program's civic engagement efforts are partially funded by the City of Portland Office of Civic Life through its Constructing Civic Dialogue Grant.
Now, a particular strength of the Ambassador Program is its alumni:
“I have six of them right now who are interested” in mentoring the new cohort, Drake explained. “They're really interested in coming back and kind of giving back to the program.”
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.
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