Nettie Johnson uses her addiction counseling skills to help people on the streets
Friends and readers of Street Roots will already be familiar with Nettie (Annette) Johnson. Over the past four years, Nettie’s interview with DeRay Mckesson of Black Lives Matter was published by Street Roots in 2017; she shared her experiences with “addiction, discrimination, and hope”; and she has also has several Street Roots profiles and a podcast.
Throughout these pages, she’s been described by those who work with her as courageous, smart, professional and passionately committed to helping others
“Nettie has a courage about her that makes me sit up a little straighter and ask what more I can do,” Heather King, owner of Acadia NW, a Portland area drug and alcohol treatment center, said.
Nettie interned at Acadia NW in 2020 while completing her degree in addiction counseling at Portland Community College.
Nettie has been a part of the Street Roots vendor team since 2017. In addition to working as a vendor, she is participating in the MoJo, or Mobile Journalism, program. Working to help put a face on homelessness, she recently completed an audio profile of five homeless people.
In June 2021, she was chosen as the first vendor coach for Street Roots’ new vendor coaching program. For the past year, she has worked with vendors, sharing her experience to improve vendors’ success.
“My top tips: show up on time, be consistent, friendly and professional, and dress well,” she said.
Toward that goal, Nettie shops at estate sales and finds quality clothes for Street Roots vendors. She hopes soon to expand this effort by creating a Street Roots “clothing closet.”
On Thursday, Sept. 29, Nettie will be featured at Street Roots Family Breakfast. She’ll be speaking about the addition of a wellness center at Street Roots’ new home in Old Town, an expansion that includes showers and laundry.
“What does the word wellness mean to you? Wholeness,” she explained, “it’s about hygiene, yes.” But Nettie challenges us to think of all the forces that contribute to a person’s wellness. To start, she focuses on Emotional, Physical and Financial.
Nettie is quick to give credit to all the people and programs that have helped her on her own journey toward wellness.
During her recovery, Nettie heard a representative on OPB, a Black woman from the Avel Gordly Center for Healing at OHSU which focuses on the “culturally sensitive care for the African and African-American community.” This woman gave Nettie, whose family had taught her never to trust medication, the confidence to take medication as part of her addiction recovery.
A few years later, it was her internship with Acadia NW that gave Nettie the model for the work she hopes to do in the future as an addiction counselor.
“I’d like to use my addiction skills to work with people on the streets, unfiltered, with a program like Acadia NW,” she said.
On Nettie’s journey to wellness, Street Roots has been important.
“Street Roots has opened a window for me to see my way out of extreme poverty,” she said. “Now, I get to wake up every morning to participate in a job that I enjoy, and even though it is challenging, I still keep showing up.”
You can meet Nettie at her Street Roots sales post at New Seasons, 4500 SE Woodstock Blvd., Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 8:00 a.m. to noon. You can also support her through @StreetRoots Venmo by entering her name and badge number (118) in the notes.
Tune in on Thursday, September 29th to the Street Roots Family Breakfast (https://www.avstream.me/streetroots2022) to hear this dynamic, engaging woman speak about wellness.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. 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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