Street Roots is growing. At the core of what we do is our
vendor program. More than 80 individuals and families who sell Street Roots in
the community collectively represent the idea that people experiencing poverty
and homelessness can provide for themselves. Of course, it takes a great
newspaper team, a loyal readership and the larger community to make vendors
successful.
What often times gets left out of this narrative is how the
business community plays a critical role in helping people get a hand up. We
have relationships with more than 50 local businesses in the community that
work with our vendors to maintain their livelihood.
Street Roots is in the process of expanding our outreach in
the community and to vendors. The strategy is two-fold. First, we’re working on
providing more services to vendors in-house. Our relationship with Jesuit
Volunteer Corps Northwest has allowed us to think about creative and effective
ways to empower vendors to have the tools they need to be successful in the
community.
Our volunteer coordinator, Kara Dimitruk, has been with us
for a little more than six months, ushering in a new volunteer program and
working one-on-one with vendors to create an environment where they can be more
successful in sales. In the coming year, we are working on implementing a
foot-care program, haircuts and monthly motivational speakers for vendors. We
couldn’t be more thrilled with Dimitruk’s work and the work of the JVC program.
If you would like to get involved with Street Roots by volunteering on one of
these projects go to streetroots.org and fill out our nifty volunteer
application.
The second part of the outreach strategy is developing
stronger relationships with the businesses where Street Roots vendors sell. Our
vendor coordinator, Cole Merkel, a former Jesuit Volunteer himself, has started
doing quarterly outreach calls and visits with store managers and owners of
local businesses, letting them know we’re available and asking how we can
better serve their needs. We believe having a happy business that works with Street
Roots equals a happy customer and, ultimately, a happy Street Roots reader.
During our outreach, the overwhelming majority of store
managers and owners talked about how happy they were to have Street Roots
vendors in front of their establishments. Having a Street Roots vendor greet
customers with a smile and a “thank you” creates a stable environment in front
of stores. It also allows vendors to become part of the fabric of local
neighborhoods and gain a sense of belonging and dignity. It also allows
individuals the ability to establish themselves financially.
We know that we aren’t perfect. Everyone at Street Roots
didn’t get here because they woke up one day and wanted to be a Street Roots
vendor. For many, it’s a matter of survival. For others, selling the newspaper
helps improve their quality of life.
Whatever the reason for selling the paper, it is hard work.
You have to be a salesperson. You have to endure rejection and decades of
stereotypes about homeless people. Some people are verbally or physically
threatened or abused. On the flipside, for every negative interaction there are
numerous positive ones. People begin to know vendors by name and learn their
interests. They engage in dialogue about the neighborhood and about what’s in
the latest edition of the paper. Class and cultural lines are bridged and new
conversations emerge.
We have vendor feedback and
incident report links on our website (streeroots.org) that let readers write in
about vendors. We welcome your feedback and input. It helps make the entire
Street Roots team stronger, and a stronger Street Roots means a stronger
community. We can’t thank vendors, businesses and readers enough.
This article appears in 2013-03-01.