ANNUAL REPORT
J u l y 2 O 1 1 -Ju n e 2 0 1 2
Building a better Street Roots for a sustainable future
elcome to the 2011-12 Street Roots
Annual Report. The past year has
been a year of capacity building for
the organization.
Street Roots is a stable foundation for
many people experiencing poverty and
homelessness in our region who find
themselves struggling in today’s economic
climate. It s easy to give up hope. For many
individuals and families experiencing dark
times and enduring the passing storms, SR
serves as a lighthouse of hope — offering
proactive measures to help people day-in
and day-out get back on their feet.
W
In the community
The newspaper and vendor programs are
tools for scores of people to create stability
in their lives. Hundreds of people last year
were able to get off the streets and/or avoid
homelessness through the vendor program.
Vendors are able to gain an income through
selling the newspaper at dozens of local
business partners
throughout the
(Portland metro
larea.Tndividuals
and families are
fable to build
f relationships with
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the broader community. Confidence
replaces self-doubt, and people experiencing
homelessness are able to have some
discipline in their lives. At the end of the '
day, Street Roots equals opportunity in
people’s lives.
The organization produced 105,000
Street Roots Rose City Resource booklets
that were distributed by more than 300
organizations and institutions in the
Portland region. The 104-page guide, listing
services available to people experiencing
homelessness and poverty, offers people an
opportunity to become their own advocates
and to understand in layman’s terms the
complexity of the system. It also allows
groups, including hospitals, police officers
and local social-service agencies, that are
interacting with people on the streets the
opportunity to build relationships and to
have access to the latest information
available for people experiencing poverty.
SR continues to be a leader on the
homeless and social justice front. We led
campaigns (along with partners) to protect
Portland’s safety net and helped secure $4.8
million dollars in the city of Portland’s
budget for housing and homeless services.
We co-authored Multnomah County’s first
ever homeless deaths report with the
Health Department and continue to work
with partners to broaden the scope of the
report to determine how and
why people are dying on the
Streets. Last year, 47 people
died on the streets. Our goal is
|o create a long-term prevention
strategy, while offering dignity
to those who have passed away
needlessly. We continue to
advocate for long-term resource
developm ent for housing and
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homeless services locally and
statewide, and will continue to
bpeak up on issues of human
¡¡rights for people experiencing
homelessness.
At Street Roots
While SR was able to
accomplish a lot in the
community for such a small
group of people, we spent much
of the year focused internally.
We are partnering with the
H eyer Memorial Trust on a
¡¡two-year capacity building grant.
We began a relationship with
the Jesuit Volunteer Corps — offering the
organization full-time vendor and editorial
assistant each year. We expanded our space
— adding about 1,000 square feet to our
editorial and administrative offices, and
allowing vendors to have their own drop-in
space.
We launched a new organization structure
that centralizes our advertising,
sponsorships and other inquiries online,
including the ability to find a vendor or to
report a vendor incident in the community.
We overhauled our communications system
internally so we could be better organized
and communicate more clearly with one
another. Our vendor program went from a
paper to a digital system, allowing the
organization to help curb waste and better
track vendor sales and trends in the
community.
What’s to come in 2012-13
SR will be launching a new “news”
website this fall. The new site will be a
platform for the newspaper and for voices of
people in poverty. The goal of the site is to
provide an online opportunity for experts in
a variety of fields, community voices and
poor people to communicate with broader
audience. Street Roots will be unveiling
some very cool projects through social
media - working to tell the stories of
vendors and poverty through a variety of
tools online. (Please visit us on Twitter and
Facebook.)
SR will also introduce new and innovative
community voices through the newspaper
and maintain our in-depth journalism. We
will work to build our individual support in
the community and new partnerships. We
will think out of the box and won’t be afraid
to take risks. We will also work to improve
our ability to provide the best opportunities
possible for vendors selling the newspaper
and for the thousands of readers who
support Street Roots.
We believe SR is a vehicle for creating
real change in our community. We believe
with your support, there is hope, and
together we will continue to make a
difference one newspaper and conversation
at a time.
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Vendor program core to Street Roots mission
endors selling the newspaper are at
the heart of the Street Roots mission.
Our goal is to create income
opportunities for people in poverty by
publishing our high quality, advocacy
newspaper that empowers vendors to
become agents of personal and social
V
change.
“One of the things I love about the
newspaper is that it will keep money in your
pocket. The economy is still bad right now,
but when I sell, I know I can get money in
my pocket every day, and I can pay some
bills here and there. This is paying my rent,
believe it or not,” says Earl Bennet, a SR
vendor.
In the past year, the vendor program
served more than 250 men and women. In
addition to a basic income and economic
dignity, vendors have a support network
within the organization and through our
many partners in the community.
Through the help of our community
agencies, several of our longtime vendors
have ended their homelessness and gotten
into housing. Many of them will continue to
sell SR to supplement their rent and
support their basic needs and health care.
Some have saved up to travel to a new place
where work or family waits.
Street Roots serves a spectrum of
individuals of many ages, sexual and gender
identities, ethnic backgrounds, nationalities,
religions and beliefs. This openness creates
a beautifully broad community where people
of all backgrounds make friends, trade sales
tips, share resources and connect. We
believe in a low-barrier philosophy, where
every human has worth, and that work is
available for anyone who desires it, and that
will continue to guide the vendor program
for years to come.
“In a time where civil discourse is all but
'gone, the SR Vendor Program encourages
conversations on a one-to-one basis about
much larger issues,” says Mary Jane Haake,
a SR reader. “It does so with the specific
intention of enhancing understanding
among all levels of society by allowing
the flow of humanity to connect with
individual vendors in an atmosphere
that requires respect of all
participants.”
From all of us at SR, we
look forward to bringing
you the next edition of
the newspaper on a
street corner near
you.
Cole Merkel
Vendor
Coordinator
SR Vendor
Raymond Thornton