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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2012)
2 street roots D ec. 21, 2012 EDITORI® Finishing the year on a high note with great friends Online marathon brings a new audience together A* ast week, Street Roots took to Twitter to highlight the issue of homelessness in Portland. L Over the course of 24 hours, Street Roots visited with local social service agencies, spent time with park rangers, policy makers and most importantly people experiencing homelessness in our community. Street Roots reporters sent out more than 1,700 tweets during the project. (See our cover story, page 8) The goal of the project was to raise awareness about the degree of homelessness in our community, while giving voice to people on the streets. Street Roots, like many nonprofits, finds itself exploring and experimenting with ______ new ways narrative to deliver broader on a We w ill continue to social justice issues in foster a public our community using social media. conversation about Halfway through the social justice issues using new technologies project, we realized, what if we did this next year and our website. with every street newspaper around the globe, in more than 120 cities? What kind of impact could we have? What kind of impact are we having today? The project engaged thousands of people not only in Portland but beyond. According to many responders, it inspired people to see the issue in new ways and motivated people to get involved. It’s not the first time Street Roots has helped spearhead something of larger value using social media. During the spring, Street Roots, along with many other nonprofits in Portland, created the “I support the Portland safety net,” campaign. The campaign asked supporters to take a photograph with a sign saying they supported the safety net and post it on Facebook. The goal of the campaign was to secure millions of dollars for housing in th e c ity b u d g e t. T h e campaign was a s u c c c a a , nuL u n lji'h e e g B g g ^ c y L u m u fm i i l li i y for homeless and housing services, but also because it gave people the opportunity to publicly support something they believe in. The beautiful thing about Street Roots is that we aren’t afraid to take risks. At the same time, we learn from our mistakes. In a time when the worlds of journalism and media are being turned on their heads, Street Roots offers something of value through the vendor program, while also challenging the status quo through projects such as the 24-hour news feed. Street Roots believes in partnering with the larger community. We are constantly looking for new ways to bring different voices to the table, whether they’re opinions from local nonprofits working on a broad range of issues, or highlighting different voices that believe in a collective, social responsibility. Street Roots is launching our news site this week — www. news.streetroots.org — and in the coming year we will be inviting a spectrum of policy makers and experts, community organizers, people experiencing poverty and others to take part in our new blogging platform that will be available on the site. We will continue to foster a public conversation about social justice issues using new technologies and our website. We invite you to the table, as a guest and a friend. We hope you will take advantage of these exciting platforms, to let your voice be heard and to take part, one newspaper, one tweet, and one conversation at a time. big thank you to the many people and families that have taken the time to ive to Street Roots this holiday season. If you’ve yet to make a donation, Si :S: :<< •> ¡1 K IhslL '■ * VW Street Roots needs i S:: : : your support now more than ever. A By Israel Bayer donation to Street Roots this year means giving people experiencing poverty a hand-up through the sales of the newspaper and supporting our award Israel Bayer is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach him at israel@streetroots. org winning newspaper. It also means supporting the Street Roots Rose City Resource Guide and the organizations important advocacy work. Ways to give include giving online at www.streetroots.org or through the Willamette Week Give’Guide at giveguide. oaktree.com/Welcome.aspx. You can also send a check to Street Roots; 211 NW Davis, Portland, OR. 97209. Street Roots can’t exist without supporters just like you. It means the world to all of us at Street Roots nation. Thank you! P H O T O B Y ISR A EL B A Y E R Street Roots vendors gather at the office with a message o f peace before the morning sales. Vendor stories strike a ch o rd with i mum just finished reading the Dec. 7 issue and once again couldn’t help but be impressed by the paper. The front page interviews and profiles are consistently outstanding, and the interior stories genuinely compelling. My favorite section however — and likely the most important - is the vendor profile. Telling the stories of your vendors, or rather providing them a platform to tell their own story, and to describe their relationship to and around SR is the strongest possible statement for your work. Each issue’s vendor column reminds me that we are a community of people, closer to each other than we know. -SHANNON Portland I Silent Rage By Eileen Kennedy I look at you and smile. I look away and look again, and smile. Laughing, I tilt my head flirting with you. You sit like a sphinx, all knowing yet unknowing. You neither speak nor listen. You are unaware of my being too cute. I see the rage incinerate across your face And burn like hot coals in your eyes. You are consumed. I ’m afraid of such anger. Where does it come from? Where does it go? I reach out. All I can feel is the hard, cold metal That locks your soul. Like a chasm, I can no longer reach and hold your face in the palms of my hands. donations and in-kind contributions; Street Roots 211 NW Davis St Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax: 503-227-3117 www.streetroots.org www.news.streetroots.org Volunteer AmeriCorps Member kara@streetroots.org Grant Writer Sarah Cloud Development Assistant Cynthia Kiehl Reporters Jake Thomas, Alex Zielinski, Robert Britt, Sue Zalokar Photographers Leah Nash, Ken Hawkins, Kristina Wright, Christopher Onstott Stay connected with us online through Facebook and Twitter b b J ilL jf B kZ l Mary Pacios, Leo Rhodes, Jan Bayer, Sue Zalokar, Robert Britt, Shannon Lattin, Jim Quinlan, Ann Ereline, Vinnie Kinselia, Sharron Thompson, Ann- Derrick Galliot, Art Garcia, Joe Thick, Erin Fenner X TU K I A'ÎTEi.» S « U f a Street Roots Rose City Resource Street Roots publishes the Rose City Resource, a comprehensive booklet of services for people experiencing homelessness and poverty. To inquire about getting an order of the Rose City Resource for distribution, please write to pdxrosecityresource@gmail.com. Resources are also available online at www.rosecityresource.org. Vendor orientations are at 1 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Street Roots office
