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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: :<< •>
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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
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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