Kaia Sand | It's time to 'Strengthen Our Roots' for decades to come - Street Roots News

OPINION | Street Roots’ Ambassador Program means more income opportunities for people experiencing poverty, and it relies on your support

Ten Street Roots ambassadors grabbed their vaccine education packets and headed out the door. Tony, Melissa and Lee paused on Northwest Second Avenue to consult their maps — the same maps of the greater Portland area with 37 regions outlined with a Sharpie that Street Roots and other organizations relied on a year ago, when the pandemic started. At that time, Street Roots vendors formed an action team and wandered down the trails to make sure people knew about the spread of the coronavirus.

Now, they are making sure people know about the availability of the vaccines, dispelling myths and surveying people to learn how to best get the vaccines to them.

It’s a partnership with the Joint Office of Homeless Services, and it’s about bringing the news to people where they are at. They are the town criers of public health.

For 22 years, Street Roots has had four pillars — our award-winning weekly newspaper; people experiencing homelessness and poverty who sell that newspaper as vendors; the Rose City Resource, which lists services for the people who use them; and our advocacy that builds from all this knowledge to fight for systemic change.

Now we’ve added a new extension for Street Roots: the Ambassador Program. What began as an emergency response in the pandemic — the COVID-19 Action Team — has transformed into an additional way for some vendors to earn income.

Thanks to one year’s support from 99 GirlFriends and Meyer Memorial Trust, an internship through Easter Seals, survey contracts and individual donor support, we were able to launch the Ambassador Program in October. We immediately hired Raven Drake, who had started at Street Roots as a vendor and launched the COVID-19 Action Team, to develop and manage it.

These are the five Ambassador Program initiatives, which all build from our core as a media organization by creating work based on communication, civic engagement and expression:

• Outreach Brigade
• Civic Circles
• MoJo (Mobile Journalists)
• Gratitude Brigade
• Vendor Program Support

The Outreach Brigade does the work of communicating accurate information — such as the public health work they are now doing around the vaccines. They also have conducted surveys of people on the streets to inform public policy, including surveys on implementing services for Metro’s new supportive services bond; hygiene needs among unhoused people for the city; and soon, an evaluation of the Portland Street Response pilot among unhoused people in Lents.

Civic Circles build communication between unhoused and housed neighbors, including de-escalation skills. Ambassadors have led Civic Circles projects with the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association, the Downtown Neighborhood Association and the Havurah Shalom community.

The Mobile Journalism, or MoJo, Initiative is focused on people experiencing homelessness producing media. We are piloting this through July with Vanport Mosaic. Gary Barker, our lead ambassador, and mobile journalists Marietta Louden, Bronwyn Carver and Scott Mattsen are reporting stories of Old Town.

The Gratitude Brigade is focused on the art of saying thank you, our daily practice. Half of our financial support comes from individual donors, and across the organization we remember that all work we do is connected to your support. Nettie Johnson and Desmond Hardison reach out to supporters, and a larger team supports other gratitude work.

And our ambassadors, who all must have been vendors first, offer support to our vendor program. They provide hospitality to people waiting in line, help coach and guide vendors, and pitch in when needed.

We are proud to build these new low-barrier ways people can earn income by building on their strengths, passions and aptitudes in ways that can also lead to other employment.

The Ambassador Program means we can multiply the income we get to people experiencing homelessness and poverty. It also adds a new challenge: We need to continually bring funds in to pay income out.

Our name, Street Roots, reflects on the roots that take hold despite dire conditions, cracking through concrete, securing the scant sustenance available. Now, 22 years in, those roots have taken hold, and we are focused on strengthening them into the next decades.

This is our Strengthen Our Roots campaign. We encourage you to sign up for a monthly donation — $5, $20, $100. Whatever is a meaningful and sustainable contribution from you becomes support we can rely on.

We are focused on the work we need to do. And with everyone chipping in, we can do it together. Consistent, steady.

Strengthen Our Roots.

Director's Desk is written by Kaia Sand, the executive director of Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots.org. Follow her on Twitter @mkaiasand

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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.

© 2021 Street Roots. All rights reserved.  | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext. 404.

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Kaia Sand | It's time to 'Strengthen Our Roots' for decades to come - Street Roots News
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