Join in Community Building...Together

Dear Friend,

The essential essence of our work at Street Sense Media is found in the community that gets built through our cooperative efforts to create and distribute a newspaper and other media. And it’s impossible to overestimate the value and impact of that community. When it is intact and in place, as it is for most of us, it’s easy to take community for granted. But in truth, the community we have around us is the backbone of our stability and success. Likewise, the absence of community is often what causes and perpetuates homelessness.

What I have learned from over 35 years of work with persons who are homeless is that the harshest aspect of homelessness is loneliness and disconnection. Whether you sleep alone in an alley or with hundreds of others at a shelter, when you are homeless, you are truly alone. And this year, as we celebrate another 10 artist/vendors who have moved into permanent housing, we do so knowing that their journey out of homelessness began with the community that they assembled through their work with Street Sense Media.

Community is built when artist/vendors participate in our writer’s group workshop as well as classes that teach and create photography, theater, illustration, and painting. Community is built on the street between customers and their vendors as papers are purchased and vendor writing is discussed. Community is built when donors like you contribute to the vitality of our work with your dollars and your trust.

How does community create stability and forward progress? Our community sees the best in us. At the same time, it demands that we be our best selves. Community encourages us to face and tackle the demons that hold us back. Community refuses to let employment or housing status, mental illness or addiction define us. Community offers a hand up and helps us build a stronger, more resilient sense of self.

Your contribution will help new and more achievements possible. To ensure our critical work to build community and help our vendors move forward continues to be available to more individuals in need, please consider a year-end contribution.

We are deeply grateful for your support in the past. Every time one of our vendors inserts a key into their apartment door or saves enough money for a security deposit on a new lease, the results of your generosity will be seen.

Through your generosity, you are the driver of our success. Your gift will help change lives.

Can we count on your partnership through a generous year-end gift?

We thank you for your support and wish you the very best this holiday season.

Sincerely,

Brian Carome
Chief Executive Officer