Your support builds community!

Dear friend of Street Sense Media,

This is the fourteenth time I have written to our donors asking for their year end support. In December 2011, I learned for the first time just how generous and loyal our donors could be. And over the years, your support has transformed both Street Sense Media and the vendors that we care for and serve together.

Your past support has doubled the size of our newsroom and fueled reporting that is annually recognized with awards for excellence. In a time of drastic cuts to local news, you make possible our efforts to report on the impact of homelessness and our efforts to hold locally elected officials accountable.

Your generosity created our case management program when there was none – providing our vendors with a supportive conduit to housing, health and mental health care, public benefits and support for those in recovery from substance use disorders. Your dollars provide emergency rental, utility and food assistance for vendors experiencing an acute crisis.

Your generosity ended homelessness for more than 70 of our vendors. While once these men and women we love slept in tents or waited nightly in the cold for a shelter to open, they now slip a key into their apartment door every night after a day of selling our newspaper. You made this happen.

More than anything, your support builds community. There is simply no way to overstate the impact that community and its sense of belonging has on the lives of our vendors. Built in writing, theater, employment, photography and illustration workshops – all of which unleash the transformative power of story-telling – it is this community that propels our vendors forward in their lives towards greater stability and well-being.

A year ago, when I wrote to you, we were deep in crisis. We’d cut nearly half of our staff, reduced the frequency with which we published the paper, and reduced our office space. You responded to that appeal with record-breaking generosity for which we will be forever grateful. I am pleased to report that 2024 has been a year of stability only possible because of your support. Renewing your support with a gift today will help to ensure that this stability continues.

You have always been the driver of our success. Your generosity has changed lives. We hope that we can count on your continued partnership through a generous year-end gift or by mailing a check to Street Sense Media, 1317 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20005.

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

Brian Carome
CEO