Learn More About The Contributor Vendor Leadership Team

For the past year, a group of Contributor vendors has regularly met to provide feedback and direction to staff on different issues from giving input in new programs, offering feedback to staff about new news and arts products and serving as liaisons to the vendor community.

The overall goal of the group has been to provide honest feedback and guidance to staff and find ways to elevate people’s voices. The Contributor attempts to be among the rare breed of nonprofits that meet people at an equal footing, entering a contract with them and helping them build their own microbusinesses.

It is not an easy job to be a vendor as income is unpredictable. It can take hours and a lot of patience to build up a regular clientele. But vendors get to decide their own hours, which allows people with disabilities to participate and supplement other incomes and rental subsidies to help them pay for food, their portion of the rent, other necessities, or a little extra.

Anyone who is or has been experiencing homelessness is able to approach The Contributor’s storefront at the Downtown Presbyterian Church at 154 Rep. John Lewis Way North. They are met at the volunteer office and informed about how to get started selling the paper.

The Contributor meets people where they are and recognizes their motivation to find purpose and meet their own goals. In essence, The Contributor offers a low-barrier income source that helps people rebuild their resumes.

As Will Connelly, the executive director of The Contributor explains, another goal of the paper is to allow people to use their authentic voice and be heard. About 35 to 40 percent of the paper’s content is created by vendors.

Inviting vendors to form a Leadership Team was only a natural next step to ensure they have input in not only the product that they sell but also the support services available to them and others, which The Contributor has added since the pandemic. As a result, about 70 percent of vendors who work with The Contributor for six months move into housing.

I sat down with several members of the Vendor Leadership Team to capture their views and experiences with The Contributor. The following members were available to talk to me before press time: Norma B. (12 years with The Contributor), James “Shorty” R. (15 years), Pedro L. (12 years), Gerald B. (2 years), Shawn L. (15 years), Lisa A. (3 years), and Keith D. (14 years).

What does The Contributor mean to you?

• It means family, heart, communication. It does mean love, companionship, a better day, a brighter day, a spiritual day and a better future. — Shawn L.
• Opportunity, to be heard, to be valued, consistency, colleagues, as well as really helpful staff. The colleagues part surprised me … that we’re all colleagues selling the paper, and we end up with certain kinds of alliances, not just friendships — but ways that we help each other, that specifically have to do with the paper, like sharing a spot or passing on information like you do when you’re unhoused. — Lisa A.
• Responsibility. — James “Shorty” R.
• Having a purpose. — Pedro L.
• Resources that you might not have had before. — Gerald B.
• Here everyone starts on the same level, and what you do and how successful you are is dependent upon you. The Contributor helps you celebrate your successes, and they’re still there to help you when things don’t quite go according to plan — and that just doesn’t happen in the world today, and that’s what makes this program so special. To me [it] is priceless, a real lifeline. — Norma B.
• It’s my livelihood. It’s a job that I like, and it means my life basically, because that’s what I do for a living. Except for a little bit of SNAP benefit help, that’s how I pay my bills. — Keith D.

How have you seen The Contributor help people?

• When I first started there was no support services. And I was just grateful that there was a paper to buy and sell. When the support services came later that was like a bonus. — Keith D.
• Have them get housed and get them off the street. — James “Shorty” R.
• Help them get off their disability. — Shawn L.
• Have connection with the people. A lot of people do not want to talk to us. Here, at The Contributor people talk to us. We are somebody. — Pedro L.
• I think that’s the key. We are now somebody. — Lisa A.
• The volunteers make you feel like somebody. The Contributor volunteers who come here into the office and do volunteer work for nothing. They ask us how we are doing. They want to know how we are feeling. And they mean it. They really want to know how you’re feeling. — James “Shorty” R.
• Yes, that’s really new for a homeless person to have anyone wonder how they’re feeling. — Lisa A.
• When I first started selling the paper, it was basically to hopefully get/keep a roof over my head, and to buy food and care for basic necessities .… Now anyone who’s willing to put forth effort (and yes, it does require effort) can get help with something as simple (but vital) as a Social Security card, an ID or a birth certificate. They can also access other much needed social services like case workers, help with applying for food stamps and disability or other programs. — Norma B.
• It makes you want to think positive. — Shawn L.
• To get published and get paid is [important to] me. Not just to have a voice but get published is huge. Even if a story does not seem directly relevant to the reader, it provides a window into a world that we do not get to talk to each other about very often. — Lisa A.

Why did you join the Vendor Leadership Group?

• When opportunities like [this] came up, I have tried to take advantage of them, in hopes that others will realize what I know — there is more to me than being a vendor and writer for this paper. I want to see how far I can go, and what it might lead to next. — Norma B.
• I joined to be a part of The Contributor. I have had a hard time finding a job, even selling the paper. Being in this [wheel]chair is making it hard for me. I have been a target for young people. That is not meant as an excuse. Everybody has a different story. — Gerald B.
• I wanted to show how we could do more teamwork, like for instance, with Gerald’s situation, he would be better off in a team with other vendors across the corner/street because of the targeting. — Lisa A.
• Because I got tired of being broke every day. I got tired of being looked at like I was nobody. I got tired of getting jobs who then let me go because of my felony or my past. And I wanted to show people the real me instead of always being angry or sad. — Shawn L.
• Because I was asked and it was my responsibility as one of the top vendors that I should at least try it. — Keith D.

What still excites you the most about The Contributor?

• I’m being looked at as somebody instead of a nobody. I’m being seen. It makes me have faith in God that things can change and the main thing, I do have a family. I’m not alone. — Shawn L.
• Seeing new vendors come in recognizing there is hope, and a home for them as a part of The Contributor family, and if they stick with the program, in a literal sense, a real home with a set of keys. On a more personal level, seeing someone who would not normally take a paper do so because I have an article/poem in it. — Norma B.
• We have a very good leadership team. The paper is written very well. We have a very good editor and support staff. — Keith D.
• I get to meet more interesting people. — Shawn L.
• I look forward to every two weeks to new issues. — Pedro L.
• The fact that the news is not reactionary. It’s continuous and connected. Each story we tell over time with updates. The thing that I hate about regular news is that they throw this really traumatizing stuff at you like, “19,000 people died in an earthquake!” and then they move quickly on to something else. And you’re like, “Hello, we didn’t even get done with the earthquake and how it impacts us here directly.” The Contributor news is really about us, and how it affects all of us here in this community. My point is, it’s very brave news. It’s not random and sensationalized. — Lisa A.
• True. — Shawn L.
• I have a friend who has told me about his incarceration. No one has ever heard his story. We can tell the untold story. — Lisa A.

How did you get involved with The Contributor?

• I got involved through [another vendor.] When he said, “Paid every day, work when you want.” I didn’t believe him at first. But when I went to his corner, and saw how he made money, [I decided] it beats going to fast food restaurants and asking whether you could clean their lot. Then they either say no or if they say yes, you clean their whole lot for a little bit of food. [Being a vendor] changed me a lot. I gives me a purpose. — Shawn L.
• I was walking by the church and saw a long line, so I jumped in line. They offered classes, so I said, “Yeah, I take your class.” I did not know what class. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just knew they were going to help me. — Pedro L.
• I’m one of the invisible homeless but also invisible disabled. I was really struggling with severe depression, anxiety and sleep apnea, as well as some kind of arthritis. I was doing some odd jobs during COVID and had a little bit of money left from babysitting. But it was getting down to nothing. I was at the Downtown bus stop and asked a man for a cigarette. He asked, “What seems to be the problem?” And I said, “Well, I’m trained as a writer, but I don’t know how to get a job. And I’m real sure I can’t hit deadlines that the news want me to hit because I can’t nearly hit the deadline of getting up, coping with the day, and going back to bed. So, I’m not sure how I can meet these other deadlines.” And he said, “Well, have you heard of The Contributor? You can sell The Contributor and write for them.” I said, “I can write for the paper?” He said, “Yeah!” So, I said I’m in. I came down the very next opportunity and took the training. They also helped me find an apartment and many other things as well, including disability [benefits], food stamps, renewing my driver’s license, all the things that I needed help with because I hardly knew what day it was, I was so stressed out. — Lisa A.

Why should people support The Contributor?

• Since The Contributor opened its doors in 2007, it has helped around 4,000 people in one way or another, and it continues to do so. With the expansion of the services they provide to their vendors, they have shown a willingness to help those in need, and the ability to do something about homelessness. — Norma B.
• Because it is people with their microbusinesses. It is an honest living, and the paper is interesting to read. When people buy one they’re supporting a micro business. — Keith D.
• The people have a purpose for selling the paper. — Pedro L.
• You need to invest in the paper by buying it and reading it. — Lisa A.
• I’m with everyone else. Take a paper, read the paper. — Keith D.
• They will see how homeless people live and what they go through. They will also understand that we are not invisible. — Shawn L.
• Support to me means something different than just buying from a vendor. Supporting the paper means financial investment. It means volunteering your time. It means spending time with the Mayor or whomever you can reach from your social status. And it means donating so that we can have 10 extra pages every month because there are a lot more stories than we can tell in our current paper. — Lisa A.
• [The staff and volunteers] talk the talk and walk the walk, assisting the vendors in any way they can! It is the only program I know of where the vendor can immediately benefit from their work, for example, get food, a hotel room, etc. Who wouldn’t want to be part of something like that? — Norma B.