New Street Chronicle is on the Streets

Just in Time for Passover and Easter...

Because of the publicity over the publication of the new paper in December brought in a couple of hundred dollars in donations and a printer stepping forward to save us a couple of hundred dollars, we were able to publish a second edition of the Cleveland Street Chronicle. Thanks PM Graphics out of Streetsboro for their deal on printing. Thanks also to Brent for all his help with the layout. The paper look has improved dramatically over the last few years. Vendor Raymond is on the front cover, and is only charging $1 extra for an autographed copy of the paper. It is on the streets right now just in time for the holidays. Support your friendly local vendor at the West Side Market or Downtown by purchasing a paper. They are all badged with a green badge that has their name in bold and most have a picture on the badge.

This edition features a number of profiles of homeless people, and a few pieces of poetry by people who have experienced homelessness. We also have a few pieces of Daniel Thompson's poetry that we had never published before. There are a bunch of statistics on homelessness as well as stats about veterans experiencing homelessness. Seven of the current vendors submitted work that was published in the paper. Plus there are some nice photos from the 2011 Homeless Stand Down. Pick your copy up today.

Brian
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Columbus Coalition Conference

Working Out of Homelessness

The Columbus Coalition for the Homeless is hosting a conference focusing on their effort to employ homeless people and start micro enterprise projects. The conference is Thursday January 20, 2011 in Columbus at the Broad Street Presbyterian Church. The keynote speaker is Dr. Fadhel Kaboub of Denison University who will discuss "the economy and the workforce picture today." There will be a panel discussion on the challenges facing homeless people in competing for jobs. There are workshops on how businesses can work with non-profit organizations to employ homeless people. There is a workshop on social enterprise projects and micro-finance projects. Also, some discussion on where there are funding opportunities for employing homeless people will take place.

The conference is only $50 and an additional $10 for Social Work CEUs. They have a workshop on street newspapers, training programs, the underground economy, urban farming, and faith based support for these projects. All the details are available on the Columbus Coalition website. The Columbus Coalition always does a good job, and we encourage you to attend. Plus it is right across from the statehouse, so you can stop in and lobby your state legislator while visiting the Capital City.

Brian
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Street Newspaper Featured in Plain Dealer

Angelo Anderson Featured

Vendor and founder of the original Cleveland street newspaper, the Homeless Grapevine was featured in the Plain Dealer today regarding the publication of the new paper. There is a video that accompanies the story on the Cleveland.com website and a photograph of Angelo by one of the Plain Dealer's best, Marvin Fong. Thanks to Mike O'Malley for taking an interest in things happening on the streets of Cleveland.

The Cleveland Street Chronicle has been out for the last two weeks and people seem to be enthusiastic about a new paper. WTAM picked up the story today.

Ben Gulyas commented on his efforts to raise dollars to publish a paper. If anyone out there would like to sell the paper or knows someone struggling who is willing to go out in the cold to sell the paper, send them down to our address at 3631 Perkins between 9 and 5 p.m. The vendors pay 35 cents and they can sell the paper for as much as $1.25. The vendor keeps the profits. Since there are so few vendors at this point, they can make a good income if they are willing to put in the time to establish a customer base.

Brian

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Support a Street Vendor

Arthur Price passed away this year, and did not get to see the new Cleveland Street Newspaper. He would have been pleased to see the paper come back.

Cleveland Street Chronicle Debuts, Replaces Homeless Grapevine

The new street newspaper of Cleveland, the Cleveland Street Chronicle, is hitting the streets this holiday season thanks to a local group of poets. The East Side Poets worked over two months by hosting charity poetry readings and personal donations to raise the funds needed to publish a new version of the street newspaper. The poets are thanked on the front page of the Cleveland Street Chronicle’s inaugural issue. Many will remember that poet Daniel Thompson was a big supporter of the paper and had much of his poetry published in the paper. He would have hated to see the paper’s demise last year and would have been proud to see the street paper rise from its ashes because of fellow poets.

“We had to give up the old name (Homeless Grapevine) because of how many scofflaws abused the paper after it mothballed last year by using it as a cover to panhandle,” said Editor-in-Chief Brian Davis. “We figured that a clean break and a fresh start would enable this paper to survive.” You may find vendors Downtown and at the West Side Market again selling the paper for $1.25. The vendors will have green badges to show that they are legitimate. Those homeless vendors buy the paper for 35 cents and keep the profits from the sale of the paper for rent or Christmas gifts. The paper is a first step back into the workforce for many, and a number of the stories are written by current or formerly homeless individuals.

Please support these entrepreneurs as they try to raise a few dollars during this frigid holiday season. And don’t miss the chance to catch up on all the latest news, thoughtful commentary, changing statistics, and insightful poetry direct from the streets of Cleveland.

Posted by Luke Drotar
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New Street Newspaper is Out

Cleveland Street Chronicle Hits the Street
The new street newspaper for Cleveland is on the streets. A group of poets got together and raised enough dollars to publish a paper. It is now on the streets and available for $1.25. There is a lot of poetry, and we thanked the poets who raised dollars right on the front page. There will be vendors showing up at the West Side Market and Downtown selling the paper. They will have green badges to show that they are legitimate. Please support them as they try to raise a few dollars for the holidays.

We had to give up the old name (Homeless Grapevine), because so many people were abusing the paper after it was mothballed last year. We figured that we needed a clean break, and start fresh with the paper. We have to thank Brent also for all his work getting this paper out. Brent is a real friend of the paper and all of us appreciate all his help. He is going to make about 15 people have a great holiday this year because they will have income again.

Brian
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Update on Street Newspaper

We are Close to Publishing

The poets have been able to get close to the $1,000 mark, and we are starting to make plans for publishing this fall. We are collecting stories, poetry and photos for the Grapevine or whatever the new paper will be called. The poets put together a blog entry explaining their efforts to support the street newspaper. If you want to help, NEOCH is accepting donations to help with the paper. You can donate directly from our website or send us a check. Please send donations to:

NEOCH/Homeless Grapevine
3631 Perkins Ave #3A3
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

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What is Up With the Grapevine?

The Death of the Street Newspaper


NEOCH has not published the local street paper since last August/September 2009. We haven't said much about it for the last year. NEOCH has struggled to stay alive in the worst economy in the last 40 years. It is a rough time for most non-profits, and we had to significantly downsize. We just have not been able to afford to publish the paper for the last year.

While the newspaper in Cincinnati and Columbus are doing well, we just could not keep our paper going and the worst is that we were first in the state. Cleveland just does not have the pedestrian population that it once had to buy papers on a regular basis. We could not attract enough quality vendors who would stick with the program. We could not convince groups like Downtown Cleveland Development to help out the paper to outfit vendors as alternatives to panhandlers. Imagine uniformed vendors on the same corner as a panhandler. How long is a panhandler begging for money going to be able to compete against a nicely dressed vendor with a product? We could not find support to pay for the staff of the paper. The street newspaper was an idea outside the traditional funding box, and no one seemed to get the empowerment possibilities of this micro-enterprise project.

Finally, we were not willing to end our commitment to not censoring the population or changing content to be filled with happy news. I always described the paper as 15 pages of depression for $1.25. We could have done feel good stories and profiles, but that would not be honest to the population. Homelessness is tough and hard and full of depression, anger and resentment. There is very little happiness except after a family has found housing. Many other papers supplement their content with non-homeless information to keep people from dying of depression while reading. As a homeless organization, we stuck to our mission and the content was hard to digest. We also allowed the homeless writers to say anything that they wanted even if it was critical of the shelters, government, or even NEOCH.

Anyway, a group of poets--Ben, Stephen, and others are working on raising enough money to pay for one issue for the holidays. We will probably have to change the name of the paper, and start fresh. After the paper stopped publishing some people started using old copies to panhandle. The paper's name has been sullied. We need another $1,200 to get a paper together for the holidays. We do have plans to try to link the paper to a local training programs for the future after the economy stabilizes.

Brian
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