May

White Glove Sanitation Chemicals

White Glove Sanitation Chemicals stopped by with 50 gallons of hand sanitizer for us to distribute to our vendors, job seekers and Chicago's Homeless! Owner Roger Dickens held a press conference in front of our new location and ABC7 Chicago attended.

Pope Francis

In a personal message to the street paper network – expressing his solidarity with its journalists, its frontline staff, its volunteers and its vendors – Pope Francis hailed the work being done by street papers to help “the vulnerable and invisible” in the trying circumstances created by COVID-19, providing hope and courage to press forward. StreetWise Vendor

Russell Adams reacted to the Pope's words of encouragement, saying, "Wow, that's awesome coming from the Pope! I really feel blessed we will bounce back. This made my day! Take care everyone."

Chicago Tribune

StreetWise was featured in a story by Darcel Rockett in the Chicago Tribune. The article highlighted the struggles of StreetWise Vendors during the pandemic, and put emphasis on our “I’M STILL HERE” campaign. Read the article at https://bit.ly/2VZbhEo

Census Outreach

In partnership with the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, StreetWise received a grant to provide stipends to vendors and job seekers to conduct street outreach with homeless individuals throughout the city. This partnership gave vendors a chance to get back to work, perform important civic engagement work, and earn a living. Vendor A. Allen appeared on Telemundo Chicago on May 27 to talk about how StreetWise vendors were still empowered to work, by encouraging Census participation in hard-to-count communities they frequent during the COVID-19 pandemic.