Your support helps us highlight the importance of taking positive action to combat homelessness and poverty. Your gift ensures that we can continue to offer support and opportunity to those who wish to regain control of their lives and take ownership of their own success.
Our Vendor Program provides individuals facing income or housing instability the chance to earn legitimate income and take their first steps towards a more stable life. Mental health issues, substance abuse, criminal records and other disabilities that often underlie homelessness and poverty tend to make it very difficult for some individuals to obtain and keep a regular job.
The combination of income-earning opportunities, time-flexibility and sales/life skills-training offered by our Vendor Program gives a struggling individual the chance to work when he/she feels able, learn (or re-learn) workplace expectations, and earn sufficient income to move off the street.
In the words of our vendors:
"...The VOICE has given me an opportunity where no other person or business would give me a job. It has given me self-esteem, self-respect and a sense of worth."
"The best thing about the Denver VOICE is that no matter who you are or where you come from, you can have a job. It doesn't matter if you don't have a high school diploma, if you are a convicted felon, if you have no job references. They don't care if you can't read or write as long as you can talk about the paper."
"The Denver VOICE allowed me to be my own boss, work my own hours and make good money so that I have been able to get off the streets by the paper."
The Denver VOICE is a monthly street newspaper that provides economic opportunities for people experiencing homelessness and poverty in the Denver metro area. Our mission is to empower individuals at risk of housing and financial instability by providing low-barrier job opportunities and an inclusive & supportive community.
Our program allows vendors to earn income to serve basic human needs like food, transportation, and shelter, while taking back control of their lives. We proudly operate under the strategy to serve, not solve. That means that we won't work harder than our vendors, and we won't do for them what they can do for themselves - we provide a hand up, not a handout!
Individuals come to us from all backgrounds and all kinds of circumstances. We work to meet them where they are and help them move forward. For some, the Denver VOICE is a bridge space to regain their footing. For others, it is a nontraditional job opportunity specifically designed to fit the needs of individuals who may struggle with more traditional employment. The Denver VOICE is a program that helps all in need grow their skills, self-confidence and self-sufficiency.
The Denver VOICE also works to change the face of homelessness by enhancing community awareness of homeless prevalence, breaking down common misconceptions, and inviting volunteers and other community members to engage with individuals of all races, ethnicity, and background who are provided a voice and an economic opportunity through our programs.
Additionally, Peer Navigators work directly with vendors to identify barriers to self-sufficiency and success, while building trusting relationships with healthy boundaries in order to tackle a variety of barriers that our older adult population may be facing. They help connect them to other financial benefits, other nonprofits resources that include health benefits, housing, legal and transportation support.
We are proud that each year vendors tell us that selling the paper has significantly improved their lives, and that they are able to sell enough papers to meet their financial need. But most incredibly, they report notable increases in self-confidence and hope since working for The VOICE.
The Denver VOICE, first published in 1996, began as a grassroots newspaper created by homeless people for homeless people. During its ten-year run, the paper went through numerous transformations and reincarnations. In the spring of 2006 it temporarily ceased publication.
In December 2006, Denver businessman and philanthropist Rick Barnes resurrected the Denver VOICE. Inspired by the International Network of Street Papers (INSP), he hired a team of professional journalists to create a new Denver VOICE. The first issue of the new paper was published in August 2007, and we have been publishing monthly since then.
The Denver VOICE now reaches a much broader audience than the original paper, which was primarily published for the homeless population. The new paper is designed to be of interest to everyone who lives or works in Denver. We cover homelessness and social justice issues and publish stories and points of view that are underreported and that offer insight into diverse communities in the Denver area.
The vendor program is a critical component of the Denver VOICE. When the paper re-launched in 2007, it did so with a formal program to empower people by providing a source of income. Since 2007, we have employed more than 4,600 men and women as Denver VOICE vendors. And 2021 opportunities for employment include not only vending the paper, but guest podcasting, vendor tours, and street outreach and education.
The Denver VOICE is an award-winning publication and a member of the International Network of Street Papers. We abide by the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics.
Organization name
Denver VOICE
other names
Denver VOICE, Denver Homeless Voice
1997
Tax id (EIN)
84-1415056
Category
Employment
Organization Size
Medium Organization
Address
989 Santa Fe DrMailing
PO Box 1931Denver County, CO, US