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OUR MISSION
Real Change exists to create opportunity and a voice
for low-income people while taking action to end homelessness
and poverty.
Real Change Organizing
Principles
Real Change approaches all of our activities with the
following principles. We believe:
• All people have the right to dignity.
• Diversity has intrinsic value.
• Poverty is political—systemic change is
necessary.
• Building community is essential to social change.
• Political effectiveness requires staying power.
• Solutions to poverty must involve people who
are directly affected.
• Risks are necessary to create positive change.
• Meeting people where they are honors their skills
and potential.
• We are committed to quality, professionalism,
and accountability in everything we do.
A REAL DIFFERENCE
The Real Change Homeless Empowerment Project has
many faces, a newspaper, an advocacy group, a Homeless
Speakers Bureau, and literary workshops. We do
a lot, and all of it is working toward building bridges
among the poor, homeless and the greater community,
while engaging the broader public in fighting for economic
justice. By publishing the newspaper and mobilizing
the public around poverty issues, Real Change
organizes, educates and builds alliances to find community-based
solutions to homelessness and poverty. The Real
Change is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization.
Board of Directors
OUR PROGRAMS
REAL CHANGE NEWSPAPER
Real Change is Seattle's weekly activist publication
with an ear to the street. Real Change readers
are educated, socially-concerned, and loyal. Our publication
is sold by Seattle's homeless, and helps them earn the
money they need to get ahead. Each month, more
than 200 different vendors are out selling our paper
throughout the Seattle area. Real Change
is a hand up, not a handout.
Our publication strives to create fairness, opportunity
and community by covering issues that socially conscious
people want to know about, from topics surrounding poor
and homelessness, to stories about labor, the environment,
public health and civil liberties (to name a few).
After ten years, Real Change News went weekly
(from bimonthly) in Feb. 2005, and carries a paid circulation
of 12,000 per issue. Our vendors pay
35 cents a copy for their papers, which are then sold
on the street for a dollar donation.
FIRST
THINGS FIRST
Builds grassroots support for a more humane Seattle,
by advocating that creating low-income housing and providing
adequate shelter for all should be among our city’s
highest priorities. First things First is working to
ensure that elected officials know voters care about
homelessness.
HOMELESS
SPEAKERS BUREAU
Arranges for homeless and formerly homeless people to
speak to schools. businesses, civic organizations, and
religious groups. Speakers are drawn from the homeless
and formerly homeless community.
OUT
OF THE MARGINS
Out of the Margins is a project designed to empower
and build confidence through offering the underserved
public access to educational literary and creative opportunities.
Real
Change History
REAL
CHANGE IN THE MEDIA
Real
Change Strategic Plan 2007-2009
(864 kb Adobe PDF)
REAL
CHANGE 2006 ANNUAL REPORT (628 kb Adobe PDF file)
REAL
CHANGE 2005 ANNUAL REPORT (351 kb Adobe PDF file)
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