Over the past six months, the Real Change community has been tested in ways we never anticipated. While the past 26 years have offered numerous challenges to our street paper model, surviving a global pandemic was never a problem we anticipated.
But, like our vendors, Real Change is nothing if not resilient. Thanks to the grit and determination of our vendors — along with the extraordinary caring and generosity of our readers — Real Change has stayed strong, offering an essential hand up to those in need.
During the three months that street sales were suspended to keep our vendors safe, your generous support showed us that this community has our vendors’ backs.
Thanks to you, we were able to provide gift cards, groceries and other direct assistance to those who were unable to work. We continue to be inspired by the deep caring and generosity we have seen, and we are grateful beyond words.
This month, Real Change celebrates more than a quarter century of opportunity, hope and community. While we are unable to gather in person, we have done our best to highlight the work that you value, and to celebrate the community that makes it all possible.
Beginning Sept. 14, Real Change presents a week of online offerings that celebrate our ongoing work and the people who make it possible.
We invite you to follow us on social media, and to join us in person the morning of Sept. 17 for our exciting Imagine Change community forum.
Real Change depends on grassroots reader support for more than 60 percent of our annual budget.
Thanks to readers like you, we have already raised $55,935.50 of our $146,710 annual event goal.
Please visit tinyurl.com/ImagineChange2020 to make your heartfelt gift of any amount today.
Thank you.
Tim Harris is the Founding Director Real Change and has been active as a poor people’s organizer for more than two decades. Prior to moving to Seattle in 1994, Harris founded street newspaper Spare Change in Boston while working as Executive Director of Boston Jobs with Peace. He can be reached at director (at) realchangenews (dot) org
Read more of the Sept. 9-15, 2020 issue.