Through its vendor program, Spare Change News has offered an opportunity to several thousand men and women. Now, a few current vendors have chosen to participate in a pilot project of Homeless Empowerment Project (Spare Change's umbrella organization) and MIT's Center for Future Civic Media as an opportunity for further growth. Below you will find profile pages for these vendors participating in the Homeless Neighbors project

By viewing a vendor’s profile page and participating in the ongoing discussion, you contribute to these motivated individuals’ goals to continue to help themselves. You can facilitate empowerment for your neighbors — the vendors — by donating to a project they're working to get funded, such as training for a management position, a writing course, or a skills development program. You also help by by simply discussing with the vendor and your fellow readers and Spare Change supporters about locally-relevant issues.

If you are interested in becoming a Spare Change News vendor, please use our contact form.

About the Homeless Neighbors project

The Homeless Neighbors project is a collaboration between MIT's Center for Future Civic Media, Spare Change News, and the publication’s parent organization, the Homeless Empowerment Project. Its purpose is to link members of local communities in Greater Boston with their independent street paper vendors. The objective of the project is to replicate in the virtual world the face-to-face interactions that Spare Change customers and vendors frequently enjoy on the street. In doing so, social barriers that frequently inhibit us are mitigated, dialogue is created, and the potential for change—both systemic and in the lives of individuals—is realized.

When a vendor decides that he or she wants to participate in the Homeless Neighbors project, a profile page is created that includes a biography in his or her own words. Additionally, each vendor receives stickers including their name and picture and the URL to their profile page.

Once customers log on to a vendor’s page, they build deeper relationships not only with the person behind each issue of Spare Change News, but also with other readers in their neighborhood. Vendors and customers alike are invited to meet and discuss local topics of interest, to share advice, or to discuss potential improvements to the newspaper.