These meetings are a highlight for all. They present a chance to hear about challenges and successes from the week just passed. Together we celebrate victories–like selling ten magazines in two hours or getting into an apartment. Rob Burbank, who spearheads business and community development for Speak Up, always brings a couple boxes of donuts. Coffee flows like…coffee. We laugh a lot. And sometimes cry. Vendors, volunteers and Speak Up employees intermingle on the couch, in chairs and around the table.

It feels a lot like family.

Above: Rob Burbank with a Speak Up vendor.

Here are a few laugh-aloud moments from today's meeting:

As we discussed life goals, a new vendor said, "My goal is having a sports car, because in the end that's all you've got." He paused, thought for a moment and added, "And maybe a horse."

A 29-year-old vendor said, "I've had 30 jobs, 30 cars and 30 homes. I'm a very successful man, but look at me now."

On a more serious note, our most successful vendor of 2012 shared one of his keys to success:

"Like Patrick Swayze said in Roadhouse, 'be nice.' And I'm nice–no matter what, I'm nice. Someone snarled at me, 'no, I won't buy your magazine!' and I said, 'thank you.' The next day they came back by, said 'you were really polite yesterday' and bought the magazine. You've got to be nice!"

If you're reading this, please accept an invitation to our vendor meetings. It's a great way to learn about Speak Up and what makes us tick. Mondays at 10am. Directions.

Photo courtesy of Luis Alvarez via SentimentsExpressed.com

I met Luis Alvarez at the Urban Ministry Center's Art Auction this past October. He was dressed in a slick black suit and had spoken softly, but very articulately. He didn't have any of his work displayed that night, but he and I did have an enjoyable conversation about the importance of feng shui and contrasting colors in canvas art.

I gave him my card and encouraged him to look into being a vendor for Speak Up. He emailed me a couple weeks later and our art conversation continued. But when talking about his life, he used a term that stuck out in my mind: "housing impaired." Luis considers himself housing impaired, not homeless. I was intrigued by this and wanted to know more about the meaning.

Luis was born and raised in Nicaragua and he says fate is what brought him to Charlotte. While on his way to New York a few years ago, he was in an altercation, and lost everything he had on him, including identification.

He remained here in Charlotte, and attempted to create a new life. His opinionated nature and desire to give advice to his bosses backfired. He says he felt misunderstood by employers, and has been repeatedly fired over favoritism and miscommunication. Chronic unemployment has left him without a home. But this is where Luis differentiates himself as being housing impaired as opposed to homeless. “I don’t have a home or a (permanent) place to reside, and I live in a shelter with individuals who are homeless,” he says, “but I am not homeless.”

“I see a homeless person as someone who has given up and has accepted his or her current state,” he explains further, “but someone who is housing impaired like me continues to generate business and attention.”

In Luis’s case, the business and attention he’s talking about is his art. Thanks to the CommunityWorks945 program at the Urban Ministry Center, he has been able to create art using donated tools, and develop websites to showcase his work. But as someone who is housing impaired, he isn’t doing this as a hobby. “My relationship with the Urban Ministry Center is strictly business,” Luis says.

“I’m not creating art to just reach out to an audience,” he continues, “I’m creating things to bring a much needed change to humanity.  I want to bring people to a new state of realization and creativity.”

Luis isn’t afraid to be honest. His intentions are sincere, and he’s very passionate about his art. A tour of several of the sites he operates shows quite a range of artistic variety, from sensual imagery of the female form to multimedia presentations.

“My art is a science…everything has a purpose and a meaning, from the color to the texture to the frame. I’m giving people the liberty to perceive it as they wish,” he says.

For now, Luis is building his portfolio and continuing to develop more websites. His current project is a site aimed at literacy education for families. He’s also working on writing novels and composing songs. Luis’s ultimate goal is to have his own place that’s big enough to display all his work. “Doors have closed on me,” he says, “but being housing impaired is just a transition. I am simply waiting to reach my position of power.”

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Brooke Gibbons serves as the Community Connections Coordinator for Speak Up. She can be reached by email: brookegibbons@speakupmag.org or by telephone: (704) 750-0721.

Here’s a comment from one of our vendors:

“I went to so many different ministries asking if they’d help me pay the overdue rent on my storage unit–only $39! It’s where I keep clean clothes and my things. They all said no. But within two days at Speak Up, I was able to pay that bill and have money left over.”

Speak Up provides people who are financially desperate with the chance to work and earn money. For those willing to take it, we provide a hand up out of homelessness.

One of our biggest needs moving forward is raising awareness.

As Speak Up becomes more commonplace, the job of the vendors will be easier–people will want to buy the magazine because they already know about it. But right now it is an incredibly hard sell. “You want me to pay for a magazine that I’ve never even heard of?” Is a common refrain.

This is why we welcome media attention for Speak Up–to help our hardworking vendors make money. With increased public awareness of the magazine, our vendors benefit financially.

This year we have a great awareness-raising opportunity: to walk in the Thanksgiving Day parade in Charlotte. Normally it costs a few thousand dollars for a spot in this parade, but through a friend we’re in for free. The Carolinas Belk Parade is the fourth largest Thanksgiving parade in the U.S. and will be viewed in person by over 100,000 spectators.

We want to take advantage of this chance to raise awareness by handing out free copies of the magazine. I'd love to see 5,000 magazines go out on Thursday. To do this, we need your help.

Will you donate copies of Speak Up magazine for us to pass out during this year’s parade? We have thousands of unsold magazines already printed, but since most of our budgeted funding comes from the sale of these magazines to vendors, we can’t afford to give them away.

The magazine cover price is $3, but we’d like you to help sponsor these giveaways for the vendor price of $1.50 per copy. Please click one of the amounts below to donate.

• 25 magazines ($37.50)
• 50 magazines ($75)
• 100 magazines ($150)
• 250 magazines ($375)
• 500 magazines ($750)
• 1000 magazines ($1,500)
• Other (any amount)

The impact of this has limitless potential, but it is proportionate to the number of magazines we can give away. Thank you for partnering with us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you're in the Charlotte area or a nearby town, please come out and walk in the parade with us. Details on the Speak Up Facebook Page.

"I've been in Charlotte my whole life," he said. "Before this office was even here. I used work roofing, construction, all over the place. But its been awhile and I'm tired of doing nothing…"

Tired of doing nothing.

Now, with Speak Up, he has a focus, hope and a work opportunity of tremendous potential.

Our vendor was ready quit at the start of the confrontation. I wonder how many other vendors or homeless-class citizens get pushed around just become someone with a badge tells them to get lost.

Bottom line: the supervisor apologized to us. Speak Up vendors have a right to be on public property.

–Matt

"Thomas Aikens, a thirty-six-year-old New York native and former crack addict, has lived on the streets of Charlotte for roughly four years…"

Matt Shaw shares his vision with interested vendor, Hezekiah Washington

According to Matt Shaw, the evolution of Speak Up magazine is a process that moves inch by inch. "I mean, really," says Shaw. "We started something from nothing."

That "something"  began in the summer of 2009 and it was now a cool, quiet October morning two years later as I drove to Area Fifteen to meet Shaw for the first time. He was hosting the inaugural vendor informational session, the all important precursor to the magazine's launch next Tuesday.

I was doubly excited. I met the other half of Speak Up magazine, Lana Shaw, last week and was eager to meet the man who quit his job to pursue a calling, a vision shared by both husband and wife.  Already, the two have persevered to compile, design and print the first issue, raise funding for their first press run and incorporate as a 501(c)(3) non-profit.

Today, the vendors were coming.  The vendors, homeless or near homeless individuals, are the essential piece of the Speak Up puzzle. They are the ones who will sell the magazine, the foundation upon which Speak Up will rest. There was a palpable  excitement in the air, even with only two interested people present.

Shaw was accompanied by Vendor Services Coordinator, Rob Burbank, a man with serious experience in sales and marketing who joined Speak Up out of a huge desire to help. Burbank's role is to train the vendors and facilitate the sales of Speak Up's first street teams.

The meeting was held in a small room adjacent to Speak Up headquarters, a rented nook in the eclectic, collaborative environment of Area Fifteen. The surrounding walls, concrete blocks painted blue, were quite cold and not unlike a jail cell.  Morning sunlight poured into the center of the room and the mood, although subdued, was anything but blue.

Despite the meager attendance, Shaw and Burbank conducted the meeting as if it were a full house. The interested vendors, Hezekiah Washington and David Allen Goldberg, listened intently, bringing the magazine one step closer to its goal of selling Speak Up on the streets of Charlotte.

Vendor Services Coordinator, Rob Burbank, speaks to the attendees

I met with both vendors after the meeting.  Washington, a current resident of the Uptown Men's Shelter and long-time cook, is looking forward to meeting people and providing a realistic insight to the circumstances of homeless individuals.

"We are not all the same," says Washington. "There are so many different reasons that people become homeless."

Washington recently graduated from the Culinary School of Charlotte and is using the vendor opportunity to assist with his transportation needs while job searching. Goldberg, or DAG as he is well-known about town, is eager to meet more people who may help advance his pursuits in art and writing. Dag, a talented artist, also happens to be one of the features in SpeakUp's first issue. After being homeless for 16 years, he was recently housed via Charlotte's Homeless to Homes program and continues to be a voice for Charlotte's homeless population.

For Shaw, the vendors are the most important component of Speak Up magazine. Although the magazine has made incredible progress, Shaw will not be satisfied until the vendors begin earning an income. He holds tightly to the faith that has carried the magazine this far and continues to believe in the slow, steady progress of Speak Up.

On my way out the door, two more gentlemen showed up inquiring about vendor positions. Shaw said three others showed up after and, just like that, Speak Up gains momentum inch by inch.

Speak Up magazine officially launches next Tuesday, October 11. Look for your local vendor. Issues of Speak Up will be on sale for $3.