This One Step Away vendor wants you to understand one big thing about the street newspaper

“Around the Corner” is a PhillyCAM show that offers local social impact leaders the opportunity to share what impact their work is having on the Philadelphia area.

If you live or work in Center City, you should know One Step Away’s story by now.

The street newspaper was founded by a group of homelessness advocates in December 2009. Much of the content is written by the vendors themselves — including Joe Albater, who has been a vendor since January and writes a monthly poem for the paper.

And though the paper has been around for almost eight years, Albater has noticed that some people who pass him while he’s selling at 15th and JFK still don’t understand its mission.

“A lot of people think that the [vendors] aren’t really homeless,” he told Generocity in an “Around the Corner” interview. “They don’t understand that they’re really helping people get their lives together.”

Hear more of his story below.

Also, this fall, One Step Away is expanding its reach beyond Center City by establishing teams of vendors in other neighborhoods around Philadelphia between now and December. Look out for pop-up launch parties announcing their presence — and take OSA’s community engagement survey to help shape their work in 2018.

PhillyCAM is Comcast channel 66/966 HD/967 and Verizon FIOS channel 29/30 in Philadelphia.