This past Saturday ST8MNT as a whole attended AIGA Nashville’s ThinkTank conference. Speakers like Jessica Hiesch (Daily Drop Cap / JessicaHiecsh.com), Sean Adams (Adams & Morioka), and Jina Bolton (Sushi & Robots) all gave us some insight into their worlds of design. While we were collectively inspired by all of the designers – Local Nashvillian Tasha French really had a compelling story that I thought was blog worthy.

Tasha is the director and designer of Nashville’s Only Street Newspaper — The Contributor. If you are around town at all you’ve probably seen one of her vendors. They’re all homeless or formerly homeless, and they sell a monthly issue of a paper that they help write. The paper provides a diversity of perspectives and info on the condition of homelessness. The vendors all go through training, where they learn about strict codes-of-conduct for selling (No Drugs, No Booze), then after completely the training they receive 15 free papers. After the initial batch of papers they are charged .25 cents each. The Contributor costs 1 dollar, and the vendors keep all profits.

Today, The Contributor is allowing homeless people the opportunity to work for their income, and change their lives. Recent articles in The Contributor in Nashville told stories of addiction and redemption. Other pieces looked at the difficulty of trying to get by on minimum wage, why some people hate the homeless, urban gardens, a bicycle repair workshop for public housing youth and a review of the Tomato Art Festival in East Nashville. (USA Today)

Tasha French is a photo-journalist, and you can see her photos here — www.sanshouses.com.

If you or anyone you know would like to support Tasha and her team, Visit the site here  — www.thecontributor.org (Contribute, Distribute, Support)

USA Today did a great article about the Contributor that you can read here — USA Today Article

-Josh Shearon