Philadelphia's Homeless Newspaper Gets Local Award

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A newspaper written, edited, and produced by Philadelphia's homeless population has received an important award for its work.

The newspaper, "One Step Away," has received the 2010 Community Service Award from the local chapter of the NAACP, citing the paper's work in changing the lives of the homeless men, women, and children who contribute to the monthly publication.

Chloe Johnson, assistant director of One Step Away, says the award really acknowledges their hard work:

"It's really helped to grow them in a number of ways.  (The homeless) are definitely developing career-building skills that they can use on their résumés, sales, and just people skills.  And in addition to that, we set up the blog where people can submit their stories."

She says the paper has been published since last January:

"We have a number of people who, when they first started with the paper, maybe they weren't that comfortable using computers or using a blog.  And that process has also been really neat just to see people learn the technology."

One Step Away is sold on the streets of Philadelphia by vendors for a dollar a copy.  Most of the writing centers on homeless issues, but there is also poetry and other creative work by the contributors who live in a number of shelters in the city.

Reported by Karin Phillips, KYW Newsradio.
File photo by KYW's Ed Fischer