Blair was recognized for her "outstanding and relentless devotion" to South Florida’s poor and homeless by publishing StreetSmarts, an advocacy and general-interest magazine that is sold by homeless men and women. Selling the magazine provides them legitimate and dignified means of income as they work toward self-sufficiency. According to Blair, about 170 homeless persons in South Florida have earned substantial income through gainful employment selling the magazine to the public.

"It’s a business solution to a serious social problem," explained Blair. "Selling StreetSmarts is very entrepreneurial. Each vendor is his or her own boss. The idea is founded on the principle that most folks want to help people who are helping themselves."

Coincidentally, many homeless persons want to work, to enjoy employment that offers independence, dignity, flexibility and immediate payment."

Although the idea of a magazine sold by the homeless is new to Florida, there are 50 such publications currently sold in communities of all sizes throughout the US. According to Michael Stoops of Washington’s National Coalition for the Homeless, thousands of formerly homeless persons around the country owe their current housing and self-sufficiency to street papers like StreetSmarts. "We’ve found that wherever homeless persons sell these publications, panhandling sharply diminishes, crime decreases in neighborhoods served, and at least 20 percent of the vendors move on to full-time gainful employment and out of homelessness," said Stoops.

Blair and her editor husband, Frank Kaiser, started StreetSmarts in April 1998.

Because it took well over a year to get the IRS 501(c)(3) tax designation without which it’s difficult to get grants and donations, most of the money to train vendors and print the magazine came from Blair’s and Kaiser’s own pockets.

After only their first issue, the cover of which featured a homeless Santa, they had trained and badged 93 vendors, each of whom earned an average of about $500 selling the magazine. At least three earned enough to move from the street into apartments. Two others enough to get back to their out-of-state hometowns.

"StreetSmarts is a great concept and an effective advocacy tool" said Greg Mellowe, Executive Director of the Florida Coalition for the Homeless. "I hope Kaiser and Blair can expand the idea to all 30 homeless coalitions throughout Florida."

Advocacy issues StreetSmarts has explored include the closing of Ft. Lauderdale’s Tent City, the documented abuse of individuals’ privacy at Miami’s Homeless Assistance Center and serious problems within Dade County’s Homeless Trust.