Street Spirit, the longtime newspaper voice of the homeless and their advocates in the East Bay, is taking a dip in the fountain of youth.

On Friday, the monthly issue will hit the streets with a new look and a new energy infused by Youth Spirit Artworks, which is taking over the publication. The sheet will have the same mission of illuminating the struggles and victories of those without homes, but this time it will be principally overseen by about 20 homeless and low-income youths with a passion to include more narratives of young people in the mix.

The American Friends Service Committee had funded the paper since its inception 22 years ago, but in July said budget cuts were forcing it to cut the publication loose. That’s when the paper swung full circle.

Sally Hindman, executive director of Berkeley’s Youth Spirit Artworks, had helped co-found the publication with editor Terry Messman back when she was working in a different poverty-aid nonprofit — and when she heard it was in trouble, she stepped in.

She negotiated a free handover of the publication to her nonprofit and led a drive for $27,000 in donations to keep the place open past the last pay date of Jan. 1. The American Friends Service Committee agreed to continue to loan out Messman — a Friends staffer — as editor through July, when he plans to retire.

When about 20 members of Hindman’s youth group stepped forward to help put out the paper, she was off to the races.

She and an army of supporters are lining up steady donors, foundation grants and fundraising concerts to take the paper into the future. The financial situation looks stable for most of the coming year, Hindman said.

“We want the mission of Street Spirit to remain intact,” she said. “We would never in a million years want to change the principle or the prophetic mission that has meant so much for 22 years. But now we’re adding a youth voice, and their opinions and experience will be a new dynamic element of Street Spirit.”

Hindman’s organization trains young people ages 16 to 25 in art, writing, marketing, social services and entrepreneurship with an aim toward employment. As a dozen of the newspaper’s new staffers — all volunteers, though some could get small stipends — gathered the other day at the nonprofit’s offices, the ideas were flying.

“We have to write about waiting lists for shelters, safety, how to get housing when you’re a kid,” said one new staffer, a 24-year-old writer who goes only by the name Zef.

“We have to really put a spotlight on what’s going on in all those houses where kids are being kicked out, abused by their families,” chimed in Devon Allen, 25.

“I want new people to read this newspaper,” said 17-year-old Malina King, a community organizer for Youth Spirit Artworks who intends to use that skill to gather support for the paper. “It says it’s for the homeless, but I want everyone to read it. I want coloring pages for kids. I want it to continue to also speak to an older generation — I want to break the generation gap.”

Messman, who was a longtime advocate for homeless and peace causes before starting the paper, sees the new ownership as a great thing. He will bring his stable of about 20 steady writers with him, and because they include everyone from homeless people to doctors, he believes he’ll have a terrific mix to work with.

“I have always been very impressed by the young people Sally brings together in her organization,” Messman said. “I thought it was a perfect match with Street Spirit. They are creative artistically, but they also have been full of dedication and life at the protests for homeless rights that I have seen them at. I’m really glad for this partnership.”

He said he will continue to edit as a volunteer if the paper still needs him after July.

The masthead of the newly recharged Street Spirit will be redesigned, but it will still carry the motto: “Justice News and Homeless Blues in the Bay Area.”

Messman, who has conducted many interviews with civil rights leaders and mounted campaigns against mental health hospital abuses and homeless crackdown laws, said his mission was never more urgent.

“There’s more poverty and less housing than ever now, and there are constant police attacks on homeless people and encampments,” he said. “Homeless vendors need the income Street Spirit provides, and the whole homeless community needs the support and the voice that we give.”

The paper prints about 20,000 copies a month and is distributed by about 100 vendors, most of them homeless, who sell the paper for $1 a copy on the streets of Berkeley, Oakland and other East Bay cities.

“This paper is my lifeline,” Donald Cistrunk, 51, said as he hawked Street Spirits near Ashby and Telegraph avenues the other day. He’s been a vendor since 2002, he said, and since losing his steady housing in June, he and his wife depend on the $80 or so he makes each eight-hour day to help pay for a motel room.

“I can take care of myself and my wife because of this paper, and it speaks the truth to people,” Cistrunk said. “We all need it.”

Leaders in poverty-aid agencies all over the Bay Area said they breathed collective sighs of relief upon learning that Street Spirit was not dying.

“When we heard they were having trouble, but that Sally was getting involved, I thought, ‘OK, it’ll be all right,’” said Paul Boden, organizing director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, which advocates for homeless people. “That’s Sally’s gut. That’s her heart.”

He said Messman’s continued involvement will be crucial, “because he’s a true investigative journalist and knows what he’s doing. But keeping that and adding the young people? That is just going to make it all better.”

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron