There’s an old saying that everyone deserves a second chance, yet many people who find themselves homeless never get one. Once homeless, only a few are able to get the respect needed to land a job.
Cailly Morris
For this reason, The Big Issue — a weekly entertainment and current affairs magazine dedicated to helping homeless people help themselves across England — gives homeless people a vendor’s job and help them gain the confidence they need to be successful.
“A year ago I didn’t have the confidence or the motivation to do any of this,” said J. of Birmingham. “I am fit and well. Drug and alcohol free. I am very grateful for the help I received [from The Big Issue] and very proud of my home.”
But The Big Issue doesn’t just stop at providing jobs, it also grants access to a doctor and equality of health care opportunities, support for drug addictions, direct help with sales skills, access to financial support, opportunities to re-connect with family members and provides a national voice for people ignored by so many.
The Big Issue got its beginnings in 1991 after Gordon Roddick returned from America and was inspired by a newspaper called Street News in New York. Roddick got in contact with A. John Bird, a rough sleeper himself, and decided the key to solving the problem of homelessness lay in helping people help themselves. Therefore, they decided to offer an alternative to begging by allowing homeless people to sell their magazines.
With originally only one publication sold by ten vendors in London, by 1993, there were five editions of the magazines that covered all of the UK — Scotland, Wales, Northern England and South West England.
After the success of the magazine, in 1995 The Big Issue Foundation was created to undertake the issues that cause homelessness and to support vendors in their journey through charity fundraising.
For many people, including myself I am sad to admit, judge homeless people before even getting to know their story. While it is true some are there because they are lazy and don’t want to work, a lot are there because of a wrong decision or a disaster in their lives that has made it difficult for them to bounce back — for Brian Rowe of Witham Essex, this was exactly the case. Rowe left school at 16 to join the Royal Navy as a gunner on HMS Cardiff during the Falklands War in 1982.
War was hard on him and left him feeling horrible about his experiences, so when he returned home expecting a hero’s welcome and instead got ignored, Rowe began finding it difficult to cope and eventually took voluntary redundancy in 1984.
Many soldiers after a war are left with posttraumatic stress disorder — but rarely anyone gets help coping with it. For Rowe, the years of being left without a structure to cope coupled with things like paying bills and managing finances, which were alien to him as he had no experience in the force or school, left him hopeless.
A year later — still dealing with post traumatic stress — his wife left him and took his son when he was six years old and that’s when he had a breakdown.
With nowhere to go, Rowe left for London and noticed people selling the Big Issue and decided he would give it a shot. After five years of selling Rowe has been able to get off the streets and is now living in a hostel in Victoria.
“I love meeting people — that’s the best part of selling the Issue,” said Rowe. “It’s great when people stop and say hello, it’s nice to feel part of the community and feel that people actually care.” While Rowe admits that some people still shout “Get a job” or call him “Tramp” to his face, he says the only thing you can do is laugh it off.
“I think many people see me and presume I have always been homeless, they don’t know my personal history,” said Rowe. “They don’t realise I’m just like them — could they one day be like me?”
Rowe has been homeless for 13 years and has done a range of jobs from kitchen fitting, plumbing, electrics and factory work. Sadly, the reality is that when you are homeless, employers are less likely to keep you employed and so he could never save enough money to buy a flat —that is until he started working with the Big Issue.
Since the start of The Big Issue, along with the Big Issue Foundation, they have met and worked with over 10,000 individuals with issues of health, housing, finances, training, employment and aspirations.
“The Big Issue is a hand up, not a hand out,” said the people of The Big Issue and they are dedicated to giving the homeless who want a better life a second chance. Their method is simple — after a vendor has proven that they are homeless or vulnerably housed they are given five free copies of the magazine — ten if they are in London — and sell them for £2 a copy. Then, they can buy more magazines from the company for £1 and keep the other £1 profit they make. This way, if a person is just interested in making a profit and not getting out of his or her situation, they won’t be able to continue. But if they really want to start a new life, they will save and slowly build up money while receiving help from the foundation.
“Vendors are not employed by The Big Issue, and we do not reimburse them for magazines when they fail to sell, hence each individual must manage their sales and finances carefully,” said The Big Issue. “These skills, along with the confidence and self-esteem they build through selling the magazine, are crucial in helping homeless people reintegrate into mainstream society.”
The Foundation and the magazine rely almost exclusively on voluntary donations and receive minimum support from statutory and government funding. Currently, the magazine is read by over 670,000 people every week throughout the UK.
(Photos: Pixaxbay)
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