Hi all! i happen to come across this organization known as The Big Issue while working on my assignments lately and felt that i have to share this (: Their idea is really simple yet impactful, in the sense that they've reached out and benefited many of their targeted beneficiaries which are the homeless and vulnerably housed people.
Basically The Big Issue was launched in response to the growing number of homelessness on the streets of London by Gordon Roddick and John Bird in 1991. In order to make sure that Big Issue vendor is 'truthful', an individual must first prove that they are homeless or at risk of being homeless. Afterwhich they will have to go through an induction process and sign up to the code of conduct before being able to start selling the magazines.
They will first be issued with a number of free copies of magazines to sell, once this set of magazines are sold, they will make further purchase of further copies but this time, at a price of £1.25 and sell for £2.50.
Profits can then be kept with the vendor.
Up till date, The Big Issue has over 105,000 copies circulating every week which really reflects well on the number of beneficiaries they have reached out too! Check out the video below!
I personally feel that The Big Issue holds a very simple concept but yet able to impact the lives of many. Not only do they provide the rough sleepers on the streets and those at risk of it with an alternative away from begging money, The Big Issue also gave them a second chance to rebuild their lives and self esteem (:
This also serve as a reminder to not only me but everyone that to help people, it does not necessary means that you have to be creative, sometimes all it takes is for one to be able to add value to simple concepts and in this instance, sales of magazines. Creativeness would be beneficial but definitely should not be a road block to all of us (:
References
The big issue (2011) About us.
Retrieved December 1, 2012, from http://www.bigissue.com/about-us
Retrieved December 1, 2012, from http://www.bigissue.com/about-us
Hi Kiahgek,
ReplyDeleteI feel that though it is good that this ‘business’ helps to provide the rough sleepers on the streets and those at risk of it with an alternative away from begging money and a second chance to rebuild their lives and self-esteem. There are some things about this concept worries me.
Although Big Issue makes sure that its vendor is 'truthful', an individual must first prove that they are homeless or at risk of being homeless, there is very high percentage of risk in this.
Why do I say so. Some might take advantages of this and kidnap children or those easy to target and make used of them to earn money. This would than worsen the problem of human trafficking as more children and disadvantage people would be at risk.
Therefore, even though the idea is good but there are too many loopholes that might cause other social issues to worsen instead of the initial purpose of doing good.
Jia Ning
Hello Kiahgek!
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be a great idea, I mean the idea of Big Issue seems pretty radical, I mean helping people who can't help themselves, but I think their way of proving if you are homeless seems pretty weird. I mean, if I'm homeless I'm just going to be at a shelter and how would they be able to even prove they are homeless? Like do they go down to the bank and such to check records? I mean really there is a high chance that they actually could just falsify their documents. Reading through the news sometimes you just see people identities getting stolen so easily y'know? But their idea to get them to behave in a certain way after signing a form shows that they trust their clients. And it seems that they just let their client buy and sell making them stand on their own
And I agree with your statement that we all just sometimes need to do something different, not necessarily creative to help the people around us.
Guga :)