INSP Advent Calendar: day 15

Street paper vendors have been giving the inside scoop on the cities they know best. Here, The Big Issue Australia vendor Raylene talks about Fremantle.

The Big Issue has been part of Dodge Dawson’s life for many years and he’s always found his way back to the magazine. He credits the magazine with helping him to increase his confidence and to learn new skills. After being helped by so many people in his life, Dodge now volunteers with Street Vets and the NHS in addition to working as a Big Issue vendor. He wants to give something back in return for all of the help that he’s received from others.

Street paper vendors have been giving the inside scoop on the cities they know best. Here, The Big Issue Australia vendor Luceil talks about Canberra.

Street paper vendors have been giving the inside scoop on the cities they know best. Here, The Big Issue Australia vendor Jeromy talks about Brisbane.

The homeless community has long been the target of police action and prosecution, often creating an insurmountable backlog of tickets and non-violent misdemeanors that can effectively shut people off from safe housing, education and jobs, and perpetuating cycles of poverty. Portland’s Street Roots partnered with other organisations on a project aimed at helping vendors attain a clean slate.

Gerri has been an Augustin vendor for two decades and is a familiar face in Vienna. He sells the magazine in the Gürtel bar district, where he’s known for his friendly demeanour, is on first-name terms with the local bar owners and fields endless questions – with a certain level of bemusement – from people about the fact that he is nearly always barefoot.

Street paper vendors have been giving the inside scoop on the cities they know best. Here, The Big Issue Australia vendor Daniel talks about Adelaide.

The Big Issue Australia asked a selection of its vendors to share what it’s like to sleep when you have no place to call home.

Brian Lane credits his Lummi Tribe heritage with helping him to recover from a traumatic injury: he feels that the spirit of his tribal lineage gave him the ability to pull through. Now homeless and living with a disability, Brian has found something else that is helping him to navigate his way through life: Street Roots. His involvement with the magazine has brought growth, support and the possibility of moving forward.

The Blankfaces is a Glasgow-based social enterprise fashion label that works with people experiencing homelessness on design ideas to create stylish streetwear with a message. INSP spoke to its founder Gerard McKenzie-Govan about the impetus behind the business and giving an outlet for the homeless community’s creative spirit.

For winning photographer Buffie Irvine, the Hope in Shadows project became more than a photo contest. She has been a Megaphone vendor for eight years and her father for 14. When customers realise the family connection, they start talking to her and it makes her feel close to her community. The Hope in Shadows photography project made her feel close to something else; something that she loved. Her Dad.

We’re continuing to announce the nominees for the Editorial categories of the 2019 INSP Awards, and next up is the Top 10 for Best Vendor Contribution.

Réjean is a one-man band – an extremely talented individual. Here, he talks about his love of music, a more dangerous and temperamental love of alcohol, giving it up, using his talents for those in need and finding himself a L’Itinéraire vendor.

We’re continuing with our 2019 INSP Awards announcements, and today it’s the Top 10 Entries for Best Cultural Feature.

Helping readers get to know our vendors is a big motivator for putting together street papers. For this story, The Curbside Chronicle asked vendors to document a week’s worth of meals with a food diary, curious to know more about what vendors are eating. They photographed a single day of meals from several participants. The results were mixed — everything from multiple visits to soup kitchens to eating nothing at all. But one thing was clear, most vendors experience significant food insecurity. Hopefully this piece helps illustrate how poverty affects people and what they eat every day.

Life hasn’t been smooth sailing for Nondumiso Zigana, a Big Issue South Africa vendor, but that hasn’t stopped her from pursuing her heart’s desires. She shares her journey of being an unemployed widow to being a mother of intellectuals.