HOMELESSNESS
STREETS AHEAD
As pioneering street publication The Big Issue celebrates its 35th birthday, Carl Stanley invited co-founder Lord Bird to discuss its achievements and what the future holds
Congratulations on an amazing achievement, as The Big Issue reaches its 35-year anniversary. It was built on the back of your passion to give homeless people not only a voice but the much-needed support required to get out of homelessness and start a new life – what were your initial hopes for the magazine, and what were the difficulties in trying to establish it on the streets back in 1991?
My aim was to bring the homeless person out of a system of begging and relying on the goodness of the public into a position of trading – selling a product that they were proud of, and wanted to sell.
When they started selling The Big Issue, their self-worth went up and they were more likely to interact with the public, which we can still see today is a great motivator for the vendor. I suppose my hopes were to give people with no option apart from illegal activity a chance to become an honest person, and feed their addictions without having to sell their bodies or rob people.
Looking back on those 35 years there are so many achievements and milestones. But what are your own personal favourite moments in the history of The Big Issue, and why?
Pictured: Lord John Bird holds the cover of the first issue of The Big Issue, launched in 1991. David Parry / Alamy
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