It’s A Big Issue Alright & You Can Help!

It’s a Big Issue to me as a Londoner. For the last twenty years of my life, I have been aware of the homeless sleeping rough in my great city.  As I go about my business I see plenty of those less fortunate that me. And you don’t know what to do for the best, do you?

I remember once calling Centre Point and asking how I could best help.

I was told not to give people on the streets money as it would simply go straight back into alcohol or drugs. I remember being surprised by how bald a statement that was.

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You know me by now, I tend to think the best of people. I tend to be away with the fairies, living in a pink bubble of loveliness where we are all kind to each other and we have a warm comfy bed to sleep in at night.

And yet, of course, I know life’s not like that. That’s not reality for so many.

On Tuesday evening I met John Bird, the founder of The Big Issue. He pioneered his solution with Gordon and Anita Roddick in 1991 and it was tough love all the way. He said to the homeless “you are part of the problem, you must be part of the solution”.

They offered vendors a leg up and helped them to get started in changing their own lives through their own efforts. Selling the magazine can enable them to get back on their feet.

And if they go first, after three months the Big Issue can step in with all sorts of additional support. You haven’t begun to think what problems you can create for yourself if you don’t have a fixed abode.

Some of those were explained to us on Tuesday evening, along with the startling fact that if you have already enjoyed your 40th birthday, you have passed the average life expectancy of a homeless person.

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Along with Carolyn & Neil, Karen & Rich, we went to see the Real Lives, Real Achievements awards at a laid back venue in Camden.  The Big Issue has two of the most wonderful sponsors any little charity could hope for.

1. Cadbury, who not only showered us with free chocolate, but demonstrated how they give vendors two weeks’ work experience at their factories which often leads to full-time jobs. They have taken nearly 170 people off the streets in this experiment.

2. CNN who had helped The Big Issue craft five little films about real vendors and how the Big Issue has made all the difference.  We will be showing a couple of those at our event on Saturday.

So what would I say to those who are critical of the way in which charities work? Yes, I know it isn’t always ideal. But TBI has only 14 staff supporting 2500 vendors across the UK. Their way of working is closely aligned with our own values at the Money Gym and I really hope that Saturday will be the first of a long and fruitful relationship us MG property folks have with helping the homeless to help themselves. Our target of £4,500 (when we reach it) is going to make a real impact, a real difference.

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And it will make another dream come true too. Peter Stanley and Greg Southey and I had a number of meetings over the last couple of years trying to find a way to marry up property profits to help the homeless, it seems a natural marriage to us.

We met the awesome Sam Woodlock who is a volunteer worker with TBI, having been a homeless addict herself some time back. She is now married with a child, and happily doing great work co-ordinating Big Issue activities in Covent Garden. For me, she was perhaps the most moving story of the evening – a walking, talking success now helping others out of the place in which she had once found herself.

Not surprisingly I did shed a tear or two. Not as many as I thought because CNN did not fall into the trap of over-sentimentalising these five stories. But they are sad, and they are happy, and it is awesome to see people make a comeback from circumstances which I know I would find impossibly difficult.

There but for the grace of God.

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One of the films is about a lad from Bath who wants to go on the Big Issue sponsored bike ride to Paris. He has raised part of the sponsorship money he needs to take part but at the time of making the film he had neither a bike or all the money for a Passport.

Just THINK what we take for granted!

If you can get free on Saturday and come along and support our fundraiser, that would be fab.   Help yourself, help the homeless to help themselves and help us to achieve that lofty target of £4,500. Come and see the CNN films and be inspired to make a difference, if not to the homeless then to someone you can help, perhaps by becoming their landlord.

I don’t know where I would be without the sanctuary of my own home, a place where I can be safe and warm and nurtured by my peace and quiet, my garden, my pussycat, my broadband and by fulfilling relationships with family and friends and work I love.
I am so abundant and grateful and lucky.

Counting my blessings, counting my blessings, counting my blessings and hoping to pay it forward today, tomorrow, everyday and especially Saturday 21st March 2009. That day will be only the start of what we can do to help The Big Issue support the homeless in this very inspirational way.

Thanks for listening
Judith

PS  If you can’t come on Saturday, you can still donate at our page:

http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property