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

Ethical Business On The Rise | Big Issue Founder Speaks

Here’s a video of Big Issue founder John Bird on You Tube talking at the British Library on the rise and rise of ethical business.

We also interviewed Anthony North, Head of Fundraising on what gets him up in the morning, and what The Big Issue plan to do with our donation.  Listen here >>>

And here’s a link to rather controversial article whre John says the only solution to the homeless problem is to ……lock up the homeless!    Read more here >>>

Money Gym Interviews | Anthony North, The Big Issue

We hosted a lively interview with Anthony North, Head of Fundraising for The Big Issue, yesterday and you can listen again here on our Blog Talk Radio show.

Anthony, as you can hear, is a raging intra-preneur for the Big Issue and is totally passionate about his work.  Listen to the show below and then…..

You can help us reach our £4500 target by coming along to our “Property Extravaganza” to hear the GOOD NEWS about property investing in the UK, right now.

Only £25 per person, eight great speakers, and a rocking day out!

Secure your seat here >>> http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property

“£100k In 7 Days” Challenge

No, it’s not MY challenge, that’s just how to raise £14k in a hurry LOL  And thanks for all your suggestions!  Very kind!  No…..Angela Farrell is a property investor, aspiring speaker on Brett’s Next Level programme and an internet mentoring client of mine and she’s just gone into a house with 4 other entrepreneurs and they are not letting them out till they have raised “£100k in 7 Days”.  Man, now that’s a challenge! She’s in there with another Money Gym Gold client, Yvonne Halling and so I’m rallying the MG troops to help them.  Not what you know but who you know! Follow them on Twitter here >>>

They have decided that property and the internet give them the best chance of success.I’ve been on the phone to Angela giving them some advice about how to drum up interest in the challenge and quickly spread the word.  They want to contact internet marketing and wealth creation guru’s to donate 1 hour of their time for a webinar. I’m being interviewed at 1pm tomorrow and you can find out more, dial in, listen online and listen to the recording afterwards here >>>

1.  BLOG – They have a blog at http://ethicalbusinesschallenge.wordpress.com/ so you can follow their progress there…they need to add a plugin that will enable people to Twit about posts (TwitThis) and Digg / StumbleUpon their postings.  They need a mailing list signup box too!

2.  TWITTER – Next step, set up a Twitter account and link it to the blog and back so yoru twits appear on your blog as you make them and vice versa.  I’ve already Twitted about the challenge with a link to the blog, and will carry on doing so in order that my 950 odd followers and Facebook/MySpace accounts feature it.

3.  YOUTUBE – Check out any video’s on YouTube around challenges of this sort, make notes of the key words/phrases/tags.  Upload their video diaries to YouTube using your keywords and relevent others from the research.  This will get your videos shown next to those videos and get you instant traffic.

4.  LIVE INTERNET TV – Shame they have no broadband (say what!) or they could have had a 24-hour Ustream.tv show running for the whole week – that would get some traffic going!

Then they will create a product from the interviews and sell it to raise cash – some of which is going to a homeless charity of course.

They are also doing a Robert Allen, where they go out and try and buy property “no money down” and also hook up deals with investors and earn commissions from that.  Ideas are flowing and it’s all very cool.

I’ll keep you up to date or pop on over their blog and subscribe to their RSS feed.

Cheers, Nicola