The Big Issue marks a milestone

BY MEGAN PALIN

It’s been 12 years since national street magazine The Big Issue was launched in Australia and on March 20, staff and vendors across the country celebrated its 300th edition.

The Big Issue’s Sydney office marked the milestone with breakfast for vendors, staff and friends while Origin Energy, supporter of the magazine, supplied vendors with pairs of new sneakers and bags.

Since 1996, The Big Issue has recruited, trained and supported an estimated 3000 homeless and unemployed people across Australia, with more than 380 vendors selling the magazine on a regular basis.

Vendors have sold more than 4.5 million magazines, which has put $7.5 million from sales straight into the pockets of Australia’s homeless and unemployed. The Big Issue’s general manager Steven Persson said that selling the magazines gives vendors an immediate income and a chance to create change in their lives.

Persson said he was particularly proud of the vendors. ‘The fact that they have the courage to go about trying to change their own lives and their own circumstances and do that by earning their own living via the selling of The Big Issue, I think that is fantastic,’ he said.

National sales currently exceed 29,000 copies per fortnight.

‘I actively hope that we go out of business because that would mean there is no such thing as homelessness. But unfortunately I think we’ll be around for a little while yet,’ Persson said.