Bon Jovi’s fight against homelessness covered across US and Europe

Chicago's StreetWise

A story about Bon Jovi's charity work covered by Philadelphia’s street paper One Step Away travelled across America and even ended up in Europe. Seven street papers republished the news that the rocker added some star power to the fight against homelessness during the groundbreaking ceremony for JBJ Soul Homes, a joint effort between Philadelphia homelessness providers Project H.O.M.E and People for People, Inc.

His words “Each of us has the power to effect change. You needn’t be a rock star” inspired readers from California to Denmark.

Street papers who ran the story include The Contributor (Nashville, Tennessee), StreetWise (Chicago, Illinois), Streetroots (Portland, Oregon), Street Zine (Dallas, Texas), Homeward Street Journal (Sacramento, California) and Salt Lake Street News (Salt Lake City, Utah) in the US and Hus Forbi in Denmark.

Story über Bon Jovis‘ Kampf gegen Obdachlosigkeit erfasst USA und Europa

Eine Story über Bon Jovis‘ Wohltätigkeitsarbeit in der in Philadelphia ansässigen Straßenzeitung One Step Away machte sich auf eine Reise quer durch die USA und bis rüber nach Europa. Sieben Straßenzeitungen veröffentlichten die Geschichte wie die Rocker etwas Glamour im Kampf gegen Obdachlosigkeit auf der Einweihungszeremonie des JBJ Soul Homes verbreiteten. JBJ Soul Home ist eine Zusammenarbeit von Philadelphias Obdachlosen Projekt Project H.O.M.E. und People for People, Inc.

Bon Jovis Worte: „jeder von uns hat es in der Hand um etwas zu ändern, dazu braucht man kein Rockstar zu sein“ inspirierte Leser von Kalifornien bis Dänemark.

Die Geschichte wurde gedruckt bei The Contributer (Nashville, Tennessee), Street Wise (Chicago, Illinois), Streetroot (Portland, Oregon), Street Zine (Dallas, Texas), Homeward Street Journal (Sacramento, California), Salt Lake Street News (Salt Lake City, Utah) und Hus Forbi in Dänemark.

 Homeward Street Journal, California

Hus Forbi, Denmark

Toledo Streets, Ohio

Letter from INSP Director to members

Dear members,

2013 has got off to a great start with our hugely successful, first-ever International Street Paper Vendor Week. I wanted to thank you all for taking part and for working together to celebrate street paper vendors everywhere. The feedback from vendors, readers, supporters and the media has been incredibly positive and we hope to build on this in future years.

We loved hearing about your vendor activities and events in your local communities, and we were celebrating alongside you here in Glasgow with various events in partnership with The Big Issue. A full impact report of the event will be circulated soon, but for now, I wanted to pass on my congratulations for all the brilliant work going on at your projects which ultimately is about supporting vendors everywhere.

We have an exciting few months coming up as we prepare for the INSP Conference and Awards in Munich. We continue to work alongside several member papers on digital innovation and we will share this information and learning with you as soon as we can. We have also been working with corporate partners to analyse your INSP survey data, the results of which we hope will help to further strengthen and build our network of street papers. We look forward to seeing many of you in July, and to share experiences, best practice and ideas for the future of street papers.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our great board and small team of committed people who do a fantastic job every day for our network.

As always, stay in touch, continue to your share your ideas and feedback and we look forward to seeing many of you soon.

You are all INSP-iring people.

Best wishes,

Lisa Maclean
INSP Executive Director

StreetWise readers can now purchase with their smartphone

Readers of Chicago's StreetWise magazine can now pay their vendor with their smartphone via PayPal.

Recently, StreetWise vendors have been losing valuable business to the phrase, “Sorry… I don’t have any cash on me.”

In order to address this problem and tap into the trends of the digital age, StreetWise have been working with advertising agency Bartle Bogle Heggarty (BBH) and PayPal on a model that could be scaled up in Chicago and beyond.

Both BBH and PayPal Labs donated time and resources to make the project possible and to create a custom offering that ensures mobile payments are seamless, secure and free to the vendors to use.

“Homelessness is an issue that’s important to BBH" said Saneel Radia head of innovation for BBH NY & BBH Labs. "We like to think of ourselves as a creative and innovative organisation. So the idea that we can apply those skills to help address an issue we care about was an opportunity we jumped on. Given that StreetWise is a leading street paper, we hope to see how mobile payments work in Chicago before they’re potentially rolled out to papers around the rest of the country.”

Customer reviews have been excellent so far and while the mobile payment initiative is still very young, StreetWise hopes to engage the modern day consumer with this exciting new program in order to keep StreetWise on the map of modern technology. Read more.

Photo essays make powerful mark

The Big Issue South Africa

Picture stories continue to be a hit with street papers. Thanks to our content partnership with Reuters, street papers worldwide can reprint stunning photo essays free of charge. A photo series about ‘strange pets’ was amongst the latest republished series, as well as a series about home evacuations ahead of the Brazil Olympics and a series on ‘festivals of beliefs’ were republished globally.

Last year, a photo series highlighting the plight of child labourers also made a big impact on street paper readers worldwide. View republications here.

All photo series can still be accessed for republication by INSP street papers here.

The Big Issue South Africa

Foto-Essays hinterlassen einen gewaltigen Eindruck

Foto-Essays bleiben ein Hit in unseren Straßenzeitungen. Dank unserer starken Partnerschaft mit Reuters können Straßenmagazine auf der ganzen Welt kostenlos faszinierende Bilderstrecken drucken. Zu den letzten Fotoserien, die viele Magazine aufgenommen haben, gehörten ein Artikel über „ungewöhnliche Haustiere“ und eine Serie über Zwangsräumungen vor den Olympischen Spielen in Brasilien, sowie eine Bilderstrecke über „Glaubensfeste“. Sie alle wurden von Zeitungen in allen möglichen Ländern gebracht.

Alle Fotostrecken können Sie immer noch hier herunterladen.

The Big Issue in the North (UK)

The Big Issue in the North

The Big Issue in the North

The Big Issue South Africa

The Big Issue South Africa

Lifeline for homeless in Greece: street paper launches in Athens

Shedia's first edition will be launched
in Athens on 27 February 2013.

The newest street paper in the INSP network will launch in Greece next week. The paper, called Shedia (‘Raft’) will be sold in Athens by homeless and unemployed people living in poverty.

Shedia will be the 122nd street paper to join the International Network of Street Papers (INSP), with Greece bringing the country total up to 41.

Citizens of the recession-struck Greek capital have already embraced what they call their own ‘Greek Big Issue’. The street paper concept is known to many in Greece because of its sister publication The Big Issue in Australia, home to a large Greek community.

Ahead of the launch on Wednesday 27th February Shedia has already recruited over 70 vendors, including men and women of all ages, and expects to sign up many more once it hits the streets.

Shedia aims to be a ‘journalistic magazine with clear social characteristics and independent writing’. Vendors buy the magazine for € 1.50 and sell it to the public for € 3, keeping the proceeds. The magazine will come out on the last Wednesday of every month.

When new vendors sign up, they receive an official vest and name badge, as well as ten free copies. With the profits made from their first sales vendors can invest in more stock, effectively starting their own micro-business.

Apart from providing vendors with an opportunity to earn a dignified living, Shedia also plans to offer its vendors other support services, including access to medical and legal help.

Ethos
Chris Alefantis, founder of Shedia said: “It has been a long and difficult journey for all of us in Greece. It still is. Following years of preparations, the country's only street paper is about to be launched. Fighting poverty and social exclusion is at the forefront of our campaign, particularly considering the desperate economic hardship that Greece and its people are currently faced with.”

“INSP’s support has been invaluable to us. Being able to draw from the network's knowledge and experience has truly helped in us preparing as well as possible for the challenges we have faced so far and for the challenges that lie ahead. We have made dear new friends who share our ethos worldwide. We received support from colleague street papers from Britain to Serbia and from Canada to Japan and many more. Together we can make a difference. INSP and its members prove just that.”

Lisa Maclean, INSP Executive Director said: “One of INSP’s important functions is to help support the development of new street papers. The launch of Shedia is a significant development in our international

street paper network as it will offer crucial employment and support to some of Greece’s most vulnerable people- many of whom have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own.”

“We look forward to working closely with Shedia in the coming months and providing support to them and their vendors where we can.”