Advertisement
News

The Big Issue Foundation wins top award

The independent charity that supports magazine vendors is hailed for its groundbreaking corporate partnership

The Big Issue Foundation – the independent organisation working with our vendors to help them rebuild their lives – is the winner of prestigious business award.

The Big Issue Foundation connects the magazine vendors to the services they need, whether its employment, training, education and learning, health care or housing.

And the charity has been named a winner of a Lotus Award along with one of its corporate partners, the global law firm Freshfields Brockhaus Deringer.

The organisation began its partnership with the law firm with a corporate placement programme, which has seen a series of Big Issue vendors sell the magazine in its London office.

This vendor is then given the opportunity to develop skills that are relevant to their work aspirations through a mentoring programme.

The Big Issue is a big reason I’m sitting here today

One former vendor, Joel Hodgson, used his corporate placement to kick-start a new career at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The firm was so impressed by his work ethic, he was hired to work in the billings department at the London HQ.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertisement

“This job transformed my life,” he said. “I’ve got security, a career. I can plan for the future, rather than looking at everything as day-to-day. And The Big Issue is a big reason I’m sitting here today.”

Stephen Robertson, CEO of The Big Issue Foundation, said he was “delighted” to the innovative partnership was recognized by The Lotus Awards. “Our work involves the proactive engagement of our business supporters who, in turn, become magazine readers, advocates and activists at work and outside,” he explained.

Freshfields now partners with The Big Issue Foundation in a number of other ways, including working on a pro bono basis for the foundation, investing into front-line services and organising vendor days, which sees employees work alongside Big Issue vendors for a day to see how selling works.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

READER-SUPPORTED SINCE 1991

Reader-supported journalism that doesn’t just report problems, it helps solve them.

Recommended for you

Read All
Why did so many women in a tiny Hungarian village poison their husbands? 
Domestic abuse

Why did so many women in a tiny Hungarian village poison their husbands? 

Can modular housing help solve London's homelessness crisis?
Homelessness

Can modular housing help solve London's homelessness crisis?

Number of no-fault evictions rises in Labour's first year in office: 'This is unconscionable'
Campaigners want Renters Reform Bill to be debated in parliament as more renters face eviction
Renting

Number of no-fault evictions rises in Labour's first year in office: 'This is unconscionable'

Mark was homeless and sleeping in his car. Now he's just graduated with a first-class degree
Swansea University graduate and former homeless man Mark Eaton-Lees
Homelessness

Mark was homeless and sleeping in his car. Now he's just graduated with a first-class degree

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue