Street Papers From Across The Globe Unite In Melbourne

The Big Issue Australia doesn’t stand alone in creating opportunities for homeless and marginalised people through its Street Magazine Enterprise. There are 100 Street Papers around the world fighting to end poverty creating the largest social enterprise in the world. The Big Issue proudly hosted the annual International Network of Street Papers (INSP) Conference in Melbourne this month.

The Conference spanned over four days banding together 54 delegates including directors, editors and social development managers from 30 nations. The Conference provided an opportunity for members to receive advice, training, consultancy and benefit from sharing resources, experience and mentoring.

On Day 1 the delegates had opted in for a five-session day which outlined the hows and whys of street paper production. Hailing from such diverse nations as the Czech Republic, the Philippines, Kenya, South Africa, North America, and France, the Street Papers are of various ages and circulations which inspired riveting and insightful contributions.

An impassioned speed networking session started Day 2 of the 2010 INSP conference, with delegates holding five-minute discussions that set the room buzzing. From there the delegates participated in discussions on one of four topics including: Social Development and Vendor Services, Editorial Development, Strategic Partnerships and Fundraising and Business Development, Finance, and Advertising.

Day 3 saw delegates attending a new set of workshops and in the afternoon they visited the Community Street Soccer Program in North Melbourne. Some delegates played alongside Street Soccer players in a round-robin Street Soccer competition while others cheered from the side-lines. The matches jogged memories for many delegates of the Homeless World Cup as some Street Papers also send teams along each year.

The final day of the Conference saw captivating workshop sessions and round-table discussions about “thinking big” and “going global”. A Gala Dinner concluded the four day event giving delegates an opportunity to reflect on the week and share visions for the future with some that would be considered friends for life. Below are several overheard comments from the international suite of delegates:

‘The Big Issue Australia have been smashing.’ — Hildegard Denninger

‘Vendors love their clients and their clients love the vendors.’ — Richard Turgeon

‘My experience is that the people on the ground…they want to change.’ — Richard Fleming

‘Vendors are my heroes.’ — Gretchen R. Crowe

Let's Cut The Diets!

This fantastic piece of original artwork was submitted by Leisyle Campbell from The Body Shop Parramatta (NSW). It stars the whole TBS team and holds up a dark mirror to the 'fat talk' many of engage in constantly.

We challenged TBS staff in our stores and offices during our Butterfly Foundation campaign to try and cut out Fat Talk. We got our inspiration from Tri Delta's Fat Talk Free Week. Check out the videos below:

Click here if you can't see them.

Let's Swap!

Mirror Mirror on the Wall...... who is the fattest one of all?

By Rebecca Gilbert - Team Leader, The Body Shop at Home

Looking into the mirror, a beautiful young girl.........

What does she see?

The ideal female body as portrayed by the media has become progressively thinner and has stabilised at 13-19% below what is the physically expected weight.

Many young girls find it difficult to feel comfortable in their own skin and given the above statistic it’s no wonder why!
It is estimated that a young woman sees more and more images of outstanding female beauty every day.

Everywhere you look the media is portraying an unrealistic beauty and expectation of young girls, and how do they aim to look as good as the girl on the cover of their favourite magazine.... the cure Dieting! Shakes, soups, low carb, south beach, calorie counting, hundreds of diets thrown at you everyday with the magical cure that will make you slim, beautiful and fantastic....WRONG!


Dieting can be the gateway to an Eating Disorder! Girls who have gone on fad or extreme diets have a high risk of developing an eating disorder.

That’s how it starts a diet usually in response to low self esteem or acceptance. Peers begin to notice the difference in weight loss and praise which leads to further restrictive eating, feelings of success become far more important than feelings of hunger.

Intense fears of fatness build up and weight loss behaviours are repeated and increased to lower anxiety. They start to withdraw and lose touch with reality and family concerns are seen as jealousy or a conspiracy to make them fat, an Eating disorder has developed.

Working with young girls who have developed an eating disorder is tricky and difficult.... they don’t see themselves as you see them, their perception of themselves has been distorted and the eating disorder takes over their lives and their thinking.

Over the years as a School Counsellor I have worked with many young girls who have had low self esteem, unrealistic views about beauty and weight and at the severe end girls who had developed serious eating disorders.

The impact of an eating disorder on a young girl and her family can be devastating. You’re not only working with the young girl who has a strong alliance with her eating disorder but her whole family to cope and support her in recovery. This adds a massive amount of stress and pressure on the family to adapt to new routines, rebuilding trust, and reducing anxiety, not to mention the access and high cost to treat the eating disorder which can leave some families financially devastated a risk many of them are willing to take.

Families sell their houses, cars, asserts to pay for treatment and therapy, they quit their jobs and at times move town to help their child recover from an eating disorder that could potentially take their life.

So what can you do?

• Adults are powerful influences on children and young people. Our views about ideal weight and shape, food and eating, health and beauty can shape young peoples attitudes about themselves and others.
  
  
• So be a positive role model and have a balanced attitude towards food, exercise and body image you never know who is watching.
  
  
• Join our campaign and help raise awareness of eating disorders.
  
  
• Support The Butterfly Foundation
  

Assorted Images of Immeasurable Beauty

Come into The Body Shop and celebrate your body! Give us your old bathroom scales and we'll give you a free deluxe hand massage and sample pot of one of our products.

Remember: we love you just the way you are!

Sign our petition to get the Australian government to do a better job at preventing and treating Eating Disorders.

"Amazing Beautiful Scales" by TBS Staffer Jacqueline Louise Jones

TBS Karrinyup (WA)

TBS Mt Gravatt (Qld)

TBS Camberwell (Vic)

False Beauty

(via)

Hush For Homelessness

By Adam Valvasori - Values Man

Hi there,

This is perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity to shut me up.

Or should I say "hush me for homelessness". That's right me, the big mouth will keep it zipped - that is if I get enough people sponsoring me!

I was amazed to learn from Mission Australia that almost 105,000 Australians have no place to call home. Of these people, around 50% are yet to have their 25th birthday and 10,000 are children aged under 12!

So please take part in HUSH for Homelessness on Friday 14 May and you’ll be helping Mission Australia to raise funds and awareness to combat homelessness and represent the invisible, voiceless lives that homeless Australians live.

Here's what you can do:

• Find out more about Mission's homelessness services
• Sponsor me to Hush For Homelessness
• Join The Body Shop Team's Page and participate in Hush For Homelessness for yourself
  
• Join their Facebook page
  

Week 1 Your Beauty and Worth Cannot Be Measured

Government Wrapped In Support To End Live Sheep Exports

In our last post we updated readers about Body Shop staff taking to the streets to prove to their local Member of Parliament (MP), just how much support there is for an end to live sheep exports. By then staff had met with:
- Ms Jodie Campbell
- The Hon. Alexander Somlyay
- MP Ms Kerry Rea, and
- The Hon. Bruce Billson (pictured above).

To date, staff have continued to meet with MPs right across Australia. On Wednesday the 28th, Mr Brett Raguse MP met with staff at The Body Shop store in Loganholme QLD (below), where over 505 people joined the chain.



Then on Thursday the 29th, staff met with Petro Georgio MP in Camberwell VIC.

That same day, staff from the Joondalup and Whitford store in WA met with their local MP Dr Mal Washer (below), delivering over 1,500 links, collected by staff, to his office.



On Friday the 30th, Annette Ellis MP visited the Woden Body Shop store in ACT and saw hundreds of Humane Chain links hanging from the ceiling, the shelves and the staff! She was quoted in the Canberra Times saying “None of us wants to see cruelty, no matter what the purpose of the animals is."

Friday also saw meetings with David Bradbury MP of Penrith in NSW and Jon Sullivan MP (below) in North Lakes QLD.



Just yesterday the girls from the East Gardens store took their Humane Chain links to the Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke’s office. He was unavailable to meet with them; however his administration assistant was happy to accept the links on his behalf (below).



Australians from every single electorate in Australia have now joined the Humane Chain. That means every single MP and especially the 11 that have recently heard directly from The Body Shop and their customers, should feel enough support and need from within their community to take action now.

It’s time for the Australian Government to listen to the concerns of our community, it’s time to end live sheep export once and for all!

An advertising perspective on The Big Issue

Name: John Currey

Job Title: Advertising and Marketing Coordinator

Responsibilities:

• Sourcing advertising for The Big Issue magazine
• Branding and marketing coordination for The Big Issue

How long have you been at The Big Issue?

It’s coming up to 5 years.

How did you find yourself working at The Big Issue?

I was going through a period where I was working in a corporate finance environment and it was not fulfilling me in any way shape or form. I decided I needed a change … and started volunteering at The Big Issue, one thing lead to another and I fortunately picked up a full time position.

What has surprised you most about working for a not-for-profit coming across from a corporate environment?

I suppose pleasantly surprise in the level of autonomy that I can work with. In a corporate environment you can get pigeon holed into doing one thing whereas here I multi task working on things across the board and to me that’s uplifting, and really important.

Favourite moment had working at The Big Issue?

There are many. The interaction with the vendors, the Street Soccer guys, any of the programs we run ... it’s those interactions that are my favourite. We are fortunate in the sense that we get to deal with the people that we support and help on a day to basis. And whether it’s a simple hello or asking about their day, they are the interactions that I love.

Common misconceptions about your role or The Big Issue?

We are constantly educating and creating awareness … Most of the time people just think it’s the magazine and that’s it. So it’s that educating process that The Big Issue is more than just the magazine, and that I don’t work in editorial as a writer.

Which specific project or campaign have you worked on at The Big Issue that has made the biggest impact on you and why?

Last year’s ad campaign was amazing because you could see the reach it had to the larger community and people understood the message we were trying to get across. But then there are those little things we do things like the vendor meetings and writers’ workshops and seeing what the vendors get out of those. To me, they are huge moments. The Homeless World Cup – logistically it was a massive event and the positive impact that it had on those involved was immense.

What sort of advertisers do you try and attract to the magazine?

Any organisation that is socially aware and can match our readership base. At the moment we are attracting film and book distributors, NFP’s, and a key number of large companies who understand the importance of community involvement. We have guidelines around not accepting organisations that deal with gambling, tobacco, political parties, and alcohol and also to try and make sure that we include organisations who are good social citizens.

If you could have any company in the world advertise in The Big Issue magazine who would it be and why?

Basically any company that’s business model is underpinned by a long term sustainability and that can recognise the potential and value of our readers and the wants to support our magazine/vendor model.

What is your favourite advertising campaign at the moment?

The one that have caught my eye lately in terms of an outdoor advertising campaign are the Financial Review ads. They are always use play on words, are quite witty and always put a smile on my face.

What has been your biggest achievement while work at The Big Issue?

Being able to grow the advertising and help raise the brand awareness of the organisation. This directly links into supporting our vendors and the income they earn … since I have been looking after the advertising the revenue income has doubled and it is still growing. This is an indicator of the potential that the magazine has to reach all sectors of our community. I still feel there is so much for us to work on and to continue making it even more successful. There is still so much room for growth.

Describe working for The Big Issue in three words….

• Rewarding
• Fun
• Challenging

Your Beauty And Worth Cannot Be Measured Campaign

We're proud to be launching our first body image and self esteem campaign since our beloved "Ruby" campaign (pictured right). We have partnered with The Butterfly Foundation - Australia's largest charitable organisation supporting people with eating disorders and negative body image to tell everyone; "Your Beauty & Worth Cannot Be Measured"

The Your Beauty And Worth Cannot Be Measured campaign will run until the end of May and has two objectives:

1. Raise awareness and educate staff and customers about the link between dangerous dieting and developing an eating disorder. For example did you know that
   
   
2. Lobby Nicola Roxon (Hon. Minister for Health & Ageing) to give greater public funding to the treatment and prevention of eating disorders. We want the government to support:

• Greater self esteem and body image education in schools
• Research initiatives into eating disorders and body image issues
• Greater access to effective treatment options for those with eating disorders
  
• More resources for carers who are supporting loved ones with an eating disorder.

Please help pass the word about this important new self esteem campaign to your friends on Facebook or go into any The Body Shop store and sign a postcard, which we will collect and deliver to Nicola Roxon on your behalf.

You can also contact Ms Roxon yourself here.