Secondary: Current Assemblies

ON THE BIG ISSUE

By James Lamont

Suitable for Key Stage 4/Key Stage 5


Aim

To look at one answer to the problem of homelessness and begging.

Preparation and materials

• Music: ‘Don’t judge me’ by Sting or ‘Another day in paradise’ by Phil Collins (both available online).
• Note that the other assembly on this subject, There but for the grace of God, is targeted at KS3.

Assembly

1. Homes take many forms: flats, houses, maisonettes, bungalows, houseboats, trailers etc. There are two things that all of these share: first, they are structures designed to protect their inhabitants against the weather, the cold and the rain, which can be dangerous if one is exposed to them for too long. Second, they fulfil a psychological need that we have for a sense of home, somewhere we belong.
   
2. Imagine that you are staying at a friend’s house. It’s fun for the first night, good for the second, but by the twelfth night you are feeling uncomfortable as it’s not your own space. The need for one’s own environment is well recognized by psychologists and social scientists.
   
3. Imagine, then, that everything about your home environment is taken away from you. You are left out in the street, surrounded by other people’s homes, without one yourself. You have to sleep where you can, trying to balance safety with warmth and shelter. People walk past you; they do not see you as you, only as a beggar, a homeless person: one who has slipped through a crack in society, a crack that can be a one-way trip. Alcoholism, drug addiction and mental illness, as well as a hostile populace, are common factors driving people onto the streets and keeping them there.
   
4. How can one make a living in such a circumstance? The most common means is begging. The problems with this are many. Begging can never be a sustainable job: you cannot beg your way out of begging. Begging can provide a meal for the night and a bus ticket, but it cannot pay for much more.
   
5. In 1991 John Bird and Gordon Roddick founded The Big Issue, as a response to these challenges. It allows the homeless to sell a magazine to people in the street. The magazine currently retails for £1.60 and is supplied to the vendor at a price of 70p a copy. Thus, the vendor receives 90p per magazine sold. This can provide a reasonable income, especially for someone with no mortgage or rent, and has no tax to pay. However, it offers more: by providing homeless people with a job and their own income, it also grants dignity to those who are especially vulnerable. Prominent vendors often become minor local celebrities, raising awareness of the plight of the homeless.
   
6. Some people have criticized the magazine, arguing that it fails to deal with substance abuse and alcoholism which in some cases are the causes, and not the effects, of homelessness. In 1995 The Big Issue Foundation was launched, which provides additional aid to the homeless. Funded by private donations as well as by profits from magazine sales, it investigates and aims to improve the situations that lead to homelessness in the first place.
   
7. While these measures will not eliminate homelessness and street poverty, it is certainly true that they bring a marked improvement to individual lives and that is certainly no bad thing. The wider changes needed to solve these problems once and for all can only be achieved by huge numbers of people working together. It is important to raise the quality of life for a few, but we should never lose sight of the bigger picture as well.

Time for reflection

Reflection

Play one of the songs. You might like to project some of the words up as you listen.

Imagine you are homeless.

How would you feel?

How would you cope?

Think about Big Issue vendors that you might have seen.

Have you ever bought one? Did you talk with the vendor?

Or did you not even look at them?

Be quietly thankful for all that you have in your life.

Prayer

You might like to quietly think about your homes, and be thankful.

Amen.