04 | BIGISSUE.COM FROM 01 MARCH 2021news.
THANKS
TO YOU,
WE’VE GIVEN
£1 MILLION
TO OUR
VENDORS!
The Big Issue is delighted to announce more than £1m has
been given to struggling vendors in lockdown – all thanks
to our readers’ support.
We hit the staggering target last week and, as the magazine
went to print, The Big Issue had supported some 2,110 vendors
with £1,062,000 since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Covid-19 crisis has been a tough time for everyone,
not least Big Issue vendors who lost their incomes overnight.
When the UK first locked down last March, we kicked off a
determined campaign to distribute cash and supermarket
vouchers as well as helping vendors cover rent, fuel and
electricity bills, and mobile phone payments.
This vital financial support was only made possible by Big
Issue readers, who took out subscriptions in their thousands as
well as picking up magazines from shops and through the app.
That support proved, and continues to prove, a lifeline for
our sellers.
The Big Issue also supplied laptops to help vendors
take online training courses, plus white goods like washing
machines and freezers, and baby essentials for vendors
with infants.
“This is a significant moment,” said Paul Cheal, chief
executive of The Big Issue Group. “In the darkest days of last
March we at The Big Issue were unsure about the future, and
about how we could help our vendors. And now here we are.Homeless vaccine
rollout hits the road
The push to offer people experiencing homelessness access to the
Covid-19 vaccine continues to shift gears as medical professionals went
mobile to vaccinate more than 200 people in Brighton and Hove.
Clinicians at Arch Healthcare teamed up with Justlife, Sussex
Community NHS Foundation Trust and St John Ambulance to visit hostels
and other temporary accommodation to give homeless people the
lifesaving jab.
The partnership is targeting 1,000 vaccinations over eight weeks,
according to Arch CEO Gary Bishop.
“The process has been really smooth, and we have been received with
enthusiasm wherever we go. This is a huge credit to the accommodation
providers we’ve worked with across the city,” Bishop said.
Similar plans are up and running in Bournemouth, where local charity
The HealthBus Trust have announced plans to vaccinate 200 people
housed in emergency accommodation in the coming weeks.
People without a secure home are more likely to be clinically
vulnerable, which offers priority access to the vaccine – while charity
St Mungo’s reported people accommodated in emergency hotels in
London were twice as likely as the general population to be classed as
‘extremely clinically vulnerable’.
The move to vaccinate people living in shared accommodation – as has
previously been done in Oldham and Liverpool as well as in the London
borough of Redbridge – was recognised in the latest stance on priority
access to the vaccine.
The chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation,
Professor Wei Shen Lim, wrote to Health Secretary Matt Hancock last
week to say the group – which advises the government on vaccine priority- backs the plan.
Prof Lim wrote: “The committee supported the planned
approach to work with local authorities to identify those in shared
accommodation with multiple occupancy to ensure this population
could be offered vaccination.” Image: St John’s Ambulance