Vendor Development Programme
"The Big Issue Vendor Development Programme is an excellent way for us to involve everyone in our firm with The Big Issue, not only by providing a safe place for vendors to sell their magazines and engage with our staff, but also to provide work experience and training in a wide range of activities, delivered by employees throughout our firm. We find this direct engagement with vendors extremely rewarding and highly successful with both our staff and the vendors themselves."
Matt Rees – Partner, Simmons and Simmons LLP
Corporate partners such as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and Simons and Simons LLP offer 6 month placements for Big Issue vendors to sell their magazines within their offices on a one day a week basis. They also provide much needed training and work experience opportunities for vendors.
The placements offer Vendors increased sales and unique opportunities to gain valuable experience within the work place and away from the streets.
"We have been running the corporate vendor placement programme with the Big Issue since the beginning of 2010. We saw the programme as a fantastic opportunity to increase the understanding of homelessness issues within the firm and more importantly, as a chance to improve the vendor’s employability skills, offer the vendor a safe, warm environment to sell and to increase sales. Our partnership has been a huge success. The vendors have had a really positive impact on staff and it's great to see the vendor's confidence and self esteem grow. Our staff now actively stop and chat and engage with other vendors as a result of us running the programme and understand the way the Big Issue works. We use the skills of our people to deliver training and offer one to one mentoring and Joel, the first vendor to join the programme, is now working fulltime in our billing department."
Raj Parker – Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Please contact us to find out more.
General Enquiries
+44 (0)20 7526 3200
info@bigissue.com