Media

Award winner: The Big Issue

Award winner: The Big Issue

The Big Issue Australia is one of Australia's leading social enterprises providing creative solutions to the issue of homelessness. This is achieved by using different mechanisms to connect people with the community, such as:

• The Big Issue Street Magazine Enterprise (a fortnightly independent current affairs magazine sold on the street by our authorised vendors)
• The Community Street Soccer Program (a national initiative using the positive power of sport to change lives),
• The Women's Subscription Enterprise (which employs homeless and marginalised women through the sale of The Big Issue magazines to businesses)
• The Big Issue Classroom (that challenges primary and secondary students to break down stereotypes surrounding homelessness and encourage tolerance and empathy towards all people).

Vendors selling The Big Issue come from a range of backgrounds including mental illness, homelessness, long-term unemployment, intellectual and physical disability, drug and alcohol dependency, family breakdown, and others suffering from social isolation, such as refugees.