March 2016 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 11
read the reports, see the pictures:
They said, “But we’re homeless, we’ve
always been given stuff for nothing”. I
said, “That’s why you’re still homeless.
It’s a way of walling you off, keeping
you helpless, keeping you a child.”’
He then decided to approach some
of the biggest and most intimidating
rough sleepers and ‘buy them off’, he
explained. ‘So they became our police
force, and it really took off. Everyone
got involved – it was an absolute
change. A hand up, not a hand out –
not a moralistic telling off of people.’
And that ethos extended to those
who got into real trouble, he said. One
of the magazine’s best vendors relapsed
and robbed the safe from a
Big Issue
office to buy drugs, but was given his
job back after leaving prison. ‘What
someone needs when they fall down is
help.’
Bird was to make his maiden speech
in the House of Lords the following day,
he told the conference. ‘I’m there to do
our work, about how do we keep
communities together, help people
when they fall down, and turn social
security into social opportunity, which
is what it was intended for in the first
place. It was about giving people
succour and help, but all that changed
under Thatcher.
‘The house I came fromwas hard
working people who fell into poverty,’ he
continued, adding that he’d once told a
service user meeting, ‘I’m always meet-
ing people who define themselves by the
failures of others – every last one of us
has to stop and put effort into our own
lives.’The way he’d survived homelessness
and prison himself – ‘and being beaten
shitless by the police and my father’ – had
been to constantly pick himself up and
have self-esteem, he stated.
He’d learned to read in a young
offenders’ institute, he said. ‘I was
educated by the prison system, doing a
“short, sharp shock” at Oxford Detention
Centre. Now young people go in bad and
come out worse. I’m very, very hard on
poverty – I hate to see poor people
treated almost as if they’re another
species. And the way the government,
the media, the public, even some
charities, talk about the poor is as if they
are another species.’
There were also too many
impediments to getting people out of
poverty, he warned. ‘We need to give
users, ex-users and others the chance to
develop themselves as individuals. We
have to have an intellectual revolution.’
Around ten years ago he’d had the
idea to start a finance business, he said. It
began as Social Brokers before becoming
Big Issue Invest, and had so far invested
money from high net worth individuals
into 320 social enterprises. ‘I call it
“preventing the next generation of
Big
Issue
sellers”,’ he explained.
Existing alongside this was his
concept of PECC, which stood for
Prevention, Emergency, Coping and Cure,
he told the conference. ‘Ninety per cent
of all social money invested in the world
goes in when the shit has already hit the
fan and you need to stabilise the
situation – not into prevention, or cure.’
‘I’m not an idealist,’ he stated. ‘I’m
sure I’m going to be thrown out of the
House of Lords. What we really need to
do is understand people, give them help
and encouragement and create social
justice for those who fall on hard times
and there’s no one there for them.
‘There are transferable skills you learn
as a homeless person – use them. We are
all full of talent and skill. The skills you
use to score and beg – use them. You
learn skills and abilities – don’t kid
yourself that you haven’t picked up
enormous skills when you’ve been down
that you can use on the way up. All you
need is a hand up, not a hand out.’
John Bird’s rallying cry fell on
receptive ears says
Mark Reid
,
who was in the audience
This year’s conference was graced by not one, but
two, parliamentarians.
First there was Karen Bradley, a junior government
minister – albeit by recorded video message with the
Home Office insignia in the background. She delivered
reassurances that the service user view is safe in her
hands and will be seen in policy. No need for a video link for the next
representative fromWestminster. This time from the upper house, no less. Lord
Bird MBE, to give him his full title. Better known to you and me as John Bird, the
man behind the
Big Issue.
I have to admit to a bit of a preconception about John Bird – which was
pleasantly proved completely wrong, very quickly. From my reading of his
newspaper, I had thought that he is so dedicated to the plight of the homeless
that he might be left care-worn and even a little jaded. Not at all. Lord Bird was
a hoot, as well as being crystal clear and often very moving about how to help
the disadvantaged in society. His ability to be light and amusing about what he
does, made his talk a great piece of stand-up at times. He had the crowd in the
palm of his hand, even breaking into impromptu song.
To me, he showed how he can apply his philosophy to all people in recovery
– any help given should be based on a seedcorn of effort and initiative on the
part of those being helped.
‘I’m not an idealist’ he told us.
He doesn’t hold up the poor and disadvantaged in a romanticised way; they
have to prove their worth. He gave us an example which I liked – if someone
comes to him full of self-pity and nothing else, then ‘he might as well go down
the pub’ as there are probably plenty of others crying into their beer.
One service user asked if Bird could help him with some money for a project.
His answer was an immediate yes; but a qualified yes. He was advised to
contact
Big Issue
Invest and told make sure his idea was a good one and he’d
put plenty of thought and effort into it.
I’m surprised he hasn’t been approached to preside over
The Apprentice
. He’d
be great. He reminded me of the crucial detail in 12-Step Recovery: ‘If we are
painstaking’ and ‘If we work for it’.
Bird is a man very sure of his approach without being heavy-handed. And his
one-liners were excellent. He borrowed Ken Dodd’s gag about the man who
goes into a shop and asks where the camouflage jackets are. ‘Good aren’t they?’
says the shopkeeper.
Lord Bird told us he was going off to make his maiden speech in the upper
house the next day. While there, he intends to cast his eye over legislation he
knows a thing or two about, like housing and employment.
They are Big Issues for everyone.
Mark Reid is a peer worker at Path to Recovery
‘A hAnd up,
not A hAndout‘
