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SOCIAL ACADEMY LAUNCHES
The Big Issue in the North in association with Liverpool FC, Liverpool Hope University and the Team England Footballers Charity is to launch the Social Academy for young adults in Liverpool.
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YOUR CITY YOUR SERVICES
Hundreds of people attended the Your City, Your Services event in Liverpool in February, which offered information, advice and support to people whose lives have been affected by drugs.
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SEARCH FOR ENGLAND TEAM BEGINS
Homeless people from across the country will be came to Manchester United Foundation’s Cliff Training ground to take part in the first of a series of trials to find England's Homeless World Cup team.
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The Big Issue in the North is sold by homeless people across the north of England from stoke-on-trent to the Scottish borders and coast to coast.

Vendors buy the magazine for 50 pence and sell it for £1.20 keeping the 70 pence profit they make.

All vendors wear an ID badge which shows their photo, the pitch they sell on and a badge number. This number should correspond with the number on the front cover of the magazine they are selling. Vendors selling in Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Liverpool town centres wear a tabard showing The Big Issue in the North’s logo and the hours of opening.

The Big Issue in the North offers homeless people the chance to earn an income while accessing the support they need to change their lives. As with any other job there are responsibilities, for example managing money and adhering to rules. This approach helps us to prepare people for life away from selling the magazine and back into mainstream employment – to do otherwise would be detrimental to them.

All vendors also sign up to a code of conduct. (Download PDF) a set of guidelines on how they should sell the magazine. If this is breached vendors face a disciplinary procedure and can even be stopped from selling the magazine. Our staff carry out outreach sessions to ensure that vendors aren’t having problems on their pitches and that they are abiding by the code of conduct. We also check that there are no bogus vendors selling or begging with the magazine illegitimately.

In the course of a week there are around 300 vendors selling The Big Issue in the North. Most of our vendors also enrol in The Big Life Plan.

Contact us
If you want to comment, positively or negatively, about vendor behaviour you can contact one of our sales departments on 0161 834 6300 (Manchester), 0113 243 9027 (Leeds) or 0151 702 6931 (Liverpool).

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