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Big Life Liverpool set their sights on Invisible Cities
The team at Big Life Liverpool have been working in partnership with alternative city tour company Invisible Cities to give people with lived experience of homelessness the chance to shine a spotlight on the city, and how it’s shaped their lives.
Since October, Dave, Danielle and Mark, three volunteers who have worked with us at Liverpool’s community hub, have been training to become tour guides, and will begin taking customers around the city’s streets in the new year.
With support from Invisible Cities and Liverpool Walking Tours, they will be offering unique tours that not only show off the city’s monuments and history, but also give an insight into their lives and what the landmarks they pass mean to them
The trio, who will continue to be supported by Big Life Liverpool, will be paid the Living Wage for delivering the tours, and it is hoped that they’ll be joined by many more tour guides in the future.
Danielle said: “This city is full of history and character, and I’ve found a way to show that through my own experiences. It shows a side of Liverpool that people might not have seen before.”
Invisible Cities is a social enterprise that trains people who have experienced homelessness to become walking tour guides of their own city. Launched in 2016, they have trained more than 150 guides in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Aberdeen, York and Cardiff.
As well as setting up tours and working with partners such as Big Life, they offer continuing opportunities for their guides to get together and learn from each other, with an annual conference and ongoing peer support. Next year, to celebrate their 10th anniversary, Invisible Cities will be embarking on a UK-wide tour across all the cities where their guides operate.
Zakia Moulaoui Guery, founder of Invisible Cities, said: “Liverpool is the perfect place for us. There are so many stories and so much humour, and the people really make the city. It was all about finding the right partner on the ground, and Big Life have been fantastic.
“There is so much connection between the two organisations in terms of our ways of working and our mission; it’s all about giving people opportunities and the space to tell their own stories.
“In particular, it feels great to be working with the team at Big Issue North. Invisible Cities feels like such an obvious opportunity for Big Issue vendors, who already gain so much around confidence and social skills through selling the magazine, which can be translated to becoming tour guides in the future.”
To find out more, or to book a tour, visit Invisible Cities.