Big Issue Group has launched its first ever membership scheme to unite supporters of the social enterprise in the fight against the UK poverty crisis.
The social enterprise has identified a desire from the UK public to use collective action to change things for people in poverty, with a new YouGov poll1 showing over two thirds (69%) of people believe issues are more effectively resolved when people and organisations work together on a local scale.
The campaign has kicked off with significant outdoor advertising, starting with Elonex’s The Manchester Screen at Victoria Warehouse, the second largest digital billboard in Europe. Delivering over 1.2 million impressions every two weeks, it is the biggest billboard in the city and overlooks a major traffic junction where campaigns successfully target commuters, public transport users, football fans and visitors to the bustling City Centre.
Elonex will be sharing the campaign for the duration of its run, utilising many of its 3,000 digital screens across the UK.
Out of over 2,000 Brits surveyed in early September, 54% said they felt the government is doing “too little” to help people in their local area who are afflicted by poverty. Close to half (45%) of all respondents believed their local areas had changed for the worse over the last few years, with 42% saying their areas ‘had stayed about the same’ and only 7% reporting a change for the better – showing a clear need for people to brought together in the face of the country’s sizeable challenges.
In light of these findings, alongside the new membership scheme, the Big Issue Group is launching a new Big Community initiative, designed to bring local people together to find solutions to poverty in their areas, and to call for real government action on poverty. The initiative encompasses the membership scheme, a community roadshow, and a call to campaign for bold new government legislation.
The social enterprise is calling for a ‘Poverty Zero’ law, which would force every government to set legally binding targets to reduce poverty – as with Net Zero. It’s estimated that 3.8 million people in the UK live in extreme poverty, struggling to feed, clothe, and keep themselves warm2. This has more than doubled in the last 7 years, and the Big Issue Group wants the first ever ‘Poverty Zero’ law to tie the government to eradicating destitution by 2035.
The public can back this bold new campaign by signing up to the Big Issue’s Membership scheme and enabling the Big issue to create positive solutions so even more people in the UK can work and earn their way out of poverty – through its support services, work readiness programme and campaigning on behalf of the 3.8m people, to get those in power to do more.
To become a Member of the Big Issue, visit bigissue.com/membership.
