Big Issue, big opportunities…

The Big Issue in the North is a magazine covering current affairs and the arts staffed by a small team in Manchester. As you might know, the OCA is an education charity based in Barnsley which aims to widen access to creative arts education at undergraduate and graduate levels. What the two organisations have in common is the shared aim of supporting people who want to change the direction of their lives, no matter what their circumstances.
The Big Issue in the North, run by The Big Life Trust Group, describes itself as ‘a business solution to a social problem’. The concept is a simple one: vendors buy copies of The Big Issue in the North for £1 a copy and sell them to the public for £2. Most vendors also take part in The Big Life Plan, which supports vendors in moving away from the streets for good.
OCA has just agreed to get together with The Big Issue in the North through a collaboration agreed last week with the editor, Kevin Gopal. Every week from the beginning of April, the Last Week page of the magazine will feature a photograph on a topical theme by one of OCA’s level 1 or level 2 students based in the northwest, Yorkshire and Humberside, the areas where the publication is sold.
Students whose shots will be featured in the magazine are encouraged to be wide-ranging in their interpretation of the brief to be topical. Pictures of a newsworthy event such as a demonstration against government cuts in your home town are as welcome as a portrait shot of your father on father’s day or a photograph that symbolises a change in season. If you are a level 1 or 2 photography student living in any of the areas where The Big Issue in the North is sold, we will be emailing you to tell you what you need to do to get your work published.
This is a great example of a partnership where everyone gains – and without a penny changing hands. OCA photography students get a new audience for their work (25,500 people buy the magazine from street vendors each week and about four times as many read it), the OCA gets the chance to make more people aware of its degree courses and The Big Issue in the North gets creative shots of a quality its budget wouldn’t usually permit.
If you’re not based in the north and would like to have a look at The Big Issue in the North, you can read it online here.