Big Issue Founder Lord John Bird Joins the North East’s Leading Voices to Debate the Big Issues

Big Issue’s Community Roadshow came to its climax last night (Thursday 04 October), with leading voices from across the North East coming together in the spectacular setting of Newcastle’s The Common Room to debate how to drive meaningful change in the region.

The Big Debate panellists included Charlotte Windebank, managing director and co-founder of FIRST, who is dedicated to empowering underrepresented communities through entrepreneurship in the North East, and Joe Baxter, star of BBC’s Waterloo Road and a passionate advocate for developing arts opportunities for young people in his hometown of Sunderland.

They were also joined by former Big Issue vendor Earl Charlton, theatremaker Catrina McHugh MBE, and Nick Hartley, one of the first Green councillors to be elected in the North East.

A voice from further afield was the Big Issue’s founder, Lord John Bird, who journeyed from London for the event. Now a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, John Bird has used his lived experience of homelessness and destitution to become one of Westminster’s leading figures in poverty thinking. He is calling for the government to put greater focus and spend on breaking the cycle of poverty, rather than just treating the emergency.

More than 50 guests enjoyed the panel’s spirited, well-natured debate on how poverty can be addressed in the North East, and got the opportunity to pose their questions to the panellists towards the end of the event.

The Big Debate marks the end of a week-long Big Issue Community Roadshow in Newcastle. The leading social enterprise has brought its frontline, editorial and investment teams to the city to report on the issues facing the region and to explore how the Big Issue can play its part in the solutions.

It’s part of the Big Issue’s new Big Community scheme, Big Community, which aims to unite the voices of people across the UK to demand more action on poverty for the government. The public can back the campaign and support the Big Issue’s services helping more than 4,000 people a year by signing up to the Big Issue’s new membership scheme.

To become a Member of the Big Community, visit bigissue.com/membership.

Image: The Big Issue's Big Debate, Photo courtesy The Big Issue/Gavin Forster Photography