John Bird is the founder of The Big Issue; the idea came from his experiences being homeless. He was born into a poor London Irish family in the post war slums of London but became homeless at the age of 5 and resided in an orphanage until he was 10. After he left, he began stealing and getting into trouble with the police, he was fined several times by the age of 10. He got into trouble with the police throughout his childhood up until about his mid 20s before things changed for him.
He encountered Baroness Barbara Wootton who was a sociologist and reformer when he was 10 years old. She helped him a lot and at the age of 15 took him from a boys' prison to a reformatory so that he could learn to read and write. He learnt to read at the age of 16. But things slowly turned bad for him again. He soon became homeless after that; He was on the run from police in Edinburgh during his early 20s. He believed that not enough help was given to homeless people to get back on their feet, they were given a lot, but they never got the opportunities to make money.
Later on in his life, he met Gordon Roddick who co-founded the body shop with his wife, Anita. The Body Shop was founded in 1976 in Brighton, England. It all started as a small shop providing quality skincare products in refilled bottles and with the belief that business could be a force for good and the world. The big issue is similar to this idea as it is helping the world. It considers ethical issues and how small things can make a big difference to loads of people. Both companies want to fight for a fairer world and empower people in doing so.
Gordon Roddick met a homeless person selling magazines in New York which sparked the idea to create the Big Issue in 1991. He found out about this man's life and wanted to be able to help and make a difference to others going through the same thing. Its motto is 'a hand-up not a hand-out' and wants to get people out of poverty and provide opportunities for them to make money, something he didn't get when he was younger.
John Bird's life massively influenced his politics. He became a life peer, which is a title that is not inherited. They earn a place in the House of Lords for doing good things for the country.
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