Early life:
John Bird who is of Irish decent was born in Notting Hill, London during the post war period where he himself states he was a catholic racist. Bird became homeless at the age of five and was in care until he got kicked out of school. He briefly worked as a butchers boy while also actively committing crimes such as theft to supplement his income and was in and out of prison several times during his tens and twenties where he got his basic education since he couldn't go school. Bird attended Chelsea school of art, not to long afterwards was homeless in Edinburgh sleeping rough. Using his limited knowledge he got from his time at the school of art and prison Bird in the early 1970s managed to set up a small printing and publishing company in London.
Big Issue and the Homeless:
Bird launched The Big Issue in 1991 with Gordon Roddick with the aim of helping the homeless, they do this by having them buy the newspaper from their company and have the homeless sell it to the public in the streets for double what they bought it for. In 1995 Bird launched the The Big Issue Foundation to further aid the homeless and Big Issue vendors. Bird went as far as to help fund many small businesses, charities and NGOs in order to make social change. He did this by setting up the Big Issue Invest in 2009 and has since invested over 30 million Uk pounds into hundreds of social enterprises. The Big Issue has also went global having their issues sold in many other countries such as Kenya, France, Japan and even the US and Australia. His work to help the vulnerable specifically the homeless was not unnoticed as he received an MBE for services to the homeless in 1995 and Beacon Fellowship Prize for his energy and originality in raising awareness to homelessness in 2006.
Bird was a an advocate of helping the homeless most likely because he himself was homeless during the 60s, Bird campaigns a lot for more help to be given to the homeless in the House of Lords as he has the described charity work/companies that work with the homeless as providing everything but a opportunity to make money the reason for this being the laws around charity that prevent them from giving the opportunities in the form of work. Bird has also said that there would be no point in giving the homeless money as they would quote "drink it all, shove it up their noses, stick it in their arm" with is why he believes magazine gives them the means to help themselves.
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