On the final day of the 2018 INSP Global Street Paper Summit, Suzanne Fitzpatrick, professor of housing and social policy at the Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research (I-SPHERE) at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, spoke to delegates about her research showing that the statement “homelessness can happen to anyone” is not quite as true as many make it out to be. Here, she breaks down her arguments for the INSP News Service.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Munich street paper BISS, the renowned British duo, Ivan Morison and Heather Peak have installed an artwork in the magazine’s hometown. A pavilion has been constructed around the equestrian statue of Maximilian I on Wittelsbacherplatz with the title “I will be with you, whatever”. From the 30th June to the 13th October 2018, a number of events will take place on Wittelbacherplatz that will involve both artists and the citizens of Munich.

37-year-old Mélanie Noël sells L’Itinéraire from her pitch at the Verdun metro station in Montreal, Quebec. Here, she looks back on a childhood spent moving from home to home and her troubled relationship with her sister, while affirming how positive her time as a L’Itinéraire vendor has been. She loves her work and has found strength through relationships forged with friends and mentors.

This month saw the 2018 Global Street Paper Summit return to INSP’s home city of Glasgow, and our golden annual opportunity to replenish the street paper archive and get up close and personal with covers from around the world.

Our picture gallery of the 2018 INSP Awards. Relive the highlights!

Randolph B. has found security through his work selling The Contributor. He knows that he will always be able to sell the magazine, regardless of his work situation, and that he has the support of customers with whom he was forged lasting friendships. Despite having recently taken on paid work with Rock City Mechanical, Randolph still sells The Contributor in the evenings and at the weekend. Here, he speaks of his love for his customers and for his adopted hometown, Nashville.

Delegates are heading back to their home countries inspired and motivated by three days of keynotes, panel discussions and break-out sessions with their international colleagues.

This year, Scotland is the place to be for charities, social entrepreneurs and purpose-driven businesses. The INSP Talks, an event at The Lighthouse as part of the INSP Global Street Paper Summit, hosted in Glasgow this week, will be dedicated to the country’s social business scene, as well as showcase social enterprises run by street papers. In addition, the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF), an international gathering for people involved in social enterprises across the planet to come together, share ideas and learn from each other about the future of their sector, is being hosted in Edinburgh in September. As a media partner for the SEWF, INSP is bringing you a series of conversations conducted with the folks behind some of the brightest social businesses involved in the event. David Duke has first-hand experience of what it’s like to be homeless and a lack of purpose, he says, can keep a person from finding their way out of a desperate situation. His organisation, Street Soccer Scotland, gives them an opportunity to find that purpose.

Day three of the 2018 INSP Global Street Paper Summit focused on those at the centre of the street paper mission – vendors. Delegates learned about homelessness, poverty, and the societal factors that contribute to them, and discussed the different ways in which vendors are involved in the day-to-day running of street papers, other than as the main point of sale for the magazines.

The final keynote speaker at the 2018 INSP Global Street Paper Summit, Suzanne Fitzpatrick, professor of housing and social policy at the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Environment and Real Estate (I-SPHERE) at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, presented her research that the statement “homelessness can happen to anyone” is not quite as true as many make it out to be.

After a 10-year journey through Europe, the artist Slavcho Slavov has found a home in Switzerland. Now living in Bern, he has added writing to his artistic repertoire and has written a book about his former life on the street. Last night at the 2018 INSP Awards, this piece won Best Cultural Feature. Now, you can read it in full.

When Tarana Burke was six years old, she was raped by the son of her mother’s best friend. Ten years ago, the activist founded Me Too in order to support young black girls and, in 2017, the hashtag #metoo has become a buzzword around major parts of the world. Last night, at the 2018 INSP Awards, this piece was a double winner, grabbing Best News Feature, as well as being the recipient of the Special News Service Award for the most popular story among street papers. Now, you can read it in full.

This week, the 2018 INSP Global Street Paper Summit has been held in Glasgow, giving street paper staff from countries throughout the network the opportunity to discuss the issues affecting their vendors in our modern world. According to recent news reports in the US state of Portland, 52 per cent of all arrests last year in the Portland area were made against people on the streets, and 86 per cent of those were for non-violent violations. The city’s street paper, Street Roots, surveyed its vendor about their first-hand experience with law enforcement.

Last night, at the 2018 INSP Awards, The Big Issue Taiwan was victorious in the Best Design category. Part of their win can be put down to the work of Aaron (Yung-chen Nieh) who, remarkably, designed 95 out of the last 100 covers of the street paper. His contemporary and stylish designs have endowed the covers of the magazine with a unique visual style that has not only proved popular with readers, but which has also attracted a great deal of attention from professional designers. For the magazine’s 100th issue, Aaron shared his insights regarding how to design an effective front cover and talked more about his work with The Big Issue Taiwan.

The winners of the 2018 INSP Awards have been revealed at the official Awards Ceremony, as part of the Global Street Paper Summit in Glasgow.

This year, Scotland is the place to be for charities, social entrepreneurs and purpose-driven businesses. The INSP Talks, an event at The Lighthouse as part of the INSP Global Street Paper Summit, hosted in Glasgow this week, will be dedicated to the country’s social business scene, as well as showcase social enterprises run by street papers. In addition, the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF), an international gathering for people involved in social enterprises across the planet to come together, share ideas and learn from each other about the future of their sector, is being hosted in Edinburgh in September. As a media partner for the SEWF, INSP is bringing you a series of conversations conducted with the folks behind some of the brightest social businesses involved in the event. Here, we talk to Susan Aktemel, the director of Homes for Good, Scotland’s first social enterprise letting agency.

Day two of the 2018 INSP Global Street Paper Summit focused on how street papers are adapting to the rise of digital media, with an insight into street paper data and a panel discussion on how members of the modern media industry are changing to utilise digital to their environment.

This year’s INSP Talks – a regular feature of the Global Street Paper Summit – was focused on social enterprise around the world, including what street papers are doing to branch out into other social businesses, how they are adapting their publication to come more into line with the modern social enterprise landscape, and a look at why Scotland is leading the way in the industry.

The Global Street Paper Summit is an opportunity to focus in on a lot of the amazing work being done by street papers. However, that doesn’t mean that the problems affecting their vendors are overlooked. In Germany, the number of violent attacks on homeless people – arson, assault, rape – is increasing. Figures released by the German Federal Criminal Police Office [Bundeskriminalamt: BKA] show that, year on year, the number of attacks is continuing to grow. Hinz&Kunzt examined the reasons why such violence is on the rise and asks what can be done to stop it.

This year, Scotland is the place to be for charities, social entrepreneurs and purpose-driven businesses. The INSP Talks, an event at The Lighthouse as part of the INSP Global Street Paper Summit, hosted in Glasgow this week, will be dedicated to the country’s social business scene, as well as showcase social enterprises run by street papers. In addition, the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF), an international gathering for people involved in social enterprises across the planet to come together, share ideas and learn from each other about the future of their sector, is being hosted in Edinburgh in September. As a media partner for the SEWF, INSP is bringing you a series of conversations conducted with the folks behind some of the brightest social businesses involved in the event. In this feature, we speak to Celia Hodson about how her social enterprise, Hey Girls, is tackling period poverty through quality products and getting people talking.

Day one of the 2018 INSP Global Street Paper Summit was all about making introductions, catching up with old friends and getting stuck in to discussions about the issues being faced by street papers, and the innovations being made to tackle them.

The opening keynote speaker at the 2018 INSP Global Street Paper Summit, journalist, commentator and activist Sunny Hundal, hit street paper delegates with a thought-provoking statement to open his address.

With the INSP Global Street Paper Summit in Glasgow this week, it’s a great opportunity to hear from one of the city’s vendors. Daniel is a familiar face in the west end of Glasgow, and you might even recognise him from past stories featured in the INSP website and News Service. He even went viral not that long ago. Here, he tells us how he came to be a Big Issue vendor, getting back into education and his love of graphic novels.

This year, Scotland is the place to be for charities, social entrepreneurs and purpose-driven businesses. The INSP Talks, an event at The Lighthouse as part of the INSP Global Street Paper Summit, hosted in Glasgow this week, will be dedicated to the country’s social business scene, as well as showcase social enterprises run by street papers. In addition, the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF), an international gathering for people involved in social enterprises across the planet to come together, share ideas and learn from each other about the future of their sector, is being hosted in Edinburgh in September. As a media partner for the SEWF, INSP is bringing you a series of conversations conducted with the folks behind some of the brightest social businesses involved in the event. In this instalment, we speak to Robbie Norval, founder of Lingo Flamingo, a social enterprise that teaches foreign languages to older adults as an innovative way of tackling dementia and brain ageing.

The 2018 INSP Global Street Paper Summit kicked off on Monday with a welcome reception at Glasgow City Chambers, after visits to The Big Issue’s main base of operations, an alternative city tour and much more.

This year, Scotland is the place to be for charities, social entrepreneurs and purpose-driven businesses. The INSP Talks, an event at The Lighthouse as part of the INSP Global Street Paper Summit, hosted in Glasgow this week, will be dedicated to the country’s social business scene, as well as showcase social enterprises run by street papers. In addition, the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF), an international gathering for people involved in social enterprises across the planet to come together, share ideas and learn from each other about the future of their sector, is being hosted in Edinburgh in September. As a media partner for the SEWF, INSP is bringing you a series of conversations conducted with the folks behind some of the brightest social businesses involved in the event. First up, an interview with Alan Mahon, founder of Brewgooder, a craft beer brand with the mission of unlocking clean water for a million people.

Ahead of next week’s Awards Ceremony, we are delighted to reveal who has scooped this year’s INSP Special News Service Award.

We’re spoiling you today – with two sets of Finalists for the 2018 INSP Awards being announced!