After attending the 2019 Global Street Paper Summit, INSP board member, and Real Change founding director, Tim Harris offered some reflections on the state of the street paper movement and what we have to look forward to in the future.

On the first day of this year’s Global Street Paper Summit, current INSP chair Fay Selvan was joined in conversation by INSP co-founder, first ever chair, former honorary president, and co-founder of the Homeless World Cup, Mel Young, for a wide-ranging discussion about the past, present and future of the street paper movement as INSP turns 25. The conversation was moderated by Hannele Huhtala, editor-in-chief of Finnish street paper Iso Numero. The full transcript is now available.

The final day of #INSP2019 saw social media analyst Ray Serrato address delegates about social issues in countries such as Germany, Pakistan and Myanmar and how extremist and inflammatory sentiment is being spread using social media channels like Facebook and YouTube.

The #INSP2019 day two speaker was social entrepreneur Orit Kopel, a freedom of expression advocate and co-founder of Wiki-based news platform WikiTribune. She spoke to attending street paper delegates about the prevalence of fake news, community-sourced journalism and her new project, Glass Voices, a social enterprise looking to train women in public speaking to ensure a new generation of women who are given the opportunity to be heard in business.

Asphalt vendor Sascha talks about his struggles with his mental health, his childhood, his love of movies and his penchant for creating movie themed podcasts. Asphalt is based in Hannover, the city hosting this year’s Global Street Paper Summit.

A jam-packed first day of the 2019 Global Street Paper Summit saw three generations of street paper network figures take to the stage in Hannover as INSP chair Fay Selvan and co-founder of INSP Mel Young joined in conversation, facilitated by Hannele Huhtala, editor-in-chief of Finnish street paper Iso Numero.

A group of street paper delegates attending the 2019 Global Street Paper Summit in Hannover were given the opportunity to take a tour of three of the city’s most innovative social projects. INSP tagged along on the visit, and spoke to delegates.

INSP launched the 2019 Global Street Paper Summit in Hannover by focusing on the value of being a member of its global network, with help from student-led consultancy agency FreshSight.

Originally from Romania, Reghina (55) is now an Asphalt vendor in Hannover, the host of this year’s Global Street Paper Summit. Here she speaks about being the subject of discrimination in her home country, moving with her kids to the Czech Republic, and then herself to Germany, and finding a kind of friendship with her customers.

Ahead of the welcome reception to officially kick off the 2019 Global Street Paper Summit, attending delegates were able to view two fascinating, and contrasting, exhibitions: ‘My Hannover’, a series of street photography taken by the city’s homeless population, and ‘Homelessness during the National Socialist dictatorship’, which provides insight into the plight of the homeless community under the Nazi party.

A group of #INSP2019 delegates were lucky enough to learn about Hannover’s homelessness situation from host street paper, Asphalt, and one of its vendors, Thomas. Delegates visited the Asphalt office, learning about its processes and were given a tour of social spots important to those living on the streets of Hannover.

Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day, but Hannover street paper Asphalt decides to circumvent that perception by holding one off events whenever the date rolls around, to raise awareness of the work its staff and vendors do in the city. We spoke to Asphalt to understand more about why they do this.