New office opens in York

There has been a great deal of effort and passion put into the creation of our new York office over the past few weeks. York is a large city with many people who will benefit greatly from our work. A local minister approached the Big Issue in the North with a view to setting up a deal in which the magazine could be sold to vendors from a venue in York. After preliminary work, many meetings, and a visit to our agency deal in Hull to pick up some tips, the project has been launched with much excitement.

 Alan Kilroe, a Coordinator in Leeds, will be superiving the work in York which will be carried out by volunteers. The volunteers  have been trained up in cash handling, health and safety and boundaries to ensure that they are ready to undertake all aspects of the work. The first big task has been to recruit new, locally based vendors to get involved and for this we have started to forge links with local agencies in order to get the word out and encourge people to register.

 A poster campaign  was launched and we delivered them by hand to local agencies in order to form a connection within each agency. This would give a specific point of contact that would understand TBIITN’s work, and could encourage their clients to then become vendors.  All of the vendors that have been recruited so far can be directly attributed to this personal approach.

 The magazines are being picked up from Leeds so there are no transportation costs and the local staff team is made up by volunteers, thus reducing costs to an absolute minimum. We are excited to be offering our services to the people of York and look foward to our future in the city.