The Big Issue office is now located on Queens Road within the Community Base complex. The office is now much larger and has dedicated spaces for the work that is being done there.

As part of the work the Big Issue does with the homeless in Brighton, we have a large well equipped UK Online centre training environment that is used by both vendors and staff.

The UK Online centre is open to Big Issue members and staff, aswell as those who are homeless but may not for some reason be using any of the Big Issue services.

Vendors trying out the speech recognition software. Installed for those that otherwise find it difficult to use a keyboard or mouse to control the computer. It is also being used by vendors that do not have very good literacy skills to dictate stories etc for the newsletter.

 

Web Design Classes

Many of the vendors are getting their own projects together and putting them on the web, anything from electronic curriculum vitaes to advertising their business ideas, for example one vendor is now advertising his Poetry and illustrations online and has already recieved response from a greetings card manufacturer, to view the vendors website click here

Video Production

We thought it would be good to try to have as many tools available to those using the training room as possible, so that if they wanted to get something done we would have no barriers with regards to telling people we don't have the kit to do it.

The usage of the video editting suite has been steadily increasing and more and more people are coming to the class wanting to get a film made of a story or play they have written. One of the new projects is to make an introductory video that will be played to all new Big Issue vendors explaining to them how the Big Issue works and what is required of them when selling the issue, this is excellent because both the staff and vendors will be working on the same project.

The video that was made earlier this year and previewed at the Duke of Yorks cinema "Rant to Reply" was a total success and showed what could be done with the equipment, also with the help of professional film maker like Millie Young of Millimations fame we could provide the student with all the guidence they needed and not just turn round and reply don't know to a how to question.

The Rant to Reply video is going to be shown again in the near future and we have had several requests from Sussex University to show the film there.

Newsletter / DeskTop Publishing

The newsletter started when vendors started coming to us and asking us how easy it was to put together a newsletter like "The Bin" based in London. We started by showing them how to use Word and type up and arrange the layout of stories for the newwsletter. People then started asking about what software was used in the print industry and what employers in the industry would want them to know about.

We decided on using PageMaker 6.5 Plus as this was what we knew best and were most experienced in.

Vendors also learnt how to use PhotoShop and other image manipulation software aswell as scanning and digital photography.

The result is that we have so far achieved three issues and that the newsletter "The Pitch" is being used by both vendors and staff as a communications medium. It also helps us to coimmunicate what is happening in the training room and what courses are running.

To read "The Pitch" in PDF format please use the links below.

 

Issue One

Issue Two

Issue Three

 

See what is going every week by viewing a copy of the weekly training timetable in PDF format.

HUBS has received capital funding from the Government Office of the South East through its Skills Challenge Programme.

SUN Microsystems logo

SCIP logo

HUBS is managed by
Sussex Community Internet Project

HUBS Home | Home Text Only | What is HUBS? | HUBS Drop In | Mobile Training | HUBS News | Contact us | How you can help us