The Pavement

The Pavement is a small new charity, founded in the spring of 2005, that provides a unique product - a free monthly paper for homeless readers. The Pavement delivers 3,000 copies to over 30 outlets across London: hostels, day-centres, homeless surgeries, soup-runs and libraries. By using volunteer journalists and professionals, as well as work from the country's best cartoonists (many of them Private Eye contributors), they've achieved a balance of news, features, humour and service listings unique to their publication.

Heres an extract from the Londonist interveiw:

Most readers won't be familiar with The Pavement. What's it all about?

Burdett: It's a free monthly magazine for the homeless, whether street or in temporary accommodation, with news, features, a service listing and humour from the UK's best cartoonists. It's that simple. Our aim to be a good read above all else.

It's read by rough sleepers, those in day centres, and hostel residents. Of course, we know from correspondence that a lot of those working in homeless organisations read us, but our target audience are homeless. And that's our core readership. We send out 3000 copies a month, and they all go. In fact, they go to places we didn't send to, as readers carry copies across town and beyond. We've had copies turn up in Doncaster, Edinburgh and Cork, which is encouraging."

Take a look at The Pavement.