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Below the Radar Transcript

Episode 8: Megaphone: changing the narrative — with Jessica Hannon & Peter Thompson

Speakers: Melissa Roach, Maria Cecilia Saba, Jamie-Leigh Gonzales, Jessica Hannon, Peter Thompson

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Melissa Roach  0:00
You’re listening to Below the Radar, a knowledge mobilization project recorded out of 312 Main. This podcast is produced by SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. 

Maria Cecilia Saba  0:17
Below the Radar brings forward ideas to encourage meaningful exchanges across communities. 

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  0:21
Each episode we interview guests on topics ranging from environmental and social justice, arts, culture, community building, and urban issues. This podcast is recorded on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. 

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  0:42
My name is Jamie-Leigh Gonzales and you are listening to Below the Radar. This week we’re talking to and from . Jessica Hannon is the Executive Director and Peter is one of the vendors for Megaphone. Megaphone Magazine has been creating meaningful work for people experiencing homelessness and poverty for over a decade, not only providing employment, but also changing the story on homelessness and poverty.

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Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  1:14
You are listening to Below the Radar, a new podcast out of 312 Main. I’m here with Jessica Hannon and Peter Thompson from Megaphone Magazine and I’ll let you each introduce yourselves.

Jessica Hannon  1:25
Sure, so my name is Jessica Hannon. I’m the executive director of Megaphone Magazine. I’ve been with the organization for about seven years and have been in every role, I think, that we have in the organization.

Peter Thompson  0:39
Hi, my name is Peter Thompson. I’ve been with Megaphone and for going on 12 years now, selling both calendars and the Megaphone street paper.

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  1:51
Well, why don’t you tell, for our listeners who maybe don’t know the work that Megaphone does, why don’t you give a little background on what you do and how you do it.

Jessica Hannon  1:59
Megaphone is an organization that exists to create meaningful work opportunities for people who are homeless or experiencing poverty, and we do that through a few methods. The primary one is through the vendor program. So Peter is one of our incredible vendors. We have about 150 folks who work as vendors  throughout the year, and the vendors sell the monthly Megaphone magazine and annual Hope in Shadows calendar as a means to earn extra income, connect with community, build skills and community, and that's the main thrust of what we do, and the magazine and calendar both exist to create opportunities for people both to earn income through work but also to challenge them in the narratives that exist around poverty and homelessness and create connections between communities or folks who may have different lived experiences and class backgrounds. And so through those projects we create opportunities for people to share their own stories, whether that’s through the calendar, which is through photographs, or through the magazine, which is stories and writing that people can do to share their own stories.

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  3:09
Yeah, and I was at the Megaphone breakfast so I heard you speak a little bit, Peter, but I was wondering if you could talk about some of the barriers that may be people face to getting job opportunities and how this opportunity has impacted you and other people you know in the community.

Peter Thompson  3:29
The barriers a lot of people face in finding work depends on what their abilities are or some of the barriers they have. Like with me, I broke my leg in five places and I got five pins in my ankle, one in my shin, bolts in my knee and another pin in my femur. So I used to be a carpenter for 25 years and I can’t do that anymore. So through Megaphone papers I’ve been very fortunate that I can do this kind of work and interact with people and it gave me that opportunity as a person to have a job and earn extra income besides the disability cheque which doesn’t help much with the rent, you know, so other people might have different barriers like...in other means why they can’t work through many, many obstacles that they face on everyday basis that keep them from working.

Jessica Hannon  4:55
Yeah, Peter’s story is one, or a version of Peter’s story is one we hear from a lot of people where they are people with a lot of skills and a lot to give, but something has maybe happened in their life or they’ve got some barrier that prevents them working kind of a more, what we think of a more ‘traditional job’, whether that’s physical labour, those requirements that, if you have physical limitations, you may not be able to do anymore. Or sometimes it’s if people don’t have, even not having secure, stable housing, that can really affect someone’s ability to work, you know, if you don’t have somewhere that is stable and secure that you can stay at night and get a good night’s sleep, it could be really, really hard to show up for work at 7 AM at a specific time. So being able to, with Megaphone, offering the opportunity for folks to work when and as much as they need to and are able to, that flexibility, I think, is something that works for a lot of people, because they’re able to work when they are well enough and when they’re in a spot to do so, and when they’re not, you know, we’re not going to fire someone if they don’t show up to work. It’s really up to people, as individuals, when and where in the city they work. So there’s a lot of flexibility and a lot of autonomy to it.

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  6:16
Do you want to talk about the and how that builds on what Megaphone is already doing?

Jessica Hannon  6:22
So the Speakers’ Bureau is a new project that we’re building right now and we’re planning to launch in January of 2019, and that’s with the support of the in the City of Vancouver, and it’s a project that’s focused on de-stigmatizing addiction and drug use. And that is a little bit of a departure from some of the work that we’ve talked about before that’s been the main focus of our work, but feels very connected in a lot of ways. Being in this community in the Downtown Eastside and also just working with folks who might have experiences of addiction or lived experiences of the overdose crisis, we’ve seen first hand in the Megaphone community the impact that’s had on people, and it really motivated to want to, or to look at what Megaphone can do and where our place was in trying to combat the overdose crisis. 

Jessica Hannon  7:27
And one thing that we have heard a lot from people with lived experience of addiction and the overdose crisis is the impact of stigma and the impact of what that does, what those societal attitudes toward addiction do to people who are experiencing addiction and how it drives them into using alone or not accessing the health services and social services that they might need and might be able to support them. So the Speakers’ Bureau is, what we’re doing is we’re working with a group of people with lived experience of addiction and the overdose crisis to help them share their stories through public events and private workshops that organizations and services that work with folks who use drugs to sign up to take a workshop that will be led by peers, by folks who have experience of addiction, and it will be workshops around seeing how stigma shows up in their work with people and how they can challenge that stigma to try to serve and work with people better. So we’re really excited about this project, I think it’s got a lot of impact, or a lot of potential for impact, and we’re really excited by the fact that it is centering the voices most affected by the crisis, and having people who use drugs and people with addiction, or experience with addiction, really leading that and sharing their wisdom with everyone.

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  8:55
You have been really vocal and outspoken already about homelessness and the opioid crisis, can you take maybe a little bit about the successes that you’ve had working through Megaphone?

Jessica Hannon  9:11
Some of the successes we’ve had…

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  9:14
Kind of like relative successes (laughs)

Jessica Hannon  9:18
Yeah, I think that the things I’ve been most most proud of through Megaphone, I think, have really been… I’ll back up I think. The power that I see and the potential that I really see in Megaphone are the connections that happen in the community that’s built, sort of person to person, between vendors and customers and between building those bridges and those connections across the boundaries of class and life experience. I think sometimes it can feel like a big gap between sort of that individual impact on a vendor and the big social change we’re working towards, but I think that’s really how you build community power and solidarity, is by being able to create those relationships between people, and then from that to move people to action. So, I think I see the successes as being those everyday, those day in day out, people from very different life experiences being able to connect across the boundaries of class and life experience but, I don’t know, what do you think, Peter? What do you think our successes have been?

Peter Thompson  10:42
I think it’s really good because all the introductions with the people outside from the Downtown Eastside, you gain their trust and interaction every day, like they talk to you and they, you give them that respect that they give you back. So by seeing them everyday and talking about everything that’s happening and through our stories, like vendors write their stories, and through the calendars we do the pictures every year, they really do appreciate what we’re doing. And I believe that we’ve come a long way with the people.

Jessica Hannon  11:32
And I should say too, in terms of tangibles, I think that...so last year was the 15th anniversary of the Hope in Shadows calendar project and it was also, we hit a milestone where we realized that vendors in the history of the project had collectively earned more than a million dollars, and that’s just through the calendar not the magazine. So it really has had some very tangible impacts on folks, on individuals as well as in the community. I think that the Hope in Shadows project and Megaphone, a big part of the impetus to start those projects was seeing the narratives that existed in the media about not just the Downtown Eastside but people experiencing poverty, and I think we’ve come a long way. There’s still a long way to go, but I think we’ve come a long way in being able to challenge the stigma that exists and how the stories about these communities are told and by whom they are told. So I think that both projects have really been able to influence those narratives a fair bit and challenge the stigma that goes along with it.

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  12:43
So we are right now sitting at 312 Main and having this conversation, and you guys have also moved into the building on the ground floor. What is your experience like so far? How do you feel about working here? Maybe Peter if you want to talk about, you know, the space and how it feels for you?

Peter Thompson  13:01
I think the space is great because it’s like a central location where everybody can come from wherever they are in the city and go back out to where they’re selling. And also we got to know a lot of folks in this building who are really good people. I like the fact that we moved because we have our own meeting area, too, where we hold our general meetings.

Jessica Hannon  13:38
Being able to be in 312 Main, we’ve been able to just have kind of, lots of run ins and the sorts of things where it’s a lot of people that we, or organizations that we know already. But there’s so much more opportunity for like ‘hey, you’re working on this, we should talk about this!’ and a lot of that collaboration. And I think the impact on our vendors,  you know, as Peter said, we’re a block from Main and Hastings, the heart of the Downtown Eastside and being able to be on a bus route, being accessible, has been a big help to us. And then beyond that, I think, being able to host our monthly all-vendor meetings and our vendors trainings in a proper spot that feels really well set up! We quite literally used to host our new vendor trainings in a garage in the previous place we were sharing space with . We did our best to make it a nice and warm garage, but at the end of the day, it was still a garage. So it’s really nice to dignify the work that vendors are doing and be in a space that is conducive to people learning and yeah, kind of building community. So it’s nice to not be in a garage anymore.

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  15:02
So Megaphone is over a decade old now, so what’s next?

Jessica Hannon  15:11
Yeah, we’re really excited. We’ve got some big plans for the next year. One is launching the Speakers’ Bureau in January of 2019, so that’ll be big. We also recently have been working to expand our programs in Victoria, so we’ve got a small group of vendors over there, but looking to build up on that. And generally, I think, we’re looking to grow Megaphone and work with more vendors. We know there’s lots of people out there who have a lot to give and a lot to offer and maybe just don’t have the means to do so. So we’re looking to expand to be able to work with more vendors and concurrently to be able to connect with more customers. So we’re always looking to grow, to welcome more folks into the Megaphone community, help more people earn income and build skills and be part of the community at Megaphone. So big plans for 2019.

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  16:09
What’s next for you, Peter?

Peter Thompson  16:12
I think as we grow, whether it would be good to grow outside the city to like, we already went to Victoria but Burnaby is another good place because there’s a lot of people that go out to Burnaby area, and if we’re going to grow, there would be people willing to sell out there, too, like Metrotown area there’s many people that flock that area where once we get our paper known and our calendars known, then it would be nice to have something else too besides Downtown Vancouver and Victoria. Oh, we also have North Van too, so.

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  17:04
I mean, we talked a little bit about your successes but, is there anything you think could be done or how people can help or get involved or even like, policy change you want to see, things like that, things that might need the support of our listeners?

Jessica Hannon  17:23
Well, I think the number one best way to support Megaphone and to support our work is to buy the magazine! So to find a vendor like Peter. Peter sells at 4th and Vine in Kitsilano in Vancouver. But listeners can go online either to our website, and see a map of where vendors usually sell, or we have an app which allows people to pay vendors cashless payments but it also shows where in the city vendors sell. So that’s my shameless plug for buying the magazine, because that both helps vendors and it helps us build that community of the Megaphone community who can then advocate for higher level policy solutions. I think that that is heartening and I’m curious to see what will happen next. Curious and hopeful to see what will happen next with the provincial government, and to some extent, the federal government coming back in the game on social housing and building more housing so I think that’s a big thing that we’ve been talking about and advocating for a long time.

Jessica Hannon  18:37
I think the other piece, another piece of policy that we’ve been talking about a lot and it’s kind of hanging over all the conversations about the overdose crisis and the impact of stigma on the overdose crisis is the reality that as long as there is criminalization around drug use, there will be stigma. So as long as we’re operating under that legal framework, where people who use drugs will be criminalized, there will be stigma. And so to some extent, it feels like as much as we’re doing this work on a community level to challenge stigma, there needs to be that policy piece at a higher level around decriminalization of drug use.

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  19:26
Yeah, absolutely. Anything you’d like to add, Peter?

Peter Thompson  19:29
Well I’d just like to say that the government should be getting onto the social housing and the overdose crisis around here because there are too many people dying from overdoses, and the housing is just unbearable. It’s just unbelievable that people have to pay for rent now and everything like that. And also about the paper, people could get word to mouth to other people to help with the Megaphone and the calendars and a lot of people out there can get the word to mouth and people recognize it more.

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  20:21
Yeah, just talk about it right! Anything else that you guys would like to say or add? Or plug?

Peter Thompson  20:30
I was on the bus this morning and somebody recognized me because of my picture in the October issue

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  20:39
Cool! That’s pretty cool!

Peter Thompson 20:42
Yeah well, you got to get the 2019 calendar, I said!

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  20:46
Yeah, like a little local celebrity! Cool!

Jessica Hannon  20:51
Yeah, I think I would just like to say thanks so much for having us. 51ÁÔÆæÈë¿ÚWoodward’s has been a really solid partner with Megaphone for years, I think, maybe a decade. Really early on in Megaphone’s work. I know Am and , the founder of Megaphone, were putting their heads together and coming up with ideas so, yeah. Just really want to say thanks for all your work and for all you do in the community, and it’s great to be neighbours!

Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  21:20
Yeah, totally. Okay cool, thank you!

Jessica Hannon 21:21
Thank you!

Peter Thompson 21:22
Thank you very much.

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Jamie-Leigh Gonzales  21:30
That’s our show for today. I just want to say thanks to David Steele, who produces the music for this podcast. Thanks to the producers, Melissa Roach, Maria Cecilia Saba, Am Johal, and myself. And thank you of course to Jessica and Peter for coming and talking to me. Be sure to check out Megaphone and the work that they’re doing, and you can find them online at , or you can just get their app and stay connected that way. And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to our podcast Below the Radar. Thanks for tuning in!

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