Julie Chapman says that despite its urgency, climate change is not high on the list of priorities for most people living in poverty in the Downtown Eastside. 'A lot of people are worrying about the basics: where they're going to get their next meal, have a shower, get clean clothes, somewhere they can sleep that's relatively safe and welcoming,' she says. Photo by Francesca Fionda.

As world leaders make potentially generation altering decisions about the future of planet Earth, people on the margins are experiencing first hand the impact of environmental degradation and climate change. A collaborative storytelling endeavour called the Climate Disaster Project - which employs a trauma-informed co-creative process - collects first-hand accounts of what it was like to survive recent heatwaves and wildfires in British Columbia, Canada. Megaphone vendor Julie Chapman writes about experiencing the heat dome phenomena last year while working as a peer support outreach worker for Sex Workers United Against Violence.

Megaphone’s Climate Disaster Project: “It’s a shame that it took something drastic to realise that people needed help”

DJ O'Brien collapsed in her building's elevator when record-high temperatures hit the Downtown Eastside last summer. 'That's how I found out I had COPD,' she says. Photo by Rob Smith.

As world leaders make potentially generation altering decisions about the future of planet Earth, people on the margins are experiencing first hand the impact of environmental degradation and climate change. A collaborative storytelling endeavour called the Climate Disaster Project - which employs a trauma-informed co-creative process - collects first-hand accounts of what it was like to survive recent heatwaves and wildfires in British Columbia, Canada. DJ is an outreach and harm reduction worker in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside who is a member of the Sts’aies Nation. She co-founded Sex Workers United Against Violence. With her naloxone training and kit, she has also saved lives. And that’s the work she was doing when the western North America heatwave hit her community.

Megaphone’s Climate Disaster Project: “It was hard for anybody to take care of themselves”

Suzanne Kilroy/Huculak felt devastated by the effects of fires and flooding last summer. 'People are dying. Everybody's tired. I'm so tired. I'm really tired. I don't want our people to suffer anymore,' she says. Photo by Sean Holman.

As world leaders make potentially generation altering decisions about the future of planet Earth, people on the margins are experiencing first hand the impact of environmental degradation and climate change. A collaborative storytelling endeavour called the Climate Disaster Project - which employs a trauma-informed co-creative process - collects first-hand accounts of what it was like to survive recent heatwaves and wildfires in British Columbia, Canada. Suzanne Kilroy/Huculak grew up in the Thompson Okanagan First Nation gathering food and fishing with her family. Later, she became a sex worker and drug dealer in Vancouver, before finding her way home again. Suzanne has a unique connection with the land, making its degradation particularly brutal. She writes about being with family during the 2021 wildfires, and the necessary evacuations that took place.

Megaphone’s Climate Disaster Project: “In order to survive, you have to be a dreamer”

In the face of poverty and climate change, Mike McNeeley tries to stay hopeful. But he likens it to being a moth trying to fly with half a wing. Photo by Amy Romer.

As world leaders make potentially generation altering decisions about the future of planet Earth, people on the margins are experiencing first hand the impact of environmental degradation and climate change. A collaborative storytelling endeavour called the Climate Disaster Project - which employs a trauma-informed co-creative process - collects first-hand accounts of what it was like to survive recent heatwaves and wildfires in British Columbia, Canada. Mike McNeeley, who now works as a photographer for Megaphone, once suffered a severe allergic reaction to the air pollution from oil refineries nearby his family home, resulting in a move. Experiencing the 2021 heat dome could have been triggering for Mike, his experience with the man made causes of climate change so vivid in his mind.

Megaphone’s Climate Disaster Project: “We were the crabs in the pot. And we were coming to a slow boil”

Everyone who is a part of the global street paper network knows what a street paper is – that extends to the staff that put each publication together and those who buy them. But the people who truly know what a street paper is – what it means – are those who sell them. Here, a collection of street paper vendors – from North Macedonia to Canada – tell us, in their own words, what a street paper is, personally to them.

“The street paper saved my life” – what street papers are in the words of those who sell them

Peter Thompson, who is a grandfather of four, believes the health of the planet is of utmost importance. Without Mother Earth, we have nothing, he says. Photo by Sean Holman.

As world leaders make potentially generation altering decisions about the future of planet Earth, people on the margins are experiencing first hand the impact of environmental degradation and climate change. A collaborative storytelling endeavour called the Climate Disaster Project - which employs a trauma-informed co-creative process - collects first-hand accounts of what it was like to survive recent heatwaves and wildfires in British Columbia, Canada. Megaphone vendor Peter Thompson’s input in the project resulted in this story about when, in the summer of 2021, he was living in a basement suite with his brother and heard his hometown had been destroyed during the heatwave that blanketed western North America.

Megaphone’s Climate Disaster Project: “I pray for them that they all get their lives back”

The Shift members (clockwise from bottom right): Eva Takakanew, Yvonne Mark, Julie Chapman, Jathinder Sandhu, David Deocera, James Witwicki, Mike McNeeley, Paula Carlson, Michael Geilen, the late Maryann Sundown, Lance Lim, Richard Young and Nicolas Crier. Credit: Holly Sakaki.

Canadian street paper Megaphone has launched a new peer newsroom consisting of more than a dozen vendors and storytellers who gather monthly to determine the direction of the magazine. It’s part of a partnership that will develop journalism best practices for reporting on marginalized communities. Paula Carlson, Megaphone’s managing editor, explains more.

Introducing The Shift, Vancouver-based street paper Megaphone’s co-creational newsroom

Yvonne Mark recalls a 'pretty grim summer' in 2021 trying to keep cool and help others during an unprecedented and deadly heatwave that sent temperatures soaring in the Lower Mainland. Photo by Sophie Thomas.

As world leaders make potentially generation altering decisions about the future of planet Earth, people on the margins are experiencing first hand the impact of environmental degradation and climate change. A collaborative storytelling endeavour called the Climate Disaster Project - which employs a trauma-informed co-creative process - collects first-hand accounts of what it was like to survive recent heatwaves and wildfires in British Columbia, Canada. Megaphone’s Yvonne Mark, who spent summers growing up at Gray Bay running on the beaches, writes about living alone in her studio apartment during last year’s heatwave and wonders what she can do to make a difference.

Megaphone’s Climate Disaster Project: “When you’re so used to disaster in your life, you learn to go with the flow”

 in Nashville, Tennessee, receives the COVID vaccines.

With Covid vaccines being rolled out differently across the world, that means marginalised and vulnerable communities in different parts of the world are receiving immunisation at different rates. But it does mean some good news: street paper vendors are beginning to receive the jab, and with the world opening up again, that’s more than welcome.

“Nobody should go without the shot”: Dispatches from vaccinated street paper vendors

vendor Paul Grigatis (left) enjoys meeting the public with Vendor and Volunteer Coordinator Devon Tremain at a recent pop-up plaza event in Vancouver. A new mentorship program pairs new vendors with seasoned pros to show them the ropes of selling. Credit: Paul Grigaitis.

Megaphone’s new vendor mentorship program provides sales support and fosters confidence. Paul Grigaitis, who was a community newspaper reporter before finding himself struggling with addiction and his mental health, became a vendor at Megaphone only to feel that he didn’t have the confidence to go out and do it well. The magazine’s new program helped him get going.

Mentors help new vendors find the courage to succeed at Vancouver street paper Megaphone

 vendor Paul Nosaghare Igbeque. Credit: Anna Mayr.

Street papers have found themselves increasingly to be at the centre of the refugee crisis. Higher numbers of people selling street papers across different parts of the world have fled from their home countries due to poverty, persecution and conflict. Not only do street papers have the ability to platform their voices and stories, but they also offer a stable income when a place in the mainstream job market may seem out of reach. Their support beyond simply selling the magazine – assisting in applying for documentation and permits, looking for a new place to live, and language classes – means a pathway to integration into what is sometimes a new and unfamiliar society. Ahead of World Refugee Day on 20 June, INSP and its member street papers are helping some refugees – who now work selling street papers – to tell their story.

As the refugee crisis worsens, street papers offer a path to stability and a hopeful future

Paul Shawdover has been a Megaphone vendor since 2018. Credit: Paula Carlson.

Paul Shawdover, who sells Megaphone, a street paper based in Vancouver, Canada, says he is proud to be a Black Jamaican Canadian and appreciate the values and lifestyle that he has learned and earned in this piece reflecting on the country’s celebration of Black history.

Megaphone vendor Paul Shawdover on what Canada’s Black History Month means to him

Priscillia Mays Tait composes. As part of her work for 

, Tait participated in a photography mentorship with professional photojournalist Amy Romer, who is a National Geographic Explorer. Credit: Amy Romer.

Megaphone storytellers and vendors of all street papers, including the writers featured in the pages of this Vancouver and Victoria street paper’s Voices of the Street literary anthology, regularly face a host of challenges, all linked to the inequities that come from living in poverty. When Megaphone hosted a series of writing workshops earlier this year, it became clear what was of great importance to participants: our environmentally distressed planet. As a result, the pages of the new edition of Voices of the Street (Stealing Looks at the Sun: Writing About Climate Change in 2022), which is on sale now, are packed full of prose driven by the growing impacts of climate change.

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