Tea with the Changemakers

Seb Barker - Co-Founder of Beam

June 28, 2022 Social Change UK Season 1 Episode 10
Tea with the Changemakers
Seb Barker - Co-Founder of Beam
Show Notes

This week, Kelly’s chatting with Seb Barker, Beam's Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer. Beam is a website that uses technology to make it easy for members of the public to make donations and help homeless people for the long term. By sharing their stories and goals, Beam humanises homeless people, tackling the discrimination they often face within society.

Seb decided to dedicate his life to helping the homeless after he felt he was becoming desensitised to the issue, and that simply buying The Big Issue wasn’t enough. In 2010 Seb moved to London, and one evening found himself walking by Waterloo station where he was met by an entire encampment of people in sleeping bags. He felt so moved by this that he immediately signed up to be a homeless outreach worker.

After a career helping the homeless, working with Thames Reach and Turning Point, in 2017, alongside Alex Stephany, Seb co-founded Beam.

The way that Beam works is first by identifying who to help, this is usually through referrals from charities and the government, then each person that Beam takes on receives a caseworker who creates a public fundraising page for them, which allows members of the public to donate and support them. So, whether it’s work clothes or help with the rent, Beam are the platform that remove all the typical barriers that homeless people face.

With a large group of dedicated followers and supporters Beam are able to continually help more and more people, and hit their campaign targets every month.

Society tends to forget that behind every statistic on homelessness, there’s a person - Beam are the organisation working to change people's perceptions.

02:15 – Seb’s backstory

04:19
– What is Beam?

11:22
– Hear Seb’s favourite success story!

14:04
– How can we end homelessness for good?

17:53
– Policy makers, this is what you can do!

Check out Beam, and how you can get involved!

https://beam.org/

 

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