Hope in Shadows

Hope in Shadows is a project of social enterprise Megaphone magazine -- a non-profit offering meaningful work to people experiencing poverty and homelessness. The project supports low-income street vendors to earn income through low-barrier work: street vendors sell the monthly Megaphone magazine and annual Hope in Shadows calendar on the streets of Vancouver and Victoria. Vendors make community connections, build skills, and earn needed income, all while advancing important conversations about poverty.

Megaphone’s Hope in Shadows calendar project uses photography to challenge stigma and build hope. Megaphone vendors - all people experiencing poverty - are the calendar’s photographers, and each year they participate in series of photography workshops. Vendors are given a single-use disposable film camera and five days to take photographs. The images they capture show the humanity in poverty and give photographers a chance to tell their own story. The project exists to amplify marginalized voices and challenge the narrative around poverty.

Each vendor runs their own microbusiness. Vendors buy each calendar for $10 and sell it to customers for $20. They buy each magazine for 75 cents and sell it for $2. They keep the profits. It’s flexible work for people who may have barriers to traditional employment. Since 2003, Megaphone’s vendors have earned more than one million dollars through calendar sales. Over 15 years, an average of 150 vendors have sold the calendar each winter: more than 105,000 calendars in total!

This year, vendors were asked to capture images on the theme of “Heart and Soul.” They submitted roughly 1000 photographs to the contest, then a community jury and public vote narrowed those down to the 13 that make up the 2018 calendar. The winning photo and cover of the 2018 calendar was taken by vendor Priscillia Tait (Wet’suwet’en Nation). Called “Ladies’ Tea Party,” it’s a portrait of Brenda Leo (Homalco Nation) and Lulu during one of their Friday meet-ups at Oppenheimer Park.

Vancity has been an invaluable supporter of Megaphone’s Hope in Shadows photography contest since the project was launched by Pivot Legal Society in 2003. A number of Vancity branches volunteer each year as depots to support vendor sales.

Megaphone vendors sell the magazine on the streets of Vancouver and Victoria year-round, and the Hope in Shadows calendar from October to January. You can take meaningful action to support people experiencing poverty, by buying a high-quality calendar and magazine from a vendor. No cash? No problem. You can even pay vendors directly on your smartphone using the Megaphone App, available for free download from the iTunes and Google Play stores.