Jasmine Awad, CEO of Homeless Link member Unseen Tours describes the work her organisation has done, and announces a new initiative and an opportunity for people with lived experience of homelessness to engage.
At Unseen Tours, we have always believed that the most powerful way to challenge perceptions of homelessness is to put the people who have lived it at the very centre of the story. Not as subjects, but as storytellers.
For fifteen years, that belief has taken the form of walking tours. Our guides, all of whom have lived experience of homelessness, lead the public through the streets of London, sharing their knowledge of the city, their perspectives, and their personal stories. They choose what to share, shape the tours themselves, and are paid directly: 60% of every ticket goes straight to them.
The impact is felt in both directions. For tour participants, it is often the first time they have had a genuine, unhurried conversation about homelessness with someone who has experienced it – and research consistently shows that personal connection is one of the most effective ways to shift attitudes. For our guides, the work builds confidence, communication skills, a sense of purpose, and a sustainable income.
Creating space for lived experience
Across the homelessness sector there is growing recognition of the importance of lived experience leadership. Our theory of change is rooted in storytelling, but the stories of our guides themselves, and what this work has meant to them, are ones we have not always had the space to tell fully.
That is what Street Level is about. To mark our 15th anniversary, we wanted to create another platform for those voices.
This March, we are launching a photo exhibition at art'otel London Hoxton, created in partnership with narrative photographer Jennie Blythe. Street Level is an homage to our guides and the perspectives at the heart of Unseen Tours, their faces, their words, their London. It is a celebration of fifteen years of work and the people who have made it what it is.
We created it because we wanted to give those stories a different kind of stage. A walking tour is ephemeral, it lives in the moment, between the guide and their group, and then it's gone. Photography holds something still. It invites people to look more slowly, to sit with a face or a story, to feel something linger.
We also wanted to reach people beyond our existing audience, those who may never have joined a walking tour, but who might find themselves moved by an image on a wall. For organisations working in the homelessness sector, we hope the exhibition offers something to share with the people you work with and the communities around you: a reminder that lived experience, when given a genuine platform, has the power to shift even the most entrenched perceptions.
Come and see it
Street Level launches on Thursday 26 March, 6.30–8.30pm, at art'otel London Hoxton, and the exhibition remains open Friday 27 through to Sunday 29 March. Entry is free and all are welcome.
You can register for the launch evening here.
Let’s work together!
We will also be recruiting new guides with lived experience of homelessness in the new year. If you know someone who might be interested (paid, flexible work, with full training provided) please do get in touch at enquiries@unsentours.or.uk, or pass this along.
Unseen Tours is a Community Interest Company based in London. Visit unseentours.org.uk to find out more.
