Down Not Out Launch

Down Not Out launch

Down Not Out Launch by Hollie Sturgess

On Tuesday 31st January, the community news cafe at Coffee Republic took a different shape than usual as the Down Now Out news agency in partnership with Action Homeless officially launched their two year long project. Action Homeless had been awarded a large sum of money from the Big Lottery Fund to establish the Down Not Out news agency and employ several individuals as part of the editorial team. Andrew Regan, the Regional Communications Manager at the Big Lottery Fund, was invited down to Coffee Republic to watch the Citizens’ Eye and Action Homeless project be officially launched. He also captured the event, interviewing people and recording some of their conversations with other individuals.

The very first editorial team, which contains four people, were also introduced to the people who came to witness the launch. The launch, which started at 9:30am, had a very good turn out with the whole of the ground floor at Coffee Republic being taken over by Action Homeless, Citizens’ Eye, community reporters and unrelated individuals wanting to see the successful rise of the Down Not Out news agency.

After four years of working with Action Homeless, it’s great to see that Down Not Out is now finally and officially launched. John Coster, Editor of Citizen’s Eye, believes that the model which has formed Down Not Out may be the winning model to progress more of his nineteen other news agencies.

The launch of the Down Not Out news agency will certainly be a memorable day for all of those involved with the project. It’s a very important day which will be remembered throughout the course of the projects future. The atmosphere was very much alive and it was great to see so many people from different projects come together to officially open what is sure to be a successful news agency.

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