Discover the tour company whose guides were once homeless
Zakia Moulaoui’s social enterprise, Invisible Cities, offers a unique opportunity to the homeless. Dawn Geddes finds out more.
INVISIBLE CITIES isa tour guide company with real heart. The UK social enterprise trains people who are affected by homelessness to become walking guides, so that they can provide unique tours around the cities they know and love.
The life-changing initiative was set up by an Edinburgh woman, Zakia Moulaoui, who gained valuable insight into the plight of homelessness while working for social organisation the Homeless World Cup.
“Working there taught me a lot about homelessness and the stigma that people face – that was one of the big catalysts for me.
“Another one was a visit to Athens in 2015, where I met the team behind ‘Shedia’, Greece’s only street paper.
“‘Shedia’ works in a similar way to ‘The Big Issue’, but when you buy a copy of the magazine, the vendor also gives you a tour of the city.
“I loved the idea and thought it would work really well in Scotland.
“When I returned home, I approached some social enterprises and charities with the concept, but none of them had the time, money or the resources to run it – so I decided to do it myself!”
With the help of organisations such as “The Big Issue”, Crisis and “Shedia”, Zakia launched Invisible Cities in April 2016.
Originally, the tour guide initiative was based in Scotland, but soon branched out across the UK.
“We provide transferable skill training to people affected by homelessness, including training in areas such as public speaking, confidence, self-awareness, customer service and first aid.
“Those are skills that people can take anywhere and use anywhere – they don’t have to go on to become a guide if they don’t want to.
“The idea is that anybody can attend those training days and get something out of it. It will boost their confidence and increase their social skills.”
Trainees who want to go a step further and become tour guides are then matched with one of Invisible Cities’ volunteers.
“All our tours are unique – the last thing we wanted to do was put words in people’s mouths and tell them what they should talk about on their tour.
“Some people are passionate about certain parts of history, while others are passionate about their city.
“Some of our future guides have no clue what they want to talk about, so the volunteer that they’re paired up with will help guide them through the process and explore a theme for their tour.
“Many of our volunteers come from a heritage background, so they are ideally placed to help.”
Zakia says the tours are usually a mix of history, social knowledge and personal stories.
“Some of our guides choose to talk about their experiences of homelessness, too.
“In York, we have a guide called Vicki, and her tour centres around the story of Guy Fawkes.
“Vicki’s tour includes loads of historical information, but she also interweaves her own personal experiences with homelessness, being diagnosed with stage 4B cancer, her treatment and remission.”
The Invisible Cities founder says that each guide makes a decision on how much of their own history they want to share.
“It’s up to our guides whether they want to discuss their experiences of homelessness.
“When they start, we usually find that they don’t want to discuss their own stories that much, but over time they start to include more and more personal stuff.
“I think there’s always this worry at the beginning that people will judge them if they talk about their story, but as they encounter more and more friendly faces on the tour, they start to think – well, maybe I should.
“There’s always a point where they come back to us and say, ‘Do you think I should include more details?’
“And we always say, ‘If you want to, that’s absolutely fine.’
“Similarly, we sometimes have people who want to include lots of information, and we ask them if they are sure they’re ready to share. It’s about finding out what’s right for each individual.”
Four years on from Invisible Cities’ launch, Zakia says she’s proud of how much the social enterprise has achieved.
“It’s incredible to see how much it’s grown.
“I think a lot of that is down to the energy and the passion of the people involved.
“It’s amazing to see the guides doing so well.
“To see them carrying out amazing tours is fantastic. It makes me very proud and happy.
“To see them so involved and wanting to thrive so much is just wonderful.” ■