The Changemakers event in June. Image: Louise Haywood-Schiefer
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The Big Issue Top 100 Changemakers initiative was created to celebrate the people and organisations that are tackling some of society’s biggest issues through innovation, leadership and, most importantly, action.
This month, we held the first Changemakers Celebration event at EartH Hackney, East London. We were delighted that dozens of winners joined us for a brilliant day. Here’s what some of them had to say.
Valerie Lolomari MBE. Image: Louise Haywood-Schiefer
Valerie Lolomari is the founder of Women of Grace, a survivor-led organisation supporting women affected by female genital mutilation (FGM). Through safe spaces and peer counselling, the organisation has supported more than 168 survivors across the UK, helping women recover and rebuild their lives.
“I could not even express how I felt,” said Lolomari on the moment she found she had been named a Changemaker.
“I’m delighted that the vulnerable women we are looking after are becoming noticeable and they’re beginning to hear their voices on huge platforms like this.”
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“It’s helped me quite a lot,” she added. “It’s made me a bit more visible and a lot of people contacted me. It was a big deal, even to the community, and it gave a lot of encouragement to the staff and the survivors we look after. We’ve had a lot more referrals because of this so, once more, I’m super, super grateful.”
When musician Mark Williams began working with people with learning disabilities at The Mulberry Centre, south-east London, in 1984, it planted the seed for Heart n Soul. Now artistic director and chief executive, Williams has helped build Heart n Soul into an award-winning arts charity that champions the talents of people with learning disabilities and autism. “Being nominated as a Changemaker felt good,” said Little Kali, a singer and songwriter. “Heart n Soul are amazing people. They’re an incredible charity, creatively as well. They always believe in people with talent. We’re one big happy family.”
We Are Survivors’ Christopher Egan. Image: Louise Haywood-Schiefer
After surviving years of trauma in adolescence, Christopher Egan found specialist support through We Are Survivors and later became the service’s lived experience lead, helping others rebuild their lives. He now works with the media, parliamentarians and local networks to ensure male survivors are heard and believed.
Egan told Big Issue: “I never really thought of myself as a changemaker so it sort of validated me. It validated my own recovery from social harms and how far I’ve come.
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“I’m a great believer in looking at distance travelled for people who often feel that they are stuck in a certain place that doesn’t contain joy or pleasure or happiness or any element of thriving. You don’t always know where you were until you are not in that any more. I think it’s really good to show that to other people.”
End Child Poverty Coalition has spent years bringing together a network of organisations to push for urgent action to reduce child poverty. Over the last four years, it led a national campaign to end the two-child benefit cap, which was lifted earlier this year.
“When you campaign, even though we’re a coalition and we’re doing it together, it can feel isolating,” said coordinator Rachel Walters. “And it’s challenging: even though the two-child limit has been scrapped, we immediately have political parties saying ‘we’ll bring it back’. So having recognition that this campaign is worthy of an award is so inspiring to the members of the coalition. When you campaign on welfare or benefits, you’re made to feel that maybe your work isn’t making a change. So having an award like this is just brilliant, and it helps us recognise that what we do is really important.”
Coram’s Voices in Action Ambassadors are 16- to 25-year-olds campaigning to change how schools respond to exclusion. With exclusions rising and vulnerable pupils disproportionately affected, the ambassadors are turning personal experience into policy influence, hope and practical support for others facing the same barriers. “It feels absolutely amazing to be here, in a community space where we’re able to connect with each other, learn more about what everyone’s doing, and be celebrated as well for our work,” said Olivuh Xavier, Coram youth ambassador.
Beats Bus Records collect their Big Issue Changemakers prize. Image: Louise Haywood-Schiefer
Beats Bus Records is a not-for-profit organisation from Kingston-Upon-Hull. At the Changemakers event, Steve ‘Redeye’ Arnott and Dave ‘DJ Redlocz’ Okwesia performed two tracks, including one about knife crime.
“We teach young people everything about hip-hop, live performance and confidence building,” said Arnott. “We have a 7.5 tonne truck that we turned into a mobile recording studio and we use that to go to estates and places where young people are finding themselves getting into trouble because they’ve got nothing better to do.”
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Okwesia added: “If there’s anybody that wants to engage with Beats Bus, it’s always an open door where they just can come along to our mentorship classes. Somebody comes in the Beats Bus, they become part of our family.
“It’s just amazing to be recognised [as a Changemaker] and we’ll continue to carry on doing our great work.”
“Being from Hull, as a city, we don’t get a lot of recognition,” said Arnott. “To be able to come down to Hackney and perform for Big issue is probably one of the proudest moments of my music career.”
“I only went in to get a cheese toastie from Night Church in Penzance, who open their doors to homeless people. They asked if there was anything else I wanted – and I asked if they had a piano I could play.”
Rhys Wynne-Jones was sleeping rough at the time but a clip of him playing the piano – when he became known as the ‘Mystery Night Church Pianist’ – changed everything.
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“When I played, the director of the Night Church nearly swore!” said Wynne-Jones. “They recorded me and my version of Bohemian Rhapsody went viral – even Roger Taylor from Queen saw it. He sent me a lovely message, said it was dazzling.”
He has since used his platform to raise thousands to help others experiencing homelessness.
“ I’ve been playing concerts – the first one raised money for Night Church, then other homelessness and mental health charities. It’s helped some of my friends get homes.
“One of them, Clive, got help through St Patrick’s after I raised money for them. He is over 80 years old, hard as nails and he’s found love and wants me to be his best man. I also got a home last October.
“The best things in life happen by accident,” he added. “When I walked into that church, I never thought I was going to go viral, I never thought I was going to do any concerts – I had done performances in the past, but I thought being on the streets meant I was done with that and I would never perform again.
“And I never, ever thought I’d win an award and be called a Changemaker.
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“Since then, I’ve been doing more concerts, and the latest news is that I’m doing a massive fundraiser for the Museum of Homelessness in November. It’s the biggest challenge I’ve ever done – it’s not going to be a normal concert. That’s all I can say… for now.”
Foster Greatness UK’s Chris Wild. Image: Louise Haywood-Schiefer
Chris Wild is director of Foster Greatness UK, using lived experience to fight for stronger rights for care-experienced people – including making care experience a protected characteristic.
Wild said, “For me to be nominated as a Changemaker, and to have that platform to speak, it’s about paving the way for the next generation of leaders. It’s not a tokenistic thing, but it’s about passing the baton… I feel overwhelmed. When you’re in a room like this today, you think this is hope, this is positivity, this is what we should be celebrating. Being a Changemaker opens a lot more doors, it really does. It gets people listening, because Big Issue is a big deal.
“I will never stop campaigning until the day I die for a care system where every child is safe and protected, where every child can thrive.”
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Veg Power collects a Big Issue Changemakers award. Image: Louise Haywood-Schiefer
Veg Power is a UK not-for-profit tackling one of the country’s biggest public health challenges: children not eating enough vegetables. Founded in 2019, it created the multi-award-winning Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign, which generated £132 million in additional vegetable sales and 1.4 billion extra children’s portions.
Soraya Ulrich-Khan, schools programmes manager, said: “It’s such an honour to be recognised for what we do, because the young people of today, they’re our future. [Today] has been really enlightening and empowering.”
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