Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
In association with Citroën

Introducing the Big Issue Changemakers of 2023

Our changemakers come from all walks of life, from those quietly helping others to the ones loudly agitating to improve our world. They have all earned their place on our list for 2023

Changemakers cover

Every year we celebrate the changemakers who are making things better. This sounds like an obvious thing to do. It is. But it does not always happen. In this time of untethering, when certainties are ever more loosened, the acknowledgement is even more vital.

We explain The Big Issue 100 Changemakers like this:  it’s a celebration of the people and organisations who have focused, not on themselves, but on making things better for all of us. Selfless, frequently unheralded, though sometimes a little better known, they have noticed something that needs done, that which lifts others before themselves, and rather than wait and moan they do it. They can lead us into the new year.

Nominate a Changemaker for 2024 here.

Our changemakers range from teachers who, without fuss, started a food bank in their school (teachers should not need to start a food bank in their school) to a man on the front line in Ukraine risking his life to help the devastated. There are many in-between, almost 100, including environment-fixing goats.

Your support changes lives. Find out how you can help us help more people by signing up for a subscription

This year we carry a category for those working to help people hammered by the cost-of-living crisis.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

The recent period of confusion and flux has taught us that we cannot rely on top-down change. Leaders are not leading. There is no bright plan.

Life need not be nasty, brutish and short. Around us there are people in our communities, grassroots grafters and fearless figureheads who aspire to more for all. To those creators, the agitators, the activists and the thinkers, to those doing their best to make things better, we celebrate and thank you all.

Welcome to The Big Issue 100 Changemakers 2023.

Paul McNamee is editor of the Big IssueRead more of his columns here. Follow him on Twitter

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income.

To support our work buy a copy! If you cannot reach your local vendor, you can still click HERE to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member. You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

HELP VENDORS KEEP WORKING THROUGH THE COLD

For £36.99, help a vendor stay warm, earn an extra £520, and build a better future.
Grant, vendor

Recommended for you

View all
Reform UK says churches are being turned into mosques. Is it true?
An empty church
Reform UK

Reform UK says churches are being turned into mosques. Is it true?

I shrank my own economy to live a less capitalist life. You could do it too
Society

I shrank my own economy to live a less capitalist life. You could do it too

Kinship carers forced to turn to food banks after taking in vulnerable children
Sarah, a kinship carer who took in her two-year-old nephew.
Kinship carers

Kinship carers forced to turn to food banks after taking in vulnerable children

Record-high number of people sleeping rough in England amid warning kids left homeless on streets
a homeless man sleeping rough
Homelessness

Record-high number of people sleeping rough in England amid warning kids left homeless on streets