Table of contents for 1/27/2025 in The Big Issue

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Emergency on planet Earth Twenty years ago I would have agreed with your Friends of the Earth writer saying that we all can and should make individual changes in our lives in the face of the climate and environmental crisis [Issue 1649, 13-19 January]. Twenty years ago, here in Totnes, I was also involved in the founding of the Transition Towns movement, an incredible momentum for change that spread across the world, of people looking at how they could address these global problems at a local level. And indeed many of the projects founded here then are still going strong now. But did it work? No. Did any of that hope…

Dasein wanted to help create positive change in his Grimsby community, so founded East Marsh United with 15 other local residents “Thanks to being connected with Big Issue Invest, we were able to access the Reach Fund, as a way of developing our organisation. In 2025 we hope to become a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation), which will put us on a more secure footing and enable us to further develop our work. We are pleased to be working with our partners to deliver the East Marsh Community Plan which places community voice at the centre. Furthermore, we have a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Huddersfield University that is focused on community voice in healthy housing.”…

21 Belinda Schwehr CASCAIDr CIC Schwehr founded CASCAIDr CIC to ensure that the state fulfils its legal duty of care to our most vulnerable. In England and Wales, hundreds of thousands of eligible people go without the vital care they need. Many do not feel able to even ask for help, and more than 50% of people who do are denied. Belinda saw a way to close this gap: legal literacy. CASCAIDr provides free, accessible and up-to-date resources, including podcasts and myth-busting pamphlets, to empower vulnerable people to understand and enforce their legal rights to social support. Schwehr is the beating heart of this organisation. Testament to her impact is her nominator, who got access to the services she needed thanks to Schwehr’s unique legal “magic careydust”. cascaidr.org.uk 22 Emma…

Stuart Latimer, NUFC social media manager “Becoming a Changemaker gave important recognition to the work that we do. In 2025, we’re collecting as normal at every home game and we’ll be here until hopefully a time when there isn’t a need any more. Until then we know we can count on the endlessly supportive #GenerousGeordies and the massive contribution Jamie Reuben and The Reuben Foundation have made matching donations.”…

John Christophers, member and co-founder “Being a Big Issue Changemaker has helped open up invitations to speak at major conferences and to influence policy. It’s also opened up opportunities for press and TV coverage. We’re working hard to change the funding landscape so community-led retrofit with a people-centred approach [is] recognised as contributing huge value to the climate transition this country so desperately needs.”…

91 Big River Bakery The humble Stottie has become the symbol of Big River Bakery’s campaign to create equitable, healthy, sustainable and local food systems in the north-east of England. Kindness is built into every aspect of Big River Bakery, which doubles as an open-to-all community space, offering food education and training in the premises. The team works with businesses and charities to deliver social value to the people of Shieldfield and beyond, including 200 free breakfasts each month during term time. bigriverbakery.myshopify.com 92 Coventry Foodbank An industrial estate in Coventry is not the first place you’d look for fresh strawberries, but the “incredible” Coventry Foodbank proves you don’t need green fields to grow fresh produce with its Sow to Grow scheme. MP Zarah Sultana nominated her constituency food bank…

When critics and audiences alike are raving about a film, it’s usually a cause for celebration. But Brady Corbet, director of Oscar-favourite The Brutalist, was worried when the film he co-wrote with his wife, Mona Fastvold, began drawing comparisons with classics by Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson. Running to almost four hours, including a beautifully designed and placed interval, The Brutalist begins as an immigration story. The film joins fictional Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Holocaust survivor trained at the Bauhaus as he arrives in the US to rebuild his life. It is a towering achievement. But Corbet was not expecting plaudits. “This film was really not designed with this sort of reception in mind,” he says, when we meet in London just minutes…

Our annual celebration is a tribute to the people and organisations who have focused not on themselves but on the rest of society. And this incredible, inspirational collection of the selfless, tireless and remarkable innovators have all been chosen by you, our Big Issue readers. We asked you to nominate the people and groups who make life better and brighter, who see what needs done at a community level and beyond, either through their lived experience or because they realise that nobody else will step forward. The difficulty came when we had to narrow down the names to just 100. It is clear that while institutions of state creak, and many need remedial action after a decade of funding removal and decline, there is a network criss-crossing the country who…

11 Refugee Education UK Since 2009, Refugee Education UK has equipped young refugees with the tools to build positive futures by thriving in education. Through tailored tutoring, mentoring and guidance, the team (left) helps young people overcome the challenges they face. Fluency in language can be a barrier, so teaching language skills is a key offering to ensure young refugees can succeed academically in the UK. They also support refugees as they integrate into British society. Their life-changing impact is clear in this nomination: “I owe my place at university to the unwavering support from Refugee Education UK.” reuk.org 12 The Merseyside Refugee Support Network The Merseyside Refugee Support Network (MRSN) gives practical help to refugees moving on from the asylum system. It was established in 2001 to support refugees…

31 Lawyers Who Care Launched in May 2024, Lawyers Who Care (LWC) is the UK’s first mentoring organisation to support care experienced aspiring lawyers. The organisation was co-founded by Kate Aubrey-Johnson and the CEO, Lucy Barnes. Barnes is a care experienced pupil barrister, passionate about removing the barriers for other people like her into the law profession. LWC provides mentoring with leading barristers and solicitors, access to paid work experience, support with applications and access to resources on the legal profession. lawyerswhocare.org 32 Marie-Claire O’Brien Since her time in prison, O’Brien has spent “every waking moment improving the lives of people who are leaving prison”. Described as “committed and resilient” by their nominator, O’Brien is founder and CEO of New Leaf Initiative CIC, a social enterprise working across the Midlands…

51 Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir Described by their nominator as “the voice of reason on so many trans issues”, Jónsdóttir, aka Owl Fisher (right), is an award-winning Icelandic journalist, filmmaker, author and activist. They are the only trans columnist for Metro and have appeared on many other news outlets, such as the BBC. Additionally, Jónsdóttir worked for four years in Iceland to create new legislation for trans, non-binary and intersex rights, making Iceland the second best country in the world on the Rainbow Index. What is your big issue and how are you trying to tackle it? Eradicating hate and prejudice towards trans people. The way I am trying to tackle it is to write articles, partake in projects and raise awareness in general, both by addressing certain topics but…

71 The Weald Action Group In June 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that the climate impact of burning fossil fuels must be considered by authorities approving projects. The judgment will make it harder for new fossil fuel projects to get approval. It’s largely down to the Weald Action Group, a network of grassroots campaigners. Friends of the Earth praised them for “five years of grit and determination”. wealdactiongroup.org.uk 72 Project Giving Back Every year, charities showcase beautiful gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Many wouldn’t exist without grants from Project Giving Back (PGB). Since 2022, PGB have spent millions funding 42 Chelsea gardens. Alex Geaney of Horatio’s Garden, a spinal injuries charity that was assisted by PGB, said: “Every single one of the team deserves to be celebrated for all…

The Sounddelivery Media team were thrilled to be included in Big Issue’s Changemakers list for 2024 for their media and campaigning work. The organisation works to amplify stories that address social inequalities. Led by founder Jude Habib (pictured), it aims to diversify voices in the media to make it more representative of society. “We were very grateful for this recognition. This work is as important as ever. Our communities are exhausted by cuts, yet they continue to do vital work. We just want to continue making sure this work is seen, kept in the spotlight and valued.”…

These feel like precarious times. Looking at world geopolitics and climate change, the security of humanity suddenly feels fragile. This has drawn a number of novelists to write about possible futures beyond simple dystopian narratives. This week, we have two novels that do this in unexpected and original ways. First up is Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Japanese author Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda. This expansive and inventive novel feels like a departure for the writer, whose previous bestselling work includes the more straightforward Strange Weather in Tokyo. The novel is told in fragments and set mostly in the far future, when humanity is on the brink of extinction. The book jumps around in place and time, but mostly concerns isolated small groups of people who…

You know who the real Traitors are? People who aren’t ill. Since I got the flu 100 years ago (last week) I’m now deeply suspicious of well people. You know the ones – they wear outdoor shoes and don’t have a rattling, wheezing cough that sounds like Keith Richards smoking a bong. The well people are really getting on my nerves at the moment. They’re everywhere: skipping about, running, pounding the pavements with colour in their cheeks. And they’re on TV, too, radiating with health, running around the grounds of country houses, trying to exhume people from coffins. They have plans, they have dreams and their brains aren’t made of porridge. They wouldn’t dream of trying to take a paracetamol while already sucking on a Hall’s Soother, or falling asleep…

The British reaction to the return of Trump is a curious thing. On the one hand, over 60% hold an unfavourable opinion of him, according to Ipsos. However, HOWEVER, a notable number of the right-leaning commentariat are massively turned on by the idea of autocracy. You don’t have to look hard to find plaintive requests to please come over here, Mr Trump. Please Make Britain Great Again. Please show our leaders how to do it. The need to be controlled is rampant. It’s a way of thinking trapped by dissonance. On the one hand, lauding a new golden period of free speech, on the other condemning as woke and wrong any challenge to what was said. It’s a position that maintains the upholding of British ideas of fair play and…

CEO James Tullett “It was an honour to be recognised as a Changemaker; it felt like a great validation of our work. We’ve embraced campaigning to push for systemic changes that will benefit anyone navigating the immigration system. Instead of continually putting out small fires, we’ve started to focus on identifying recurrent causes to create long-term solutions. Being selected as a Changemaker opened doors to conversations with funders, politicians, journalists and businesses. It also brought a sense of responsibility to meet the expectations that came with the recognition.”…

41 Euella Jackson Jackson leads Rising Arts Agency for young underrepresented creative thinkers aged 18-30. Only 27% of the creative industries workforce come from working-class backgrounds. The Bristol-based organisation champions access and, crucially, paying people well. Jackson’s nominator writes: “Euella has created a meaningful community and works to create sector-level change.” This radical organisation is a game changer for the aspiring artists it supports. euellajackson.com 42 Art Against Knives Art Against Knives (AAK) specialises in violence intervention and prevention work to stop young people in London from becoming victims or perpetrators of crime, and helps build creative spaces including a music studio, podcasting rooms and multiple nail bars, which have been used by more than 2,000 young people. A team of creative professionals provides skills training, mentoring and specialist support.…

61 Care Leavers National Movement The Care Leavers National Movement (CLNM) is a unique, user-led initiative made up of young care leavers from Local House Projects across England and Scotland. They challenge and influence leaving care services on a local and national level to improve outcomes for young people leaving care across the country. Their nominator wrote: “CLNM’s focus is on positive achievements, raising expectations and inspiring young people and support services to do their best for young people. Being part of CLNM enables young people to access a range of opportunities that they might not otherwise experience.” clnm.co.uk 62 Matthew Torbitt Torbitt has personal experience of homelessness and the criminal justice system. He has consistently advocated for the end of homelessness and criminal justice reform, highlighting how these issues…

81 Charlotte R Faulconbridge, 25 YOUNG CHANGEMAKER Faulconbridge (above) is a bestselling author, award-winning poet, spoken word artist, a TEDx presenter and a finalist for the BBC’s Make a Difference Award. She founded Inclusive Creatives, an online space that shines a light on “unacknowledged talent in the disabled community”. Due to birth complications, Faulconbridge was born mute and relied on sign language as a child. Poetry has enabled her to verbally express herself. Now, she gives other people “a voice through creativity” which is a vital tool for self-expression. Her nominator writes: “We need more people like Charlotte in the world to show that whatever barriers we may face, we can overcome them.” @charlotterobynf inclusivecreatives.co.uk 82 Paula Peters Peters is a disabled activist who works every day to fight…

Having exceeded 39 billion streams globally, Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi is the most-streamed classical artist of all time, and his monthly listeners on Spotify surpass those of classical giants like Mozart and Beethoven. When I was 16, I was in the middle of a turbulence because I was not interested in normal school at all, and this created a conflict with my parents. This is basically when, because I had been making music already for a few years, I understood that music was the only way for me to, in a way, to survive, to live. Because it was the only thing that I really wanted to stay with and study. And so this was a moment of big decisions for me. In my early life, I liked…

Angelina Jolie’s Maria Callas stares across Paris through oversized, ‘milk-bottle’ bottomed lenses that exaggerate her blackened pupils. The spectacles anchor us in the late Seventies, at a time the soprano is suffering from anorexia, addiction and the loss of her voice – a formerly voluptuous sound that lit up opera houses and record players around the world. Pablo Larraín’s film Maria – the latest instalment in his triptych of ‘glamorous women having nervous breakdowns’, following Jackie (Jackie Kennedy) and Spencer (Princess Diana) – hems in Callas’s final week, a drug-fuelled swirl of hallucination and humiliation. Central to this period are sessions with a pianist; a potential comeback is indicated, then swept aside, as Callas’s vocal decline becomes painfully apparent. Any biopic about a musician faces a challenge: should the score…

JINX I started selling Big Issue before Covid. I stopped, but I became homeless again, so I came back. They let me have my old pitch back. It was a godsend, really, because the worst thing about being homeless is doing nothing, just sitting around. When I came back to selling, all my customers came flooding back. It’s really nice to see them – when you see somebody every day, then you don’t see them for five years, it’s nice when you see them again. I’m 45 or 46 – I haven’t celebrated a birthday since I was 11. I’ve been an orphan since then. As soon as I was 16, I was out on the road. I’m actually from Dundee in Scotland. But I don’t class that as home,…