Inside the Big Issue: Meet our 2026 Changemakers

Every year, we celebrate the people who step forward. The Big Issue 100 Changemakers list is our tribute to those who see what is broken, unjust or overlooked, and decide to act. They do not wait for permission. They do not wait for perfect conditions. They get on with it.

Across communities large and small, from council estates to rural villages, hospital wards to skate parks, courtrooms to classrooms, this year’s Changemakers are building what institutions too often fail to provide.

They are creating community-owned spaces where services have disappeared. They are turning lived experience of care, disability, migration, violence or homelessness into policy change. They are challenging corporate power, defending rivers and seas, amplifying underrepresented voices, and insisting that dignity is not negotiable.

These are our 100 Changemakers of 2026.

What else is in this week’s Big Issue?

Do kids feel safe? We went to school with the victims’ minister to find out

Who feels safe walking around here at night? Just three of the 18 sixth formers around the table put their hand up, and they’re all boys. Asking the questions at Stepney All Saints School in East London are the victims’ minister Alex Davies-Jones and children’s commissioner Rachel de Souza. Big Issue came along.

Ben Shephard’s letter to my younger self

The television presenter no longer goes jumping off waterfalls, and he didn’t become the next Steve McQueen. But it all turned out ok.

“When I was 16, I would take physical risks and do stupid stuff, but I didn’t take risks with who I was,” she said. “I have found the confidence to do that now by virtue of the world I work in. It’s a symptom of my need to constantly be stimulated by new things.”

‘There was a fire in me when I learned what women go through’

Posy Sterling has a talent that is hard to forget. Her performance in 2025 film Lollipop as Molly, a mother who leaves prison into homelessness and is refused custody of her children, is visceral and harrowing. We chatted to her about her breakout moment and the fury she feels at a Broken system.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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