Ren Yi Hooi, Lightning Reach. Image: Belinda Walshe
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From upskilling prison leavers to teaching financial literacy to kids, these Changemakers are unlocking futures.
Ren Yi Hooi, Lightning Reach
Lightning Reach is a tech for good startup – backed by Big Issue Invest’s Growth Impact Fund – which has made an impact at scale, enabling individuals in financial need to secure over £17m in financial support. Founded by Ren Yi Hooi, its financial support portal makes it easy for people to find and apply for a wide range of personalised support including charitable grants, help with bills and other resources – and has reached more than 160,000 registered users. Lighting Reach partners with more than 50 charities, local authorities, housing associations and utility providers to streamline or enhance the support they offer to vulnerable people.
What is your big issue and how are you trying to tackle it?
At Lightning Reach, we connect people with personalised financial support to help them avoid crises and build financial resilience. Twenty million people are financially vulnerable, yet more than £23bn in benefits, grants, social tariffs and other support gets missed out each year due to lack of awareness and complex application processes. We enable people to find and apply for a wide range of support through a simple, streamlined digital platform – covering over 2,500 support schemes across the UK.
What’s the one thing you want people to know about your work?
We’re always keen to work with new partners looking to make a real difference to their residents and clients, so do get in touch to explore a partnership if you work in this space, or refer someone who does! Collaboration is key to scaling our impact – joining up the vast ecosystem of organisations which touch the lives of financially vulnerable people will enable more people to access more support, all in one place.
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Do you have any memorable moments from 2024?
In 2024, we hit a milestone of reaching over 150,000 individuals and facilitating over £17m in funding with our partners. It was incredible to see the real-life impact less than three years after launching the Lightning Reach portal. Another highlight was seeing Lord John Bird speak at an event we hosted in June – and having the opportunity to meet him in parliament on a few occasions after that! As a female, minority and immigrant founder, it was also a pinch-me moment to be featured on real-life billboards as part of the Female Founders Rise “You’ve got what it takes” campaign.
What are your plans for 2025?
Our main goal at Lightning Reach in 2025 is to grow the number of people helped, by expanding our partnerships across the local government, housing, charity, utility and financial service sectors to support over 250,000 individuals. In Q1, we are continuing to run our Winter Warmth Network to help more people access support with their energy costs. We’ve already facilitated £1m since launching this winter and believe this is particularly urgent with the recent spate of cold weather and energy bills rising further. We also have a few exciting product developments in the pipeline, with an aim to support partner organisations through the end-to-end journey from reaching and engaging financially vulnerable individuals to the fulfilment of support.
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.
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Deputy CEO Gemma Creamer, Co-founder Kate Aubrey-Johnson and Co-founder and CEO Lucy Barnes. Credit: ETB Media
Marie-Claire O’Brien, New Leaf Initiative
Since her time in prison, Marie-Claire 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 to support those with barriers to employment as they rebuild their lives. Its services are designed to help individuals stabilise, upskill and gain employment reducing reoffending and promoting lasting change.
Leon Juice, My Duvet Flip
Embarking on your career is a daunting process for most, but not for this trailblazing Young Changemaker Leon Juice, the 24-year-old co-founder of My Duvet Flip. The weekly career show he produces, alongside host Jack Parsons, has delivered careers advice to an incredible seven million people, inspiring them to take charge of their futures. His nominator wrote: “Leon’s work is profoundly relevant in modern day Britain, a time when young people are facing unprecedented challenges in navigating work, financial literacy, and health. Youth unemployment is rising and access to career opportunities is limited. Juice has created practical and impactful solutions that directly address these issues.”
Fahima Danishmal, Thurrock Training Consultancy
Originally from Afghanistan before arriving in the UK 25 years ago, Fahima Danishmal has been committed to empowering women and supporting Afghan communities. While also raising three children, she is CEO and co-founder of Thurrock Training Consultancy (TTC), whose goal is to get as many individuals as possible from diverse backgrounds into universities, and also offering practical and emotional support. As well as continuing this vitally important work, Danishmal is also doing her own law degree and anticipates having her book telling “the real stories of Afghan women”, Hidden Tears in the Ocean’s Heart, translated into English this year, bringing their voices to a global audience.
Find the rest of the Changemakers series on the links below and pick up the magazine from your local Big Issue vendor.
A CIC specialising in supporting neurodivergent adults and the organisations that employ them, Genius Within’s work covers a wide range of sectors, including criminal justice, social justice, government and private businesses. The core aim of this organisation is not just to identify the psychological barriers faced by neurodiverse people in education and employment contexts, but to celebrate the unique qualities and strengths their difference brings to the table. Showcasing the community in a positive light has empowering consequences, demonstrated by the organisation itself: more than 65% of people working at Genius Within are neurodivergent or have a disability.
Dan Whyte
Dan Whyte, Doing What Really Matters
Evidence clearly points to the positive impact of promoting education in prisons: improved post-release outcomes which contribute to the tax pot rather than draw from it. It also massively reduces reoffending rates. Dan Whyte is an inspirational leader, a doctoral student of criminology, and the co-director of Doing What Really Matters (DWRM), which promotes further and higher education in prisons. In 2023, DWRM received £150,000 in funding from the Growth Impact Fund, a social impact investment fund developed by Big Issue Invest and UnLtd. Whyte’s organisation continues to support people who have been in prison following their release as they make the transition back into society. Having lived experience of the criminal justice system himself, he is working to bring about cultures of acceptance within universities and places of employment to address the stigma of a criminal conviction, encourage organisations to see the person beyond the crime and ensure disclosure processes are properly managed.
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England Illegal Money Lending Team
It is estimated that there are 1.08 million people in debt to illegal money lenders in England. The Illegal Money Lending Team works to raise awareness of what illegal money is while investigating and prosecuting loan sharks. To date the team have supported over 32,000 people in England and successfully written off upwards of £91m of illegal debt. These specialists began as a pilot scheme investigating loan sharks in Birmingham over 20 years ago. In the cost of living crisis more and more people have had to resort to using predatory illegal money leaders. Alongside the investigation and prosecutions the team pursues, they have designed free resources so people can better identify and then protect themselves from financial crime.
Marc Gardiner, Zebra Collective
Marc Gardiner is one of seven co-founders of Zebra Collective in Plymouth, a Devon-based cooperative. It provides training in areas such as trauma-informed mental health and wellbeing. Recently, Zebra has taken on a community centre in Devonport, running a youth group and other community projects from there. To his nominator Gardiner is a “role model” as somebody who has “devoted their life to bringing about change” in order to “tackle social injustices in innovative ways”.
OnSide
OnSide is a youth charity raising funds to build a network of youth centres in disadvantaged areas. Since 2008 they have raised millions and developed partnerships nationwide to establish a network of ‘Youth Zones’. CEO Jamie Masraff previously told Big Issue: “We believe children deserve the best environment in which to thrive. There are at least 20 activities in each Youth Zone every evening. A teenager might come in to dunk balls on the basketball court, but discover the enterprise club and a talent for business.”
