Fighting blindness through education
Empowering children to raise awareness of avoidable blindness in their local communities.
Wellbeing for social tenants
Helps social housing tenants in Conwy, north Wales, find long-term employment and financial security; it also provides volunteering opportunities, training and qualifications.
Tackling the UK’s culture of alcohol
A nationwide movement to help people cut their intake or become alcohol-free. Also supports alcohol-free alternatives in bars and other social venues.
An example of a Beauty Banks donation. Photograph: Instagram/Beauty Banks
Hygiene essentials for those in need
Volunteers target “hygiene poverty” by distributing donated essential toiletries including tampons and shampoo, and shower gel to people lacking them.
Keeping musical education alive
Group of music tutors providing teaching and activities for children in north Wales, following local authority cutbacks.
Assisting farmers with technology
Simple apps that support small- to medium-scale farmers to build ecology, profitability and beauty on their farms. Accompanied by a podcast, Farmerama Radio, sharing the voices of farmers from the UK and beyond.
Justice for the deaths of those in care
Investigates the deaths of individuals with learning difficulties while in care. Also works with the families and live-tweets inquests.
Cheaper medicine
Campaigns for medication to be more cost-accessible. Methods have included publicising patients’ stories in an effort to bring about change in the health sector and address the pricing strategies of large pharmaceutical companies.
A resource for new businesses
Dagenham-based platform that provides funding for businesses and brings together communities through activities and shared enterprise.
Breast milk for vulnerable babies
East Anglia-based social enterprise external to the NHS founded by Dr Natalie Shenker and Gillian Weaver in 2017, this is a bank for donor milk, providing donor milk to sick and prematurely born infants.
Social awareness through games
Founded in 2017, Kippie, in Derry, is a technological initiative that develops computer games with a focus on social issues. Workshops teach methods of game design and stimulate discussion of issues such as LGBT rights and racism and racism using the content of the games.
Environmental activism via innovative methods
Bristol-based campaigner who raises awareness through original video content.
Preventing sexual abuse in football
Founded in 2016 in response to a wave of reported sexual abuse against youth players, the trust provides support and works to make the sport safer for children.
Socially conscious recycling
Provides work for people with autism and supports the local economy in Tayside.
#ToyLikeMe co-founder Karen Newell with her son. Photograph: toylikeme.org
Inclusive play for children with disabilities
Nonprofit organisation that aims to broaden representation for children with disabilities and provide a more relatable experience. Toys incorporate disabilities into their features. Based in Norwich and York.
Support for single mothers in temporary accommodation
For mothers with children under five at risk of homelessness in London; offers a playgroup and a healthy lunch.
Brings migrants closer to the community
Migrateful runs cookery classes where refugees and asylum seekers teach their traditional cuisines, offering them the chance to learn English, make friends, build their confidence and gain meaningful work experience.
Equality for working mothers
Joeli Brearley’s network, based in Manchester but working across the UK, promotes the rights of working mothers; it offers a free legal advice line, a mentoring scheme and now has 31,000 members. Last year the project held its first festival, which sold out in four days.
Grenfell survivors and leaders of Grenfell United Natasha Elcock and Shahin Sadafy. Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian
Campaigning and preventing future disaster
Grenfell survivors and families of victims who campaign for combustible materials to be removed from homes and awareness of the problems of social housing tenants.
Understanding through art
Founded by a collective of street artists, this programme links young people from different communities in Derry to improve creative skills and promote integration.
Tackling ethnic inequalities in severe mental illness
A national initiative and digital campaign, collaborating with commissioners, policymakers, politicians, journalists, as well as public service providers, citizens and those experiencing mental distress, to deliver a vision to help eradicate ethnic inequalities in severe mental illness
Accessible housing
Ascheme in Bristol that seeks to develop houses in previously unused areas, using local labour and sustainable construction. Plans have been made to replicate this model for areas outside of Bristol in the foreseeable future. Plans to expand beyond the city.
Awareness of “invisible illnesses”
Ainsworth’s campaign for greater recognition in schools of illnesses whose symptoms are not immediately obvious; in collaboration with young people as well as professionals.
Financial wellbeing for refugees
Helps refugeesto integrate better through improving their language skills, andoffering sustainable loans and employment opportunities.
Understanding autism
Fifteen-year-old Siena Castellon campaigns for autism awareness in schools, as well as conducting research to benefit people living with autism.
Improving healthcare
Durham midwife Jane Douthwaite aims to change NHS procedures and general practice through use of innovation.
Supporting libraries
A Devon community-owned charity that works to keep public libraries open.
Improvements to end-of-life care
A designer aiming to shape a human-centric approach to the experience of dying, bereavement and grief. At the Helix Centre in St Mary’s hospital, London, Williams works to create a more personal system of hospice care.
Support for abuse survivors
A support network for survivors of sexual violence and domestic abuse, Angles hosts talks between survivors and journalists to change the discourse on sexual violence and domestic abuse.
Choirs for all
Cockerton brings singers from many backgrounds to stage concerts in unconventional venues around Cambridge. Profits go to beneficial social projects, and there are plans to broaden the scheme to a wider demographic of disadvantaged youths.
Support for working mothers
Aims to give women the freedom to have children as well as a successful working life. Founded by Verena Hefti, the London-based social enterprisethat addresses gender equality in the workplace.
Innovative social care
A national initiative to provide social care clients with more personal freedom. It specialises in recruiting carers who aim to integrate clients better within the community via activities and events.
Using VR in physical rehab
A physical rehabilitation programme with VR forwellbeing. Steps are being taken to make the service more commercially available.
App to assist the deaf in public
Offers pre-recorded sign language videos that can be played in public places such as museums and banks.
Improving aid
With transparency at the centre of its organisation, Disberse tracks humanitarian aid to ensure it arrives, and is used properly. Founded by Ben Joakim and Paul Currion, the fund-management platform aims to improve the speed and accuracy of aid distribution worldwide.
Volunteer-led building projects
Following 10 years of community volunteering in Plymouth, Hannah Sloggett and Wendy Hart’s project to regenerate an entire street for the benefit of the local community.
Education through music
Uses rock camps to encourage confidence in girls, women and trans people in the music industry, through a course that involves learning and creating music as well as workshops on subjects such as feminism and body image.
Artists against the arms trade
A protest movement that scrutinises the international arms fair in London.
For survivors of sexual exploitation
A Bradford project that supports young women at risk, offering long-term advice and legal assistance.
Awareness of local social issues through the arts
An immersive community play, inspired by the people behind Port Talbot’s Save Our Steel campaign, developed by arts initiative Common Wealth. The cast includes actors and steelworkers.
Healthy eating via group meals
A Leeds project that brings people together for meals to combat child obesity and diabetes. Works to remove economic barriers to healthy eating.
Improving cycling
Sarah Drummond’s project CycleHack brings cyclists and designers together to test ideas and make urban areas more accessible.
• This article was amended on 17 September 2018 to clarify the description of Abby Rose, Synergi Collaborative Centre, Pregnant Then Screwed and Migrateful.
