2015

Harry Potter author JK Rowling was inspired to help institutionalised children after reading about children in caged beds in the Czech Republic. She promptly set up what would later become Lumos – a charity that works to end the systematic institutionalisation of children around the world and see them placed instead into safe, caring environments.

Since Barbara Frost joined WaterAid as chief executive in September 2005, the global NGO has increased its coverage from 15 countries in Asia and Africa to 37 and more than trebled its income from £27m a year to £83m. Now it has just launched an ambitious new five-year strategy that aims to ensure that universal access to safe water and sanitation is included in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the overarching aim of which is to eradicate extreme poverty worldwide by 2030.

The League’s Books for Prisoners campaign began organically, with a conversation between the charity and author Mark Haddon on social media, which led to a letter to the MoJ signed by leading authors. At the same time a Change.org petition, independent of the charity, garnered tens of thousands of signatures and the Poet Laureate staged a reading outside Pentonville Prison.

The Lowry started with the Walkabout Project, which ran from 2006 to 2011, to engage with people in local community settings. It followed this up with bespoke projects aimed at targeted groups such as young carers and young people who are not in employment, education or training. Since 2011 it has worked with more than 300 vulnerable and disadvantaged young people to help them develop skills and confidence. Many of those have gone on to take part in further training.

Safer London Foundation was set up to improve the safety and wellbeing of young people in London affected by violence and crime. The charity’s Empower project addresses sexual exploitation of girls by gangs, providing prevention measures and interventions to empower them to make positive life choices.

The Disabilities Trust sought to quantify the extent to which brain injuries were the cause of social and personal problems, including the risk of homelessness and contact with the criminal justice system, and carried out the UK’s first ever prevalence study of brain injury in a homeless population.

Parkinson’s UK developed an accredited learning programme for care staff after carrying out a survey which revealed that many sufferers felt care was not being provided by people who understood the condition. The charity also discovered that there was no accredited learning available.

Cool Earth works alongside indigenous villages to halt rainforest destruction. Its Ashaninka project in Peru aimed to protect 5,000 acres of Amazonian rainforest but has already protected 137,000 acres.

Cumbria Community Foundation’s Neighbourhood Care Independence Programme (NCIP) has delivered £1m in public sector savings and helped almost 30,000 vulnerable adults and older people in Cumbria to maintain their independence.

The Foundation for Womens’ Health Research and Development (Forward) has worked on the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM) since 1983. There are around 137,000 women living with FGM in the UK and 60,000 girls are considered to be at risk. Despite this, a 2013 NSPCC poll of 1,000 teachers revealed that 83 per cent of teachers had never received safeguarding training on the topic, and only 16 per cent knew it was illegal.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling was inspired to help institutionalised children after reading about children in caged beds in the Czech Republic. She promptly set up what would later become Lumos – a charity that works to end the systematic institutionalisation of children around the world and see them placed instead into safe, caring environments.

Ten years ago, ex-bank robber Steve Finn met Mick May, an ex-banker, and the two of them decided to do something about the ‘revolving prison door’ problem that sees nearly two-thirds of all offenders released from prison go on to commit more crime within two years. They set up Blue Sky, “the only company in the country where you need a criminal record to work there” – an employment agency that provides labour for entry-level vacancies within local authorities and, more recently, private sector firms that deliver public services.