The needs of displaced people arriving in the UK are complex. But these Changemakers are stepping up to advocate for them, as well as offering practical help and a warm welcome.
Fair Shot FC
Fair Shot FC are a team united by their passion for football, who are all refugees and people seeking asylum from Afghanistan, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Namibia, Senegal, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Syria and The Gambia. Fair Shot launched in May of 2024, but the players who make up Fair Shot FC come from a range of grassroots football projects working with refugees and asylum seekers around the country that have existed for many years. Fair Shot partners with major clubs across England, to demonstrate the positive power of football in uniting people on and off the pitch. Friendly five-a-side games with partner clubs spark positive relationships with and conversations about the experience of refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK. Though in its infancy, the positive potential is clear, and is endorsed by Comic Relief and the Refugee Council. We spoke to Fair Shot’s campaign manager Luke Stewart.
What is your big issue and how are you trying to tackle it?
Fair Shot is a storytelling campaign that uses the shared language of football to create awareness and understanding of the experiences of refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK. At the heart of this movement is Fair Shot FC, a team made up of players who have fled to the UK due to war and/or persecution in their home countries and have come together through the positive impact football has on their lives. Throughout this season, Fair Shot FC are travelling to major football clubs around the country to team up with local fans to play the game they love, create connections and inform understanding. Through engaging with these clubs and sharing content across Fair Shot’s social media channels we are showing that within the football community and beyond we have far more in common than what divides us.
What’s the one thing you want people to know about your work?
No matter where we come from, everyone deserves a fair shot. We are building a movement of people united by this belief to make the UK a more accepting and welcoming place for refugees and people seeking asylum. We want people to get involved by joining the movement and following the Fair Shot journey on our social media channels. And if you’re a fan of one of Fair Shot’s partner clubs, why not enter our competition to team up on the pitch with Fair Shot FC?
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Do you have any memorable moments from 2024?
In October the team had their first matchday of the season at Rotherham United, teaming up with a group of the club’s fans for a friendly five-a-side match, training and other football challenges. It was amazing to see the campaign come alive on the pitch. Within the first half-hour the team and fans were playing together, laughing and building instant connections through their passion for football and fairness.
What are your plans for 2025?
In 2025 Fair Shot FC’s season will pick up the pace with further matchdays with fans at Preston North End, Sheffield Wednesday, QPR and Wolves. We’re excited to introduce these fanbases to Fair Shot FC and reach other fans across the country as we follow the journey of our players through the rest of the season.
2024 Changmaker Sam Pordale with Warwick STAR’s co-president, Eloïse Bui
Last year, Sam Pordale and Angel Nakhle were recognised as Big Issue Changemakers, thanks to their volunteer work with Warwick’s Student Action for Refugees (Warwick STAR). This year, Sam nominated the organisation itself for our Top 100 list. Warwick STAR is committed to building a welcoming environment for asylum seekers and refugees in the UK and within higher education. It supports refugees as they integrate into communities, and provides safe spaces to learn English. Sam writes that Warwick STAR has “proudly mobilised” around 25 volunteers every week of term time, and more than 110 students to deliver three volunteering projects in collaboration with Coventry City Council and Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre.
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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 arriving in Liverpool from Kosovo. Today, it offers advocacy to help with benefit applications, support with applications for housing, emergency financial and destitution support. Once a person is out of crisis the network can offer employability support when resources allow. They also offer community support to refugee diaspora communities.
TogetherintheUK
In 2016, Teresa Norman decided to form a charity to help migrants by providing a platform for them to tell their stories. Its mission was twofold: to offer an unbiased space for migrants and refugees to safely share their stories while giving them reliable advice and insights into life in the UK. During Covid-19, it organised online events to support migrants through loneliness and isolation, including putting on photography competitions and storytelling events – the latter resulting in the publication of an anthology, Hear Our Stories. TogetherintheUK continues to be active in the migration space, which its nominator says is “thanks to Teresa’s dynamism and leadership”.
Migrants In Culture
Migrants In Culture is a design agency led by artists and organisers with experience of the UK’s “hostile” immigration system. The agency prioritises “the imagination of those most oppressed” to “reclaim the power of art and culture as integral to social change”. Their nominator said their work is “crucial in the healing of marginalised peoples and communities from state-sponsored oppressions”.
Refugee Education UK
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 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.”
Find the rest of the Changemakers series on the links below and pick up the magazine from your local Big Issue vendor.
In an increasingly fragmented Britain, Help the World Oxford (HTWO) brings together communities and preaches love not hate, writes their nominator. Founded by Ayesha Abbasi in 2020, HTWO is a group of young people united in the face of Islamophobia. Their work includes raising thousands to welcome refugees, creating care packages and hosting fundraisers. Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is also a fan, having joined them at a local pro-Palestine protest back in 2021.
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The Launchpad Collective
Steered by refugees for refugees, The Launchpad Collective (TLC) is a recruitment platform between employers and refugee talent. The Brighton-based collective (above) received the most nominations of any Changemaker this year, with multiple people writing in to celebrate the organisation’s impact. TLC believes that “refugees are good for business”, not only because of the skills, diversity and reliability they bring, but also because “more consumers are supporting businesses that hire them”. The organisation understands that refugees “need so much more than training”, they need to “feel part of a family” as so often they arrive in this country alone. One of their nominators said: “I have followed their work since they started as just two people in 2020. What they have achieved in a short amount of time is astonishing.”
Isobelle Ford
Ford is the founder of Skylight Ventures, which offers interest-free business loans and financial literacy training to refugees. They have distributed more than £55,000 in micro loans to 62 entrepreneurs, with 64% of projects funded being female-led. Their goal over the next year is to distribute £500,000 in micro loans to 450 refugee entrepreneurs. Their nominator explained, “Isobelle has employed refugee champions to influence the direction and strategy of the project, to make sure it stays community-led and so that refugee beneficiaries can ensure it is meeting their needs. By continuing to bring more of these champions into the organisation, the project can bring refugee voices into conversations about financial exclusion.”
Somali Adult Social Care Agency
In 1991, the outbreak of civil war in Somalia forced more than 36,000 Somali people to flee to England and Wales. Around 6,000 of those found refuge in Manchester, with many settling in Moss Side, just south of the city centre. Somali Adult Social Care Agency (SASCA) was founded in 2007 to help identify and meet the needs of Somalis in Manchester, through a mixture of advocacy and advice, they work to deal with any issue that clients bring. Profiled by Big Issue in 2024, trustee Dave Porter said that the organisation sees 340-400 people a week.
