Social Change in 2024
We kicked off the year with peers from across the UK social change sector and an expert panel breaking down the trends, strategies, tools and tactics for winning change in the year ahead. Over 100 journalists, lawyers and campaigners joined us to share their top tips and predictions for social change makers in 2024 - who to follow, what to look out for and what election year means for campaigners.
Our expert panel included:
Kwajo Tweneboa, a social housing activist who through his online videos has highlighted the appalling conditions some housing providers have kept hidden. He started campaigning for change for his own family, then his estate and his videos have grown from there. He now is contacted daily by people wanting him to help their cases - and I’m pretty sure heis the name that most social housing landlords fear hearing. He’s also campaigning for national change, meeting politicians from all sides. And this year his new book ‘Our Country In Crisis’ will be published.
Matthew McGregor, CEO of 38 Degrees, a people-powered movement of a million people
who campaign together for a fairer, more respectful and more sustainable country. Matthew
has spent his career fighting for social justice and progressive causes. He’s a leading expert
on digital campaigning, having spent time at Blue State Digital and rapid response for
Obama’s. He’s also served as Director of Campaigns at Hope Not Hate, which campaigns
against racism and worked for trade unions and for centre-left political parties and
candidates in countries around the world.
Raju Bhatt, one of the founders of Bhatt Murphy. He specialises in providing help to members of the public who seek accountability from the state and its officers, with a focus on families who have lost their loved ones through death in custody. He was a member of the Hillsborough Independent Panel which reported to the Home Secretary in 2012, and the Reference Group on the Independent Review of Deaths and Serious Incidents in Police Custody which reported to the Home Secretary in 2017. Since 2020, he has been one of two Assessors assisting Lord Bracadale in the public inquiry into the 2015 police restraint related death of Sheku Bayoh in Scotland. Raju is also one of the founding members of the Police Action Lawyers Group (PALG) and Inquest Lawyers Group (ILG). Raju also sits on the the Law for Change Fund’s expert legal panel.
Ros Wynne-Jones, an award-winning journalist, columnist and writer. She writes the
Daily Mirror’s campaigning ‘Real Britain’ column. She has also been behind a series of
groundbreaking journalism projects including – Britain Talks, bringing people together across
the Brexit divide, the Wigan Pier Project, retracing George Orwell’s steps across the UK, and
in 2023 set up The Mirror’s People Move that tells the stories behind the word “migrant”
through objects refugees and asylum seekers brought with them to the UK.
Thank you to all who came to this inaugural Link for Change event.
