Goal 1
No Poverty
Nobody should be unable to afford food, heat or a roof over their head. This is the money underneath everything else.
Close to home it looks like food banks, fuel poverty, and people who are in work and still can't make the month add up.
The wins
- The share of workers living in extreme poverty fell from 11% in 2015 to 7.9% in 2025.
- For the first time on record, more than half the world's population receives at least one social protection benefit.
The challenges
- 826 million people, one in ten worldwide, were living in extreme poverty in 2026.
- On current trends 9% of the world will still be in extreme poverty in 2030.
- Aid aimed at poverty reduction has fallen back to 2015 levels, erasing a decade of progress.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Look closer at this goal
Where the poverty actually is
The headline is a world average, and the world is not average. Almost all of what is left is in one place.
- 71% of the world's extreme poor now live in sub-Saharan Africa, and four in five of those still poor in 2030 will be there or in a country in conflict.
- Extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa rose two percentage points during the pandemic and only came back to where it started in 2025.
- Working poverty stood at around 40% in sub-Saharan Africa and the least developed countries in 2025. In Central and Southern Asia it fell from 15.9% in 2015 to 5.2% in 2025.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Which half of the safety net
More than half the world being covered sounds like the job is half done. It depends entirely on who you are at the point you need it.
- Old-age pensions reached 79.6% of people past retirement age in 2023. Unemployment protection reached 16.7% of unemployed people, up 1.3 percentage points in nearly a decade.
- 28.2% of children received a family benefit in 2023, and 36.4% of mothers with newborns received maternity benefit.
- Social assistance grew fastest, reaching 37.3% of vulnerable people in 2023, up 10.6 percentage points since 2015.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Where the money went
The aid that goes specifically at poverty is one of the few figures here you can watch turn, and it turned last year.
- Aid for poverty reduction fell 8.7% between 2023 and 2024, to $19.1 billion, returning to 2015 levels.
- Basic health aid alone dropped $1.5 billion between 2023 and 2024. Food assistance fell 11% to $1.0 billion over the same year, education 9% to $3.1 billion. Only water and sanitation grants grew, up 7% to $3.4 billion.
- All of it together came to 0.02% of donor countries' gross national income in 2024, a share that has not moved since 2015.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
How fast this used to move
Poverty fell for twenty-five years at a pace nobody has matched since, which is why the current numbers read the way they do.
- The global poverty rate fell by an average of 1.1 percentage points a year, from 37.8% to 11.2% in 2014.
- Between 2014 and 2019 that pace slowed to 0.6 percentage points a year.
- In 2020, 71 million more people were living in extreme poverty than the year before.
- Between 2013 and 2022 the number of children living on less than $2.15 a day fell from 383 million to 333 million.
Ending Poverty, UN Global Issues Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Ending Poverty, UN Global Issues
Look closer at the UK
After the rent is paid
The UK measures poverty by what a household has left once its housing is paid for, and on that measure it rose in the year to March 2025.
- 20% of people were in relative low income after housing costs in the year to March 2025, up from 19% the year before.
- 27% of children were in relative low income after housing costs in the year to March 2025.
- The share of children in material deprivation fell from 28% to 24% in the year to March 2025.
Department for Work and Pensions, Households below average income, FYE 1995 to FYE 2025. Covers UK. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Trussell
United Kingdom
Checked 7 September 2026
Supports a network of more than 1,300 independent local food banks across the United Kingdom.
ABALOBI
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2023Revive Our Oceans
South Africa
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa
See the countries
Seychelles, South Africa, Namibia
Checked 19 September 2026
Non-profit partnership between small-scale fishers and scientists, founded in South Africa, whose app lets fishers record their catch, prove sustainable practice, earn fairer prices and build a picture of ocean health.
Pole Pole Foundation
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2021Protect & Restore Nature
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Checked 10 September 2026
Foundation set up in 1992 tackling the causes of deforestation and poaching rather than the symptoms, through farming projects, work with former poachers, conservation education and replanting.
The Hunger Project
United States
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean
See the countries
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Peru
Confirmed active 8 September 2026
The global office of The Hunger Project, in New York, which sets programme strategy across thirteen countries and is the parent of eight fundraising country offices.
Disclosed connection: Past, lapsed. Founder was a member of Unleashed Women and fundraised via the ArcelorMittal Orbit abseil in September 2023.
Telford Crisis Support
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Telford, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-led since 2013, giving people in crisis in Telford food support, a baby and toddler bank, winter coats and shoes, school uniform and help with gas and electricity, with a link worker for pensioners.
Mid Cheshire Foodbank
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Winsford, Cheshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Emergency food and support for local people in crisis across mid Cheshire since 2012. Its own figures report 76,020 meals to 910 households in a year, and its Winsford warehouse takes food donations on weekdays.
Burton HOPE
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-run help for people in crisis in Burton upon Trent: three-day emergency food parcels, clothing, toiletries and help getting ID, with support for people facing mental health or addiction problems. Moved into Hope House in 2026.
Heart of Tamworth
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Tamworth, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A Tamworth community charity since 2012 running a community cafe, a pantry and a pre-loved clothes store, and supporting people facing food poverty, dementia, addiction, bereavement, homelessness and loneliness.
Signposts
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Stafford, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Community action in Stafford, Stone and Cannock: food banks, Open House for older people, the Storehouse furniture project, practical help with decorating and gardening, and guidance on debt, benefits and bills.
Nechells POD
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Nechells, Birmingham
Checked 1 October 2026
A community hub in Nechells, Birmingham, with a Thursday food bank, a welfare and benefits service, ESOL classes, children's activities and coffee mornings, and home to Bloomsbury Library.
Helping Hands Community Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Leamington Spa charity, founded in 2015, running a soup kitchen and breakfast club that serve two meals a day, plus men's and women's support groups, counselling and a charity shop for people facing homelessness and hardship.
Hope4
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Rugby, Warwickshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Rugby charity running the Hope Centre, a day centre on Newbold Road with food, showers, laundry, a clinic room and casework on housing, benefits and budgeting, plus Rugby Foodbank. A winter shelter runs December to March with the borough council.
Hope City Furniture
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Derby, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Derby charity giving free furniture and household items to people rehoused after a crisis, by referral only. It collects donated furniture free of charge so usable items stay out of landfill.
The Hummingbird Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Glossop, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Free clothing, baby and hygiene bank in Glossop where people take what they need from a shop-style space, open Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10am to 2pm. It says it has re-gifted over 2 million donated items.
Aspire 2 Inspire Communities CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Rochdale, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs a food pantry, food bank and hot meals from Regent Street in Rochdale, alongside debt and benefits advice, youth clubs, Duke of Edinburgh groups and a clothes bank for refugees. Community work began in 2005 and the CIC was formed in 2019.
Caritas Diocese of Salford
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Salford, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
The Catholic Diocese of Salford's charity, covering Greater Manchester and Lancashire, with housing and homelessness projects, a community pantry and allotment, energy advice, and support for refugees and people seeking asylum. Anyone can ask for help or volunteer.
Helping Hearts Fylde
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Blackpool, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Opens every Thursday in Blackpool with a food bank, pantry, baby bank, clothing bank, pet bank and hot meals, with no referral needed. It began as street outreach in 2020 and now serves over 170 people a week.
Hartlepool Baby Bank
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Hartlepool, County Durham
Confirmed active 22 September 2026
Collects clothes, toys and equipment for babies and children and gives them to families in Hartlepool with under-fives or a pregnant parent. Open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 10am to 2pm, by referral from health visitors and others or self-referral.
Shildon Alive
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Shildon, County Durham
Confirmed active 13 July 2026
Community hub at 91-95 Church Street, Shildon, with a community shop and takeaway open Monday to Friday, a food bank, credit union and advocacy support, a dementia cafe and activities for children in school holidays.
Northumberland Log Bank
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Haydon Bridge, Northumberland
Not confirmed by us for 6 months
Volunteers collect donated wood, season it and deliver logs free to households in rural Northumberland that struggle to heat their homes, from October to March. Log banks at Crookham and Haydon Bridge deliver on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Bede's Helping Hands Food Bank
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Jarrow, Tyne and Wear
Confirmed active 18 September 2026
Food bank in Jarrow serving the Bede ward and wider South Tyneside from the former Primrose Library on Glasgow Road, giving out food parcels and period products and running cooking classes and food drives.
Love, Amelia
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Sunderland, Tyne and Wear
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Passes on pre-loved and new clothing, equipment and toys for babies and children to partner organisations and families in poverty across the North East. Founded in Sunderland in 2018 and registered as a charity in 2019.
Berwick Community Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland
Confirmed active 22 September 2026
A Berwick-upon-Tweed charity that runs the town's food bank, gives benefits advice, and offers advice and training to people looking for work, from the William Elder Building on Castlegate.
AberNecessities
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire
Confirmed active 7 June 2026
Collects and hands out nappies, toiletries, clothing and other essentials to families with children across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. Its site says it has supported over 20,000 children since 2019, and it takes drop-off donations, volunteers and fundraisers.
Broxbourne Foodbank
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Cheshunt, Hertfordshire
Confirmed active 2 September 2026
Gives emergency food parcels to people in crisis who are referred with a voucher in the Broxbourne area, and signposts them to local agencies. In the year to June 2025 it fulfilled 4,793 vouchers, with food going to 7,038 adults and 5,679 children.
Colchester Foodbank
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Colchester, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 11 months, archived from this site in 2 months
Gives emergency food parcels to people referred with a voucher, from a base at Tollgate Retail Park in Colchester, and offers an advice helpline, a benefits calculator and energy bill support. Its 2024 accounts list around 250 volunteers.
Sanctus
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Chelmsford, Essex
Confirmed active 24 September 2026
A day centre at Broomfield Road in Chelmsford open six days a week, serving hot meals in its cafe to up to 110 people a day and giving homeless and vulnerable people practical support and on-site specialist services. Started as an evening cafe in 2011.
The One Love Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Southend-on-Sea, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 5 months
Runs a soup kitchen and food bank in Southend-on-Sea with no referral needed, alongside a community cooking project and signposting support for homeless people and families in hardship.
3Food4U
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Waltham Abbey, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 7 months
Runs community surplus hubs in Waltham Abbey and Epping giving free food, home essentials and clothes to anyone in need with no referral. Started in 2020 and also offers a job club and health checks.
The Purfleet Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
King's Lynn, Norfolk
Confirmed active 21 September 2026
Supports homeless and vulnerable people in King's Lynn and West Norfolk from Pathway House, with meals, showers, housing support, training houses and a social supermarket in South Lynn. Says it has worked locally for over 30 years and supports over 1,000 people a year.
Cool to be Kind
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Chelmsford, Essex
Confirmed active 3 June 2026
Supports rough sleepers in Chelmsford through street outreach, the Street Support Chelmsford online directory of local services and an annual Rucksack Project collecting winter items. Takes a housing-first approach.
Dacorum Community Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
Confirmed active 23 September 2026
A small independent charity serving the Dacorum area since 1976, giving practical help to individuals and families in serious financial difficulty when nothing else is available, and small grants to local not-for-profit projects.
H.O.P.E in Community
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Barnsley, South Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 10 months, archived from this site in 3 months
Barnsley charity founded in 2017 offering cooking on a budget courses, holiday activity and food programmes, babies and toddlers groups, a foodbank referral service, budgeting and fuel poverty support, and one-to-one job help for families across South Yorkshire.
The Crossroads Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Meltham, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 12 months, archived from this site next month
Runs a food bank, a charity shop and a free debt and benefits advice service from the old Town Hall in Meltham, near Huddersfield. It has served Meltham, Helme and Wilshaw since 1996.
Rotherham Families First
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Rotherham, South Yorkshire
Confirmed active 11 September 2026
Volunteers collect donated clothing, baby items and household goods at a unit in Parkgate and pass them to Rotherham families in hardship, referred anonymously by professionals. They also run a Christmas toy appeal supporting over 2,000 children and young people each year.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 2
Zero Hunger
Everyone gets enough to eat, reliably, and the system that feeds them doesn't wreck the land doing it.
Near you that's food banks, community fridges, and good food being rescued instead of binned.
The wins
- The share of countries facing high food prices dropped from 51.2% in 2023 to 15.3% in 2024.
The challenges
- 8.2% of the world, one person in twelve, faced hunger in 2024.
- Nearly 2.3 billion people, about 28%, were moderately or severely food insecure.
- 6.6% of children under five suffered wasting, and 23.2% were stunted.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Look closer at this goal
Where the hunger moved
Hunger is falling, and it is not falling in the same direction everywhere, which is the part a world figure hides.
- 645 million people, 7.8% of the world, were chronically undernourished in 2025, down from 8.6% in 2022 and slightly below the 2015 level of 8.0%.
- The 2025 improvement came from Central and Southern Asia and from Latin America and the Caribbean. The long rise in sub-Saharan Africa halted, and undernourishment kept rising in Western Asia.
- 2.1 billion people, 25.8%, faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025. That is 86 million fewer than in 2024 and still 527 million more than in 2015. Sub-Saharan Africa recorded its first improvement since 2015.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Children, and the arithmetic underneath
Two things are moving at once here, the rate and the number of children, and they can point opposite ways.
- Stunting in children under five fell from 26.4% to 23.2% between 2012 and 2024, 30.2 million fewer children. Wasting fell from 7.4% to 6.6%, 8.1 million fewer.
- Between 2012 and 2024 Southern Asia did more than 68% of the world's reduction in stunting, 20.6 million children, and 55% of the reduction in wasting.
- In sub-Saharan Africa the under-five population grew 20.3% between 2012 and 2024, 31.4 million more children, which has largely cancelled out the improvement in the rates.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
What is actually on the plate
Enough calories and enough of what a body needs are different questions, and the second one is measured far less often.
- Between 2018 and 2024 only 30.8% of children aged 6 to 23 months ate a minimally diverse diet, from 55.7% in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia down to 18.5% in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Among women aged 15 to 49, 62.7% managed a minimally diverse diet between 2021 and 2025, from 83.7% in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia down to 36.4% in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
What gets spent on growing food
A record amount of money and a shrinking share of the budget are both true at the same time.
- Public spending on agriculture hit a record $725 billion in 2024, and still made up only 1.83% of government spending, down from 2.09% in 2015.
- Agriculture aid to developing countries reached $18.7 billion in 2024, up 42% since 2015. Africa received $8.7 billion of it, nearly double its 2015 level in real terms.
- The share of least developed countries facing high food prices barely moved, from 31.7% in 2023 to 31.6% in 2024, against a 2015 to 2019 average of 18%.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Where the line goes next
Three figures from the UN's wider food page, including the one that says where this ends up if nothing changes.
- In Asia, the prevalence of undernourishment declined from 7.9% in 2022 to 6.7% in 2024.
- In Latin America and the Caribbean it fell to 5.1% in 2024, down from a peak of 6.1% in 2020.
- By 2030, around 512 million people may still be chronically undernourished if current trends continue.
Food, UN Global Issues Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Food, UN Global Issues
Look closer at the UK
Who can't count on food
Most UK households are food secure. These figures are about the ones that aren't.
- 4% of UK households had low food security and 5% very low food security in 2024 to 2025.
- The share with high food security rose from 83% to 85% between 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025.
- In 2024 to 2025, 1.4% of households had used a food bank in the 30 days before they were interviewed.
Department for Work and Pensions, Family Resources Survey: financial year 2024 to 2025. Covers UK. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Shrewsbury Food Hub
Shrewsbury
Checked 7 September 2026
Volunteer-powered charity rescuing surplus food from shops, manufacturers and farms and redistributing it to more than 60 local community groups and 13 to 14 weekly Foodshare tables across Shrewsbury.
Trussell
United Kingdom
Checked 7 September 2026
Supports a network of more than 1,300 independent local food banks across the United Kingdom.
The Hunger Project
United States
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean
See the countries
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Peru
Confirmed active 8 September 2026
The global office of The Hunger Project, in New York, which sets programme strategy across thirteen countries and is the parent of eight fundraising country offices.
Disclosed connection: Past, lapsed. Founder was a member of Unleashed Women and fundraised via the ArcelorMittal Orbit abseil in September 2023.
Wellingborough Eco Group
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A community group working to reduce, reuse and recycle across the borough, in partnership with Wellingborough Town Council, North Northamptonshire Council, Greatwell Homes and Co-op. Runs a single-use plastic reduction campaign of its own - including a 2024 'Stop Using Plastic' advent calendar and advocacy for refill stations, pointing people to Food for Thought in Nene Court for package-free shopping - alongside an Energy Savers community energy project run with the Centre for Sustainable Energy and a Wellingborough Climate Action Project. Runs a tree nursery and tree planting days ('Love Your Tree Day'), a community allotment and Stanwell Community Garden, plus Repair Cafes, Swap Shops and litter picks ('Wellie Wombles', 'Two Hour Tidy Ups'). Won the Environment Award at the BBC Radio Northampton Make a Difference Awards.
Plastic Free Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
Plastic Free Lyme Regis is the Surfers Against Sewage-accredited plastic reduction campaign run under Turn Lyme Green, with active support from Lyme Regis Town Council. The site states 23 local businesses have earned its Plastic Free Business Champion award. Turn Lyme Green's own pages also document the River Lim Action Group, running litter picks and beach cleans and river monitoring and a water pollution reporting system for the River Lim, Dorset Seed Savers for food growing, Bee Friendly Lyme Regis for pollinator habitat, and a Recycle Sewing Group.
Telford Crisis Support
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Telford, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-led since 2013, giving people in crisis in Telford food support, a baby and toddler bank, winter coats and shoes, school uniform and help with gas and electricity, with a link worker for pensioners.
Mid Cheshire Foodbank
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Winsford, Cheshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Emergency food and support for local people in crisis across mid Cheshire since 2012. Its own figures report 76,020 meals to 910 households in a year, and its Winsford warehouse takes food donations on weekdays.
Burton HOPE
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-run help for people in crisis in Burton upon Trent: three-day emergency food parcels, clothing, toiletries and help getting ID, with support for people facing mental health or addiction problems. Moved into Hope House in 2026.
Heart of Tamworth
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Tamworth, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A Tamworth community charity since 2012 running a community cafe, a pantry and a pre-loved clothes store, and supporting people facing food poverty, dementia, addiction, bereavement, homelessness and loneliness.
Signposts
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Stafford, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Community action in Stafford, Stone and Cannock: food banks, Open House for older people, the Storehouse furniture project, practical help with decorating and gardening, and guidance on debt, benefits and bills.
Friends of Di's Kitchen
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Wolverhampton
Checked 1 October 2026
Every Thursday, more than 50 volunteers deliver a free three-course meal or a food bag to people's homes across Wolverhampton, with no proof of need asked. Its own count is 191,988 meals since March 2020.
Secret Angels WLV CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Wolverhampton
Checked 1 October 2026
A Wolverhampton food bank and digital inclusion group whose volunteers collect surplus food from six Co-op stores every Monday evening, and which collects digital equipment for people who need it.
Helping Hands Community Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Leamington Spa charity, founded in 2015, running a soup kitchen and breakfast club that serve two meals a day, plus men's and women's support groups, counselling and a charity shop for people facing homelessness and hardship.
Hope4
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Rugby, Warwickshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Rugby charity running the Hope Centre, a day centre on Newbold Road with food, showers, laundry, a clinic room and casework on housing, benefits and budgeting, plus Rugby Foodbank. A winter shelter runs December to March with the borough council.
Himmah
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Nottingham charity running a food bank from Gamble Street, hot meal campaigns, a community hub on Gregory Boulevard and work on racial and educational equality. Food bank access is through a referrer portal.
Shree Jalaram Prarthana Mandal (Jalaram Mandir Leicester)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Leicester, Leicestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Hindu temple and community centre on Narborough Road, Leicester, with community activities open to all faiths. Its Helping Hands project serves free food every Thursday at 6.30pm.
The McCarthy-Dixon Foundation
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Northampton, Northamptonshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Northampton charity running a food hub and mobile community shop, weekly social clubs with its own minibus, doorstep buddies, a gardening service and home improvement projects for people in Northamptonshire.
Aspire 2 Inspire Communities CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Rochdale, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs a food pantry, food bank and hot meals from Regent Street in Rochdale, alongside debt and benefits advice, youth clubs, Duke of Edinburgh groups and a clothes bank for refugees. Community work began in 2005 and the CIC was formed in 2019.
Caritas Diocese of Salford
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Salford, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
The Catholic Diocese of Salford's charity, covering Greater Manchester and Lancashire, with housing and homelessness projects, a community pantry and allotment, energy advice, and support for refugees and people seeking asylum. Anyone can ask for help or volunteer.
Feed My City
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Gives out hot meals, dry food bags, fruit and bread free from a base on Beswick Street in Manchester, with a van serving Manchester, Salford, Trafford, Tameside, Bolton and Rochdale. Hot meals run Monday to Friday, 11am to 2pm.
The One House
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Aspull, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Community centre on Haigh Road, Aspull, Wigan, running a cafe on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday mornings, with food parcels, debt advice, a knit and natter group and a gardening club.
Barnabas Thrive!
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Oldham, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Community programme at the Barnabas Centre, Arundel Street, Clarksfield, Oldham, running a food co-operative that serves about 250 local clients a week on Mondays and Fridays, plus holiday meals and women's sessions. Food Thrive began in 2011.
Breckfield & North Everton Neighbourhood Council (The Breckfield Centre)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Liverpool, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs the Breckfield Centre in north Liverpool for about 15,000 local residents, with a food bank, welfare rights advice, youth sessions for ages 10 to 15, a men's project, a cycle club and allotments.
Helping Hearts Fylde
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Blackpool, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Opens every Thursday in Blackpool with a food bank, pantry, baby bank, clothing bank, pet bank and hot meals, with no referral needed. It began as street outreach in 2020 and now serves over 170 people a week.
Shildon Alive
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Shildon, County Durham
Confirmed active 13 July 2026
Community hub at 91-95 Church Street, Shildon, with a community shop and takeaway open Monday to Friday, a food bank, credit union and advocacy support, a dementia cafe and activities for children in school holidays.
Sprouts Community Food Charity
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Thornaby-on-Tees, Stockton-on-Tees
Not confirmed by us for 6 months
Runs community shops, cooking workshops and a community cafe in Stockton and Thornaby, redistributing surplus supermarket food and offering Level 2 food hygiene training. Its website lists 15 sessions a week.
Bede's Helping Hands Food Bank
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Jarrow, Tyne and Wear
Confirmed active 18 September 2026
Food bank in Jarrow serving the Bede ward and wider South Tyneside from the former Primrose Library on Glasgow Road, giving out food parcels and period products and running cooking classes and food drives.
Cultivate Tees Valley
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham
Confirmed active 12 August 2026
Community interest company that turns unused urban and rural land across the Tees Valley into food-growing spaces, with over ten gardens in public spaces, youth centres and church grounds, and weekly volunteer sessions in Stockton.
Berwick Community Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland
Confirmed active 22 September 2026
A Berwick-upon-Tweed charity that runs the town's food bank, gives benefits advice, and offers advice and training to people looking for work, from the William Elder Building on Castlegate.
Foundation for Good
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Consett, County Durham
Not confirmed by us for 9 months
A Consett charity running a food bank, youth and adult wellbeing services, a boxing club and gym, and post-16 education, from Trafalgar Street. It covers County Durham and the wider North East.
The Coquetdale Lunch Club
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Thropton, Northumberland
Not confirmed by us for 10 months, archived from this site in 3 months
A lunch club meeting every other Thursday at noon in Thropton War Memorial Hall for people across the Coquet valley, serving a two-course meal for £4, with outings and a warm space. More than 30 volunteers help run it.
Broxbourne Foodbank
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Cheshunt, Hertfordshire
Confirmed active 2 September 2026
Gives emergency food parcels to people in crisis who are referred with a voucher in the Broxbourne area, and signposts them to local agencies. In the year to June 2025 it fulfilled 4,793 vouchers, with food going to 7,038 adults and 5,679 children.
Colchester Foodbank
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Colchester, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 11 months, archived from this site in 2 months
Gives emergency food parcels to people referred with a voucher, from a base at Tollgate Retail Park in Colchester, and offers an advice helpline, a benefits calculator and energy bill support. Its 2024 accounts list around 250 volunteers.
Sanctus
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Chelmsford, Essex
Confirmed active 24 September 2026
A day centre at Broomfield Road in Chelmsford open six days a week, serving hot meals in its cafe to up to 110 people a day and giving homeless and vulnerable people practical support and on-site specialist services. Started as an evening cafe in 2011.
The One Love Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Southend-on-Sea, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 5 months
Runs a soup kitchen and food bank in Southend-on-Sea with no referral needed, alongside a community cooking project and signposting support for homeless people and families in hardship.
3Food4U
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Waltham Abbey, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 7 months
Runs community surplus hubs in Waltham Abbey and Epping giving free food, home essentials and clothes to anyone in need with no referral. Started in 2020 and also offers a job club and health checks.
The Purfleet Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
King's Lynn, Norfolk
Confirmed active 21 September 2026
Supports homeless and vulnerable people in King's Lynn and West Norfolk from Pathway House, with meals, showers, housing support, training houses and a social supermarket in South Lynn. Says it has worked locally for over 30 years and supports over 1,000 people a year.
Ipswich Outreach
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Ipswich, Suffolk
Not confirmed by us for 12 months, archived from this site next month
Runs the Ipswich soup kitchen, which began in 1992 and serves evening meals six days a week, plus an outreach bus and a charity shop at Westgate Street, for homeless and vulnerable people in the town.
Moat House Community Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Coventry, West Midlands
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Community trust based at the Moat House Leisure and Neighbourhood Centre in Wood End and Henley Green, Coventry. It runs the Grub Hub food pantry, a community cafe and activities for older people, and owns a small stock of community homes.
Shri Guru Ravidass Sangat Luton
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Luton, Bedfordshire
Confirmed active 9 June 2026
Luton gurdwara at Cardigan Street, open to all, with a weekly lunch club for older people, a community garden and learning programmes. Its volunteers delivered about 21,000 hot meals to local services in 42 weeks during the pandemic.
Still Good Food
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Bury St Edmunds charity that collects surplus food from supermarkets, farms and growers and sells it on a pay-as-you-feel basis at Elsey's Yard and Great Barton, alongside a community fridge and a farm gleaning project.
Flourishing Families Leeds
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 6 months
Leeds charity running family cookery clubs, literacy and wellbeing groups and early years play sessions in community venues and primary schools. It began in 2017 with a single cookery club and now works with over 1,000 people a year.
H.O.P.E in Community
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Barnsley, South Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 10 months, archived from this site in 3 months
Barnsley charity founded in 2017 offering cooking on a budget courses, holiday activity and food programmes, babies and toddlers groups, a foodbank referral service, budgeting and fuel poverty support, and one-to-one job help for families across South Yorkshire.
The Crossroads Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Meltham, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 12 months, archived from this site next month
Runs a food bank, a charity shop and a free debt and benefits advice service from the old Town Hall in Meltham, near Huddersfield. It has served Meltham, Helme and Wilshaw since 1996.
The Sunday Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 4 months
A volunteer-run Sunday meal in Sheffield city centre, opening at 1.30pm at Victoria Hall Methodist Church to hand out just over 100 hot meals with fruit, cake and drinks to anyone who needs one. It has run for more than 25 years.
Malton Free Fridge
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Malton, North Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 10 months, archived from this site in 3 months
Volunteers collect surplus fresh food from local shops, businesses and gardens and give it away free from the Wesley Centre in Malton on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10am to 11.30am. Running since December 2018.
Edlington Community Organisation
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Edlington, South Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 6 months
Runs the Yorkshire Main Community Centre office in Edlington, Doncaster, with a food bank, community market and cupboard, a youth club, walking groups, a choir and a weekly timetable of classes. Formed in 2000.
Flash Company Arts
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Whitby, North Yorkshire
Confirmed active 4 September 2026
Community arts organisation in Whitby that runs the People's Fridge at Flowergate Hall, open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 11am to 1pm when food is available, free to take with no sign-up, alongside arts workshops and a Wednesday youth club.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 3
Good Health and Well-being
Living a long healthy life, and getting help when you need it. Mental health sits here just as squarely as physical health.
It covers the crisis line somebody rings at 2am, and it covers what turns up when you dial 999.
The wins
- 134 countries had already met the target on under-five mortality by 2024.
- Effective treatment has halved AIDS-related deaths since 2010.
- 59 countries had eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease by the end of 2025.
The challenges
- 260,000 women died during pregnancy or childbirth in 2023.
- 344 million people were pushed into, or further into, extreme poverty by paying for their own healthcare.
- The target to cut early deaths from non-communicable disease by a third is not on track.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Key dates for this goal
10 October
World Mental Health Day
The WHO's day for Goal 3, and Shrewsbury Men's Shed and Shropshire Mental Health Support both sit under it, so it's a natural day to see who's near you.
On this goal’s list: Shrewsbury Men's Shed, Shropshire Mental Health Support
19 November
International Men's Day
Marked each November, and it sits under Goal 3 here, Good Health and Well-being - Shrewsbury Men's Shed is the local listing that fits it most closely.
On this goal’s list: Shrewsbury Men's Shed
7 April
World Health Day
The WHO's day for Goal 3, Good Health and Well-being. Samaritans is one of the listings under this goal, so it's a fair day to see who else is near you.
On this goal’s list: Samaritans
Look closer at this goal
Who dies giving birth, and where
The world figure has more than halved since 2000. Where you happen to give birth decides almost everything about your odds.
- Maternal deaths fell from 328 per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 228 in 2015 and 197 in 2023, still more than two and a half times the target of 70.
- Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia cut their rates by 25% and 30% since 2015, and together still accounted for 87% of the world's maternal deaths in 2023.
- Low-income countries recorded 346 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023 against 10 in high-income countries. Fragile and conflict-affected places accounted for 61% of the global total.
- Births attended by a skilled professional rose from 80% to 87% between 2015 and 2025, and stood at 77% in the least developed countries.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Children, and the pace that slowed
This is a genuine success story with a warning inside it, and the warning is about speed rather than direction.
- Under-five deaths fell to 37.4 per 1,000 live births by 2024, down 51% since 2000 and 13% since 2015.
- The annual rate of improvement fell from 3.9% over 2000 to 2015 to 1.5% over 2015 to 2024. Sixty countries still need to speed up to reach the target.
- 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2024, nearly half of them in fragile and conflict-affected places, where the rate is almost three times higher.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
The diseases turning the wrong way
Not everything here is improving slowly. Some of it is going backwards, and malaria is the clearest case.
- Malaria incidence rose from 59 cases per 1,000 people in 2015 to 64 in 2024, an estimated 282 million cases, and 75% of the deaths were children under five.
- Tuberculosis incidence has fallen only 12% since 2015, against a World Health Organization milestone of 50% by 2025. TB deaths fell from 1.27 million in 2023 to 1.23 million in 2024.
- New HIV infections fell 30% and AIDS-related deaths 35% between 2015 and 2024. The 1.3 million new infections in 2024 was almost unchanged on the year before, and over 9 million people living with HIV were not on treatment.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Mental health, and the slower harms
Mental health sits in this goal as squarely as anything physical, and the gap between men and women is the figure that stops you.
- The global suicide rate fell 6% between 2015 and 2021, from 9.8 to 9.2 deaths per 100,000 people. 727,000 lives were still lost in 2021.
- Men die by suicide at double the rate of women worldwide, 12.4 against 5.9 per 100,000 in 2021. In Europe and Northern America men recorded the highest rate in the world at 23 per 100,000, nearly double the global male average.
- Alcohol consumption per adult fell 13% between 2010 and 2024, from 5.6 litres to 4.9, and rose in Central and Southern Asia from 3.4 to 3.8 litres.
- Tobacco use fell from 26.2% of adults in 2010 to 19.5% in 2024, and still rose in 12 countries between 2015 and 2024.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
What health costs people, and what the cuts are doing
The aid figures here are from 2024 and 2025, so this is the one strand on the page that is already happening rather than already measured.
- The universal health coverage index rose three points between 2015 and 2023, from 68 to 71. In 2023, 4.6 billion people had no access to essential health services.
- Out-of-pocket health spending pushed 2.1 billion people into financial difficulty in 2022, 26% of the world, down from 28% in 2015. On the current pace nearly one in four people worldwide will face health-related financial hardship by 2030.
- Aid for medical research and basic health fell 12.4% between 2023 and 2024 to $11.4 billion, back to 2015 levels, with a further fall of 14% to 29% projected for 2025.
- In an assessment of 108 WHO country offices in March and April 2025, around 70% reported disruption to health services, and 24% said the cuts had already pushed up what people pay themselves.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026
Look closer at the UK
How long people live
Life expectancy in the UK has barely moved in ten years, after decades of going up.
- Life expectancy at birth in the UK was 83.0 years for women and 79.1 years for men in 2022 to 2024.
- At 65, women could expect another 21.2 years and men another 18.7 years, in 2022 to 2024.
Office for National Statistics, National life tables, life expectancy in the UK: 2022 to 2024. Covers UK. Read it there
How many of those years are healthy
The ONS publishes these as official statistics in development, because the survey behind them is shrinking.
- In 2022 to 2024, men could expect 60.7 years in good general health, 77% of their lives, and women 60.9 years, 73%.
- Both were the lowest since the series began in 2011 to 2013.
- England had the highest healthy life expectancy of the four nations in 2022 to 2024. Scotland had the lowest for men, at 59.1 years, and Wales the lowest for women, at 58.5 years.
- Across local areas of the UK, the gap in healthy life expectancy was 14.7 years for men and 15.8 years for women in 2022 to 2024.
Office for National Statistics, Healthy life expectancy, UK: between 2011 to 2013 and 2022 to 2024. Covers UK. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Shropshire Mental Health Support
Shropshire
Checked 7 September 2026
Community-based charity operating since 1974, offering peer-led support groups, drop-in Calmer Cafe sessions, a touring well-being vehicle, and a nightly crisis support service run with Police and Ambulance services.
Marked on: World Mental Health Day
WaterAid
United Kingdom
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia and 2 more
See the countries
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Colombia
Checked 7 September 2026
International charity working on clean water, sanitation and hygiene across 26 countries.
Samaritans
United Kingdom, 201 local branches
Checked 7 September 2026
Emotional support charity running a national helpline, with 201 local branches also doing in-person outreach.
Marked on: World Health Day
Friendship
Earthshot Prize Winner 2025Fix Our Climate
Bangladesh
Checked 10 September 2026
Social purpose organisation combining healthcare, education and climate resilience work to protect communities in Bangladesh most exposed to climate-driven disaster.
Polish Smog Alert
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2023Clean Our Air
Poland
Checked 10 September 2026
Clean air campaign group pressing for the legislation that has banned coal and wood burners across Polish cities, and now working across Central and Eastern Europe.
The Blue Map App
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2021Clean Our Air
China
Checked 10 September 2026
App from the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs giving citizens real-time air and water pollution data for their own area, so they can hold polluters to account.
The Hunger Project
United States
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean
See the countries
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Peru
Confirmed active 8 September 2026
The global office of The Hunger Project, in New York, which sets programme strategy across thirteen countries and is the parent of eight fundraising country offices.
Disclosed connection: Past, lapsed. Founder was a member of Unleashed Women and fundraised via the ArcelorMittal Orbit abseil in September 2023.
Shrewsbury Men's Shed
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A registered charity offering practical making and repair activities in a workshop at the West Midland Showground, open six days a week. Named Shed of the Year 2024.
Marked on: World Mental Health Day, International Men's Day
Clun Valley Good Neighbours
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Clun, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers helping people across the Clun Valley Surgery area with transport, shopping, prescriptions, form filling and befriending. Set up in 1993 and now more than 60 volunteers strong, it also runs the Good Friends befriending service and the Clun Friendly Cafe.
Home-Start Telford & Wrekin
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Telford, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Trained volunteers supporting families with young children in Telford and Wrekin through home visits, groups and projects, so parents get help early when things are hard.
Ludlow Cancer Support Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Ludlow, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A volunteer-run group in Ludlow offering a safe, friendly space where people living with cancer, their carers and the bereaved can meet, talk and socialise. It also raises money for cancer charities.
The Cavalier Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Much Wenlock, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Riding for the Disabled and personal development programmes at Much Wenlock, using horses and ponies to build confidence, wellbeing and independence for disabled children and adults.
The Albrighton Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Albrighton, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Gardens, a moat and angling at Albrighton where people disadvantaged by physical or learning disabilities or ill health can take part in outdoor, educational and recreational activities.
The Melville Club
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Albrighton, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Albrighton's community centre for people over 55, run entirely by volunteers, offering lunches, support, transport and social days out.
Body Positive Cheshire and North Wales
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Crewe, Cheshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A Crewe-based charity that has supported LGBTQ+ people for more than 30 years, with counselling, social and support groups, the Glow Choir, TransPositive and training across Cheshire and North Wales.
Connecting Chelford
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Chelford, Cheshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A volunteer befriending group set up in April 2018 to reduce loneliness in Chelford and the villages around it, with friendship, support, outings and events across the generations.
Stroke Survivors Speech and Language Support Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Crewe, Cheshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Peer support for stroke survivors living with speech, language and communication difficulties, founded in Crewe in 2018 and now meeting weekly in Crewe, Alsager, Sandbach, Nantwich, Holmes Chapel and online.
Gofal Dydd y Waen Day Care
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
St Asaph, Denbighshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Free rural day care twice a week at Waen, near St Asaph, for adults of any age with serious illness, with free transport, therapies and bereavement support for families. Since 2011 it has supported more than 700 people across Denbighshire, Conwy and Flintshire.
The Kindle Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Hereford, Herefordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A community hub in south Hereford run by the South Wye Development Trust, with health and wellbeing activities, a community lunch, children's activities, hall hire and the Belmont Haywood Country Park.
Kington Walks
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Kington, Herefordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
More than 100 volunteers in Kington run spring and autumn walking festivals, weekly Walking for Health walks and footpath maintenance. Founded in 2011, a CIO since 2020.
AEDdonate
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Stone, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Helps communities fund, install, register and maintain public-access defibrillators to prevent sudden cardiac death, and runs training, a maintenance scheme and charity shops.
Home-Start Tamworth
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Tamworth, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Trained volunteers visit families with young children at home in and around Tamworth, giving emotional and practical support through things like postnatal depression, isolation and illness.
Just Family CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Goldenhill, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Emotional health and wellbeing support for parents, children and families in Stoke-on-Trent, with parental mental health services, peer groups, workshops, advocacy and one-to-one help.
The WELLIES Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Sudbury, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Therapeutic countryside activities for people recovering from mental ill health, running since 2009: animals, gardening, fishing, cookery, rural crafts and woodwork, for adults across East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Staffordshire Moorlands and Tamworth.
@21 Leek Town Centre Youth Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Leek, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A safe drop-in centre on Market Street in Leek for teenagers aged 13 to 18, running for more than 20 years, with activities from cycling and bushcraft to sailing and cooking.
Simon's Heroes
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Tamworth, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A Tamworth charity raising money through community events and sponsorship to help local children with life-limiting illnesses and children in need.
Stafford & District Bereavement & Loss Support Service
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Stafford, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Skilled listening, counselling and support for adults in and around Stafford who are living with bereavement or loss. Open to everyone.
Tamworth Wellbeing and Cancer Support Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Tamworth, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A self-funded drop-in centre in Stonydelph, Tamworth, open weekdays except Wednesday, supporting people affected by cancer and other long-term illness, and their families, with listening, exercise and complementary therapies.
Legacy West Midlands
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Handsworth, Birmingham
Checked 1 October 2026
A north Birmingham charity working in disadvantaged neighbourhoods since 2010, with men's health work, a badminton academy, a cycling hub, a youth programme, heritage trails and arts, based at Soho House.
New Beginnings Community
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Smethwick, Sandwell
Checked 1 October 2026
Supports families with children under five in Smethwick, tackling loneliness and hardship through under-fives sessions, baby bundles and work with local agencies as part of Sandwell Family Hubs.
Black Country Mental Health
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Dudley
Checked 1 October 2026
The mental health charity formerly known as Dudley Mind, running peer support groups, gardening projects, a women's trauma group, bereavement support and peer-support training for young people across the Black Country.
Give Us A Break
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Wolverhampton
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-run, accessible stay-and-play days for young people with complex disabilities and their families in the school holidays, from exclusive-hire swimming and soft play to coach trips. Free membership, mostly Wolverhampton families.
Mercia MS Therapy Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Coventry
Checked 1 October 2026
An independent self-referral therapy centre in Coventry for people with MS, stroke and other long-term neurological conditions, offering oxygen therapy, physiotherapy, counselling, yoga and weekly coffee mornings.
WeLoveCarers
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Stourbridge, Dudley
Checked 1 October 2026
Run by carers for carers, giving unpaid carers of children and adults information, advice, support and a forum, from its Carers Centre in Stourbridge.
Bethel Health and Healing Network
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Nechells, Birmingham
Checked 1 October 2026
Supports vulnerable pregnant women and new mothers in Birmingham and Sandwell through a doula service, many of them asylum seekers, alongside a listening service for mental wellbeing and health champion training.
Nishkam Healthcare Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Handsworth, Birmingham
Checked 1 October 2026
A Handsworth healthcare charity founded in 2012, running a dental service, a pharmacy, a mental and emotional wellbeing service and health events, with volunteer clinicians at its heart. Open to all.
Signpost Broadway
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Broadway, Worcestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Since 1999, a listening ear and help for Broadway and the villages around it: help with online forms and printing, first aid and defibrillator courses, a volunteer hub and space for local groups.
The Veterans Contact Point
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Nuneaton, Warwickshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Veterans-run drop-in at the Armed Forces Centre in Nuneaton, open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Ex-service personnel and their families get peer support and are pointed to help with housing, money, health and finding work. Started in 2009.
Warwickshire Search and Rescue
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Kenilworth, Warwickshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer lowland rescue team based at Stoneleigh Park that searches for vulnerable missing people alongside the police and other emergency services, on foot, by drone, with a search dog and on water. 51 callouts in 2025.
Rugby Autism Network
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Rugby, Warwickshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Rugby charity, started in 2009 by a local parent, running support meetings and autism-friendly events for parents and carers of autistic children. It has over 250 associate members and a chat group of over 1,700 parents.
The Graham Fulford Charitable Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Warwick, Warwickshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Warwick charity that raises awareness of prostate cancer and runs public blood-testing events, including PSA tests, to help men get an early diagnosis. It also offers other health tests such as cholesterol, diabetes and thyroid.
Compassionate Kenilworth
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Kenilworth, Warwickshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Kenilworth charity that began as a Covid-19 support group during the pandemic and now runs free clubs, warm hubs and activities to cut social isolation. It works with GP surgeries and local authorities and hosts a forum for local community groups.
talkdementia
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Tysoe, Warwickshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer group based in Tysoe, set up in 2021 by two former dementia carers. It runs dementia-friendly cafes in Shipston on Stour, Wellesbourne, Tysoe, Moreton-in-Marsh, Chipping Campden and Compton Verney, with advice for family carers.
Middle Street Resource Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Beeston, Nottinghamshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Mental health community centre in Beeston, Nottingham. It runs the Mindset Programme of therapeutic support and social groups, one-to-one support, a community cafe and hireable rooms, with self-referral and professional referral routes.
The Volunteer Centre Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Chesterfield volunteer centre running since 1996. It matches volunteers with local charities and groups through its Volife platform, and runs the Home From Hospital, Elderfriends and Safe & Sound projects.
Derby Kids' Camp
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Derby, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-run charity that takes over 300 children a year, nominated by about 60 Derbyshire primary schools, on a free summer camping holiday in the Peak District. Around 200 volunteers run the camp.
Heartwize
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Lutterworth, Leicestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Lutterworth charity whose volunteers teach CPR, the recovery position and defibrillator use in schools and communities. The site says it has trained over 40,000 people.
The McCarthy-Dixon Foundation
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Northampton, Northamptonshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Northampton charity running a food hub and mobile community shop, weekly social clubs with its own minibus, doorstep buddies, a gardening service and home improvement projects for people in Northamptonshire.
Ben's Den (The Ben Parker Trust Fund)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Ilkeston, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Ilkeston charity set up in 2004 that gives families of children with leukaemia or cancer a free break in one of its 7 caravans at Mablethorpe and Tattershall Lakes. More than 1,500 families have stayed.
Young Leicestershire
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Whetstone, Leicestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Youth work charity based in Whetstone that supports clubs and projects across Leicestershire, including breaks for young carers, SEND sessions, detached street teams and a Busy Bus. It worked directly with 876 young people in 2024.
Bridge the Gap Child Mental Health CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Derby, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Derby community interest company offering one-to-one and group emotional literacy sessions for children, plus Family Hub sessions, parent webinars, training for schools and free downloadable resources. It sends about 50 care packages a month to children in the city.
Melton Community First Responders
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers in the Melton Borough, running since 2004, who are dispatched by East Midlands Ambulance Service to 999 calls such as cardiac arrests and strokes. They also teach CPR and defibrillator use to community groups, schools and nurseries.
Northamptonshire Search and Rescue
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Northamptonshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer team of 52, formed in 2011, on call 24 hours a day to help Northamptonshire Police find missing and vulnerable people. In 2025 it logged 41 callouts and 151 training exercises, and runs search dogs.
RUSH 2The DEN
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Rushden, Northamptonshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Rushden centre running baby and toddler sessions on weekdays, youth clubs for ages 5 to 17 and an IndepeDENce group for 15 to 21s, plus SEND sessions and holiday clubs. It says it supports over 6,300 children, young people and families a year.
SoundCafe Leicester
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Leicester, Leicestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Leicester charity running weekly Monday sessions for people who are homeless or isolated: a creative cafe at 12.45pm followed by a choir at 2.15pm, plus Wednesday afternoons and football sessions. Volunteers are recruited for the Wednesday sessions.
Bright Hope in North West Leicestershire
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Swannington, Leicestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Adult social care charity, formerly Hospice Hope, running befriending, day care, counselling, bereavement support and complementary therapy, plus support cafes in Ashby, Ibstock and Coalville and a dementia cafe at Bright Hope House, Swannington. Delivering services since 2002.
East Leake Community Care Association
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
East Leake, Nottinghamshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer group in East Leake, established in 1973, running a weekly shoppers' bus, a memory cafe for people with dementia and their carers, lifts to medical appointments, and a befriending group and carers' respite visits for over 60s.
Forever Stars
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Beeston, Nottinghamshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Baby loss charity in Beeston running the Serenity Centre, play therapy, workshops and events for bereaved families. It has also funded Serenity Suites for families at Queen's Medical Centre, the first opened ten years ago in 2016.
Friends and Bredrins Prostate Cancer Support Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Nottingham peer support group, set up in 2012, for men living with prostate cancer, mainly African Caribbean men and their families. It holds monthly hybrid meetings and raises awareness of prostate cancer risk in local communities.
me&dee
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Melbourne, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Derbyshire charity that gifts memory-making experiences and items to families where a parent or child has a life-limiting or life-shortening condition. It funds this through a shop, live online auctions, events and monthly sponsors, and has a Continuing Care offer.
My Bag Charity
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Nottingham charity, set up in 2018, that gives every child entering foster care in Nottinghamshire a bag with a teddy, blanket and colouring items. It has added boxes of essentials for young people in semi-independent care and care leavers.
Riders Minds
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Nottinghamshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Mental health charity for the equestrian community, formed in 2019, offering a free 24-hour helpline, web chat with trained counsellors, a mental health checker and self-help guides for riders, grooms, coaches and owners.
Volunteer Action
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Oundle, Northamptonshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Oundle charity founded in 1995 that runs a volunteer community car scheme, one-to-one befriending and social activities for older and disabled people across north East Northamptonshire, from Thrapston up to Easton-on-the-Hill.
BEEP Doctors (BASICS Cumbria)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Penrith, Cumbria
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer doctors on call 24 hours a day who drive their own response vehicles to serious accidents across Cumbria to give emergency care before hospital. Founded in Penrith in April 1994, it attended 183 callouts in 2025.
Trafford Veterans CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Trafford
Checked 1 October 2026
A peer-led hub at Crossford Bridge in Trafford where veterans, emergency service staff and their families can drop in, meet others, join activities and be pointed to specialist services. It has run since 2015 and publishes monthly newsletters.
Wigan Youth Zone
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Wigan, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
A youth centre on Parsons Walk in Wigan, opened in June 2013, for 8 to 19 year olds (up to 25 with additional needs), with more than twenty activities a day, seven days a week, including a climbing wall, music rooms and a radio station.
Finding Rainbows
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Bereavement support from Tameside for anyone who has lost a baby, a child or a pregnancy early. It takes referrals from GPs and hospitals as well as self-referrals, and supports people across the UK.
Jolly Josh
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Rochdale, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
A centre at Ensor Mill in Castleton, Rochdale, for children and young people aged 0 to 19 with complex medical needs and physical disabilities, with play and social sessions, a hydrotherapy suite and coffee mornings for parents and carers.
Kildare Grange Social and Dancing Section
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Hindley, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers at Kildare Grange sheltered housing in Hindley, Wigan, who run a Wednesday social and dancing club for people over 65 with a waiting list, plus coffee mornings, bingo, whist and day trips. Residents and people from the wider community can join.
Maryport Rescue
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Maryport, Cumbria
Checked 1 October 2026
Independent, volunteer-run rescue charity based at Maryport Harbour, running an inshore lifeboat, a swift water and flood rescue team and a lowland rescue team, available 24 hours a day across the Solway Firth and inland Cumbria.
NEPHRA Good Neighbours
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
New Moston, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-run group in New Moston, Manchester, with a befriending scheme, monthly lunch club, walking and gardening groups, iPad classes, a repair cafe and day trips, aimed at reducing loneliness among local older people.
Neuro Drop In Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Lancaster, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Drop-in centre at 20 Hornbeam Road, Lancaster, running weekly classes and groups plus a pop-up cafe from 10am to 2pm for people with neurological conditions such as MS, Parkinson's and stroke, and their families.
Princes Park Garden Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Irlam, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Community garden centre in Princes Park, Irlam, Salford, offering day opportunities placements for adults with learning difficulties and other disabilities, with a retail area, a cafe and local mosslands regeneration work.
SAFA Cumbria (Self-Harm Awareness For All)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria
Checked 1 October 2026
Counselling and peer support for people in Cumbria who self-harm or have eating disorders, plus family support workshops and accredited training, from offices in Barrow-in-Furness and Carlisle. Founded in 2007.
Susan's Farm CIO
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Carlisle, Cumbria
Checked 1 October 2026
Certified organic care farm two miles from Carlisle offering therapeutic work for people with long-term mental health needs, alternative education placements for young people, and school and community group visits.
Ashton United in the Community
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Charity linked to Ashton United FC, running a Wednesday lunch club for older people from 12pm to 2pm, grassroots football sessions for children, an Andy's Man Club group for men's mental health and community events in Ashton-under-Lyne.
The Eco Therapy Garden CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Kirkby, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Community therapy garden behind Tower Hill Primary Care Centre in Knowsley, open to everyone for gardening, eco therapy, outdoor learning and volunteering to support mental wellbeing, with a community supermarket.
The Merseyside Children's Holiday Fund
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Liverpool, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs a week-long August holiday at Colomendy Camp in North Wales for around 60 Liverpool children chosen through their schools by free school meal eligibility, with walks, beach trips, swimming and boat trips. Running since 1967.
Yuvanis Foundation
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Oldham, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs employment guidance, free access to technology, sports sessions, mental health activities and the Holiday Activities and Food programme from Middleton Road in Oldham, mainly for young people, women and South Asian and other minority ethnic communities. Active since 2009.
Breast Mates Cancer Support Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Prescot, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Cancer support group based in Prescot that offers secondary breast cancer support and breast screening awareness across Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.
Chorley's Angels First Aid Community Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Chorley, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer first aid group in Chorley that provides first aid cover at events across Lancashire, runs awareness sessions for Scouts, Guides and WI groups, and meets on Wednesday evenings at Buttermere Community Centre for new members aged 16 and over.
Dancing with Dementia
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Swinton, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Weekly Wednesday morning music and dance sessions at the Grand Palais Ballroom in Swinton for people with dementia and their carers, with day trips and carer training. Started as monthly dances in 2014.
Dipak Dristi (Light of Vision)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Weekly Monday social group at Broadoak Community Centre in Ashton-under-Lyne for people aged 55 and over, with yoga, chair exercise, crafts, music, games and a light lunch, plus home visits. Sessions cost £3 to £5.
Empathy Northwest CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Wigan, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Wigan counselling service on Library Street offering therapy for individuals, couples, families and children on a donation basis from £15 a session, with self-referral and trainee counsellor placements.
Hattersley Health Champions
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Hattersley, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Patient self-help group at Hattersley Group Practice, started in 2018, running weekly craft and gentle exercise sessions, a monthly Parkinson's and dementia cafe and monthly litter picks around Hattersley.
Neonatal Knitters
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Group of adult knitters, crocheters and sewers who meet on Wednesday mornings at Holy Trinity Community Centre in Ashton-under-Lyne to make hats, blankets and cardigans for the neonatal units at Tameside, St Mary's and Royal Oldham hospitals.
Safari Kids Club
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Stockbridge Village, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Parent-run Saturday club in Stockbridge Village, Knowsley, where about 70 children and their families take part in dance, sports and crafts. It also runs a school uniform recycling scheme, a free cafe two days a week and Christmas hampers.
Shaftesbury Youth Club
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Prenton, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Youth club in Prenton, Wirral, with roots back to 1886 and its current site open since 1971. It runs activities for children, young people and families, a social supermarket and a community hub and pavilion that opened in 2024.
Stubbylee Community Greenhouses
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Bacup, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Health and wellbeing project in the greenhouses at Stubbylee Park, Bacup, run since 2005 by the Bacup Consortium Trust. About 40 volunteers grow food and take part in training, mentoring and placements for people who are marginalised or isolated.
Arts for Recovery in the Community (Arc)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Stockport, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Stockport charity using art and pottery sessions to support mental health, from its studios, cafe and gallery at Hat Works. It runs wellbeing programmes for adults and young people across Greater Manchester, with 78 volunteers.
Counselling in the Community
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Blackpool, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Offers self-referral counselling for children from age 4, young people and adults from four hubs in Blackpool, Bispham, Thornton-Cleveleys and Fleetwood, with sessions from £5 and over 80 volunteers. Founded in 2017.
Escape2Make (E2M)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Lancaster, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs free creative workshops and weekly clubs for 11 to 18 year olds in Lancaster and Morecambe, from its own centre on Church Street, plus two community events a year where the young people help make the festival or fair.
Home-Start St Helens
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
St Helens, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Matches trained parent volunteers with families with young children in the St Helens borough, who visit at home each week to give practical and emotional support. Helps with things like post-natal depression, isolation and illness.
Irlam & Cadishead Volunteer Drivers Scheme
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Irlam, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer drivers take cancer patients from Irlam, Cadishead, Rixton and Glazebrook to treatment at hospitals in Salford and Manchester, free, door to door, 9am to 5pm on weekdays. Set up in 2013, it has made about 1,750 journeys.
MyColdhurst
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Coldhurst, Oldham, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers in Coldhurst, Oldham who run Friday and Sunday sessions for six to 18 year olds, regularly over 150 attending, with a free hot meal on Sundays. They also hold monthly litter picks, clean alleyway schemes and an annual street party.
Side by Side Counselling
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Oldham, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Free counselling in Oldham and Ashton-under-Lyne for anyone aged 17 and over, with no limit on sessions and a choice of qualified or trainee volunteer counsellors. Started in 2007, it is funded by client donations.
Wigan Stars (Support Training Activities and Respite Services)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Wigan, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Provides activities, training and respite for young people and adults with learning disabilities from Hallgate House in Wigan town centre, plus community outings. About 30 regular members, some for over 20 years. Became its own charity in 2010.
Tackling Minds CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Littleborough, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs guided fishing sessions for people with mental health problems, addictions and long-term conditions, with two to one volunteer coaching and all tackle provided. Started in February 2020 at Hollingworth Lake, and now an Angling Trust wellbeing partner.
Durham County Carers Support
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Spennymoor, County Durham
Confirmed active 21 September 2026
Free information, advice and support for unpaid carers in County Durham and Darlington, including support groups, benefits and grants advice, training and a Carers Discount Card. Based at the Old Methodist Church, Spennymoor.
Headway Northumberland
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Alnwick, Northumberland
Not confirmed by us for 11 months, archived from this site in 2 months
Drop-in Neuro Hubs for people with acquired brain injury, stroke and other neurological conditions across Northumberland: weekly on Wednesdays in Hexham, and monthly in Alnwick, Berwick and Morpeth, run with Brainbox through Clearer Futures.
Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Morpeth, Northumberland
Confirmed active 27 August 2026
Volunteer mountain rescue team on call 24 hours a day across the Northumbria Police area, about 5,000 square kilometres covering Northumberland and Tyne and Wear, with dozens of callouts a year.
Oxhill Youth Club
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Stanley, County Durham
Not confirmed by us for 9 months
A youth club in Oxhill, near Stanley, open to young people aged 8 to 25, with table tennis coaching, football, trips and an annual pantomime. Its website says it has run since 1962.
Foundation for Good
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Consett, County Durham
Not confirmed by us for 9 months
A Consett charity running a food bank, youth and adult wellbeing services, a boxing club and gym, and post-16 education, from Trafalgar Street. It covers County Durham and the wider North East.
Niemann-Pick UK
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Sunderland, Tyne and Wear
Confirmed active 24 September 2026
A national charity supporting families affected by Niemann-Pick diseases with practical and emotional help, support groups and bereavement support, and working with researchers on treatments. It has operated since 1991 and is based in Sunderland.
Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
County Durham
Confirmed active 26 September 2026
A volunteer search and mountain rescue team covering all of County Durham, from the western fells to the coast, on call 24 hours a day. About 50 volunteers answer 40 to 50 requests for help a year.
Waste Not Want Not Nurturing Plants and People CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Knebworth, Hertfordshire
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Community nursery on Stevenage Road, Knebworth, where volunteers rescue surplus plants, grow them on and sell them, using gardening to support adults and young people with learning disabilities, autism or mental health difficulties. There is no charge to come along and join in.
Alz Cafe Wolverhampton
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Wolverhampton, West Midlands
Confirmed active 6 July 2026
Runs coffee mornings and evening music events every few weeks at Penn United Reformed Church in Wolverhampton for people with memory difficulties and their families. Volunteers provide refreshments and supper, and the events are free to attend.
Wolverhampton Samaritans
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Wolverhampton, West Midlands
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Volunteers listen to callers on 116 123 at any hour from a branch on Newhampton Road West, Wolverhampton, and run outreach in HMP Featherstone and HMYOI Brinsford. The branch reported 77 volunteers in its accounts to March 2025.
Home-Start Norfolk
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Swaffham, Norfolk
Confirmed active 1 September 2026
Trained volunteers visit families with a child under five at home across Norfolk. In 2024-25 it supported 427 families and 739 children under five, with 107 volunteers matched to families.
Houghton Regis Helpers
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire
Confirmed active 30 June 2026
Good neighbour scheme in Houghton Regis, running since 1 December 2011, where volunteers give lifts to GP and hospital appointments, collect prescriptions and shopping, and do gardening and odd jobs. From April to June 2026 it helped 165 residents with 1,301 jobs.
Midland Freewheelers Blood Bikes
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Willenhall, West Midlands
Not confirmed by us for 6 months
Volunteer riders carry blood, donated breast milk, chemotherapy drugs and pathology samples between hospitals across the West Midlands, 24 hours a day, at no cost to the NHS. Its register entry reports over 44,000 deliveries.
Parent & Carer Support Group (Walsall, Wolverhampton and surrounding areas)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Walsall, West Midlands
Not confirmed by us for 11 months, archived from this site in 2 months
Peer support for parents and carers of children with special educational needs and disabilities in Walsall, Wolverhampton and nearby, with meet-ups, online chats, family events and food parcels. Run by unpaid volunteers who are parents or carers themselves.
Parents 1st Essex
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Wickford, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Offers one-to-one peer support from local parents through pregnancy, birth and early parenthood across Essex, plus antenatal sessions, dads' workshops, fitness groups and first aid courses in places including Basildon, Southend, Clacton and Thurrock.
Potential Kids
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Not confirmed by us for 4 months
Runs social, learning and sports sessions for neurodivergent children and young people and their families at The Galleria in Hatfield, plus a community garden. Has operated since 2017 and takes volunteers.
Stand-by-me Bereavement Support
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Hitchin, Hertfordshire
Confirmed active 23 August 2026
Offers bereavement support to children, young people and their families in North Hertfordshire and Stevenage, from premises on Walsworth Road in Hitchin. Launched in 2014, it also runs free activity days for bereaved 11 to 17 year olds.
Cape Community Care Day Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Smethwick, West Midlands
Not confirmed by us for 11 months, archived from this site in 2 months
A day centre in Smethwick, run for over 30 years, for people aged 65 to 98 who often live alone. It offers hot meals, activities, trips and respite for carers, with a mostly volunteer team.
Caribbean and African Community Health Support Forum
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Ipswich, Suffolk
Not confirmed by us for 6 months
Formed in 2010 to raise awareness of health issues that hit the Caribbean and African community in Suffolk, with health seminars, courses on diabetes, cancer and dementia, exercise classes, a men's mental health project and a befriending project.
The Heather Club
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
Confirmed active 13 July 2026
A day club in Hemel Hempstead for people living with dementia, meeting Mondays and Wednesdays from 10am to 3pm at Carey Baptist Church Hall. Running since 1981, it offers activities, a meal and respite for carers.
Sandown and Shanklin Independent Lifeboat
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Sandown, Isle of Wight
Confirmed active 25 August 2026
An independent lifeboat on the Isle of Wight's Sandown Bay, not part of the RNLI, offering a 24 hour emergency rescue service from Western Esplanade with the Dove II and a tractor launcher. Funded by donations.
Herts Vision Loss
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire
Confirmed active 14 September 2026
Formerly Herts Society for the Blind and active since 1995, it runs home visiting and befriending, social clubs, support in hospital eye clinics and an employment coaching service for blind and partially sighted people across Hertfordshire.
Shri Guru Ravidass Sangat Luton
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Luton, Bedfordshire
Confirmed active 9 June 2026
Luton gurdwara at Cardigan Street, open to all, with a weekly lunch club for older people, a community garden and learning programmes. Its volunteers delivered about 21,000 hot meals to local services in 42 weeks during the pandemic.
Tattingstone Good Neighbour Scheme
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Tattingstone, Suffolk
Checked 1 October 2026
Village scheme running since 2002 in Tattingstone, with DBS-checked volunteers giving lifts to medical appointments, collecting prescriptions and helping with light household jobs, plus a weekly Thursday drop-in at the village hall.
4YOUth Brightlingsea
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Brightlingsea, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Youth club in Brightlingsea for ages 7 to 17, with sessions on Wednesday evenings and Thursday afternoons offering games, arts and crafts, cooking, music, workshops and outings.
Cancer Community Chest
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Brundall, Norfolk
Not confirmed by us for 5 months
Charity shop at 41 The Street, Brundall, open Monday to Saturday, that raises money to help people living with cancer and other serious illnesses, injuries or disabilities in the area.
Combat2Coffee
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Ipswich, Suffolk
Not confirmed by us for 10 months, archived from this site in 3 months
Ipswich community interest company founded in 2018 by a veteran, running coffee mornings and veterans breakfasts across Suffolk, a barista academy and prison programmes, with coffee sales funding support for the armed forces community.
Eden-Rose Coppice Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Ipswich, Suffolk
Not confirmed by us for 5 months
Charity trading as With Nature that turns former wasteland in Suffolk into woodland, including Brickmakers Wood in Ipswich and Armes Wood in Cornard, as accessible outdoor space for people with long-term or life-limiting illness and disabilities.
Hearts for Herts Charity
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire
Not confirmed by us for 7 months
Hertfordshire charity, a community group since 2017, that teaches Heartstart Lifesaver courses in CPR, choking and bleeding control, and promotes public access defibrillators and bleed control kits. It had trained 702 people by 2023.
Stotfold Good Neighbour Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Stotfold, Bedfordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers in Stotfold, Astwick and Fairfield who give lifts to hospitals and clinics, befriending, shopping, gardening, technology support and chair-based exercise to residents who find it hard to cope. The group began in 2013.
Alpha House Calderdale
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Confirmed active 16 July 2026
Residential rehabilitation and resettlement charity in Halifax with places for up to 50 adult men leaving prison or living with addiction, poor mental health and homelessness. Residents stay up to two years, working towards qualifications, volunteering and employment.
Woodhead Mountain Rescue Team
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
South Yorkshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer mountain rescue team covering the north eastern Peak District and South Yorkshire, formed in the early 1970s. It also backs up the ambulance service and police with search and swift water rescue skills, and needs over £35,000 a year to run.
York Women's Counselling Service
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
York, North Yorkshire
Confirmed active 14 September 2026
Trained volunteer counsellors give one to one counselling to women in York who cannot get help through public health services or afford private counselling. Running since 2001, it also offers domestic abuse support, from two counselling rooms at the Centre for Voluntary Service.
Coastwatch Redcar
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Redcar, North Yorkshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer lookout on Redcar Esplanade, set up in 1996, where trained watchkeepers keep watch on the sea and foreshore from Tees Bay to Huntcliffe near Saltburn and liaise with HM Coastguard. It is recruiting watchkeepers who can give 4 hours a week.
Firefly Cancer Awareness and Support
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Doncaster, South Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 4 months
Doncaster charity that gives free transport to local cancer patients travelling to regional treatment hospitals, using volunteer drivers and a fleet of thirteen vehicles. Founded in 2006, it also raises awareness of the signs of cancer among young people.
The Exodus Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
South Hiendley, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 12 months, archived from this site next month
Barnsley charity running 15 activity clubs across Barnsley and Wakefield for children in Years 3 to 9, plus toddler groups, a session for children with SEND and family days at Jenny's Field in South Hiendley. Its club talks include a Christian element.
5 Towns Veterans Support Hub
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Featherstone, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 4 months
Veterans centre on Ackworth Road, Featherstone, with regular coffee mornings, a private consultation room and signposting to partner organisations for ex-service personnel, reservists and their families. Incorporated as a CIC in 2019.
The Maurice Jagger Centre for the Disabled and Elderly
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
A self-funding centre in Halifax, open since 1982, running lunch clubs on Wednesdays and Thursdays and hosting groups through the week for disabled and older people in Calderdale. Function room available to hire.
Whiteknights Yorkshire Blood Bikes
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 12 months, archived from this site next month
Volunteer riders and drivers carry blood, tissue samples and other urgent supplies between hospitals, hospices and labs across Yorkshire when normal transport is closed. About 3,000 call-outs a year from a base in Halifax, running since 2008.
Fitmums and Friends
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire
Confirmed active 28 August 2026
Community physical activity sessions across the East Riding for people of all abilities, with junior athletics from age 5, a support scheme for people finding it hard to get started, and sessions for children aged 6-17 after a bereavement.
HER Breast Friends
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 10 months, archived from this site in 3 months
A support group in Hull for people affected by breast cancer, running monthly coffee mornings, a craft club and belly dancing, with a wig bank, a bra fitting service and complementary therapy.
Middleton Elderly Aid
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Confirmed active 3 August 2026
A social centre on Acre Road in Middleton, Leeds, running lunch clubs four days a week with a two-course lunch for £4, a gardening group, film club, day trips and a meals delivery service for people over 60.
Tadcaster Volunteer Community Support Association
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Tadcaster, North Yorkshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer drivers run a community car scheme from Kirkgate in Tadcaster, covering over 14,000 journeys a year to medical appointments, shopping and social events, alongside a charity shop and Men's Shed, knitting and jigsaw groups.
Kidz Klub Leeds
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Confirmed active 1 July 2026
Runs free activities for children in Leeds neighbourhoods including Burmantofts, Harehills and Beeston, through central and hub clubs and doorstep visits, plus summer Community Fun Days in parks such as Harehills Park. A faith-based charity.
Safe Anchor Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Mirfield, West Yorkshire
Confirmed active 11 July 2026
Volunteers run free boat trips from Shepley Bridge Marina in Mirfield for groups facing disability, isolation, age or deprivation. Four boats, two of them wheelchair accessible, sail from March to October, seven days a week. The charity began in 1995.
WHISH
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Whitby, North Yorkshire
Confirmed active 23 June 2026
Whitby charity running a sensory room, membership groups and clubs for children and families living with hidden impairments and SEND, from St Hilda's Hub since 2022, and a FEAST holiday programme. It began in 2008 and became a charity in 2015.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 4
Quality Education
A decent education wherever you happen to have been born, and not just for children.
Schools in the places that struggle most, adult learning, and the second chances people need later on.
The wins
- Primary completion rose to 88% between 2015 and 2024.
- Lower secondary completion rose to 78%, and upper secondary to 60%.
The challenges
- 273 million children and young people were out of school in 2024, about one in six.
- 754 million adults could not read in 2024, and 63% of them were women.
- Four in ten countries still fall short of gender parity in primary completion.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Look closer at this goal
Who is not in the classroom
Completion rates went up everywhere and the number of children outside school went up too, because there are more children.
- The out-of-school rate fell only from 17.4% in 2015 to 16.8% in 2024, leaving 273 million children and young people out of education.
- In low-income countries the out-of-school population has grown 29% since 2015. Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia together account for three quarters of the world total.
- In sub-Saharan Africa 68% of children complete primary education, 47% complete lower secondary and 28% complete upper secondary, against world figures of 88%, 78% and 61% in 2024.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Being in school is not the same as learning
This is the figure that changes what the completion rates mean, and it was falling before the pandemic touched it.
- In 2019, before the pandemic, only 58% of children reached minimum proficiency in reading by the end of primary school, and just 44% in mathematics.
- Across 57 countries with comparable data, most of them middle and high income, reading proficiency fell from 59% in 2012 to 47% in 2022, and mathematics from 41% to 36%.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Who is standing at the front
A teacher who has not been trained to teach is the quietest of the problems here, and it is barely moving.
- About one fifth of teachers worldwide did not meet their own country's minimum qualification standard in 2024.
- Qualified primary teachers rose only from 80% in 2015 to 82% in 2024, and secondary qualification levels fell slightly over the same period.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026
Look closer at the UK
The gap for disadvantaged pupils
Each of the four nations runs its own schools, so these figures are for England's state-funded schools only.
- 28.2% of pupils finishing key stage 4 in England's state-funded schools were recorded as disadvantaged in 2024/25, up from 26.5% in 2023/24.
- The gap between disadvantaged pupils and the rest in getting grade 5 or above in English and maths stayed at 27.3 percentage points in 2024/25, up from 25.2 in 2018/19.
- The average Attainment 8 gap widened to 15.5 points in 2024/25, from 13.6 in 2018/19.
Department for Education, Key stage 4 performance, academic year 2024/25. Covers England. Read it there
Not in work or education
This is an official statistic in development, and it covers England only.
- 13.3% of 16 to 24 year olds in England were not in education, employment or training in 2025, down 0.3 percentage points on 2024.
- For 18 to 24 year olds it was 16.0%, or 783,100 people, at the end of 2025.
- Young men were more likely than young women to be in that position in 2025: 14.0% against 12.7%.
Department for Education, NEET age 16 to 24, calendar year 2025. Covers England. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Teach First
England
Checked 7 September 2026
Addresses educational disadvantage in England by recruiting and training teachers and leaders to work in schools serving the most deprived communities.
WaterAid
United Kingdom
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia and 2 more
See the countries
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Colombia
Checked 7 September 2026
International charity working on clean water, sanitation and hygiene across 26 countries.
Friendship
Earthshot Prize Winner 2025Fix Our Climate
Bangladesh
Checked 10 September 2026
Social purpose organisation combining healthcare, education and climate resilience work to protect communities in Bangladesh most exposed to climate-driven disaster.
The Hunger Project
United States
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean
See the countries
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Peru
Confirmed active 8 September 2026
The global office of The Hunger Project, in New York, which sets programme strategy across thirteen countries and is the parent of eight fundraising country offices.
Disclosed connection: Past, lapsed. Founder was a member of Unleashed Women and fundraised via the ArcelorMittal Orbit abseil in September 2023.
South Shropshire Engineering Ambassadors
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Ludlow, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Mainly retired engineers who volunteer in South Shropshire primary schools, running after-school engineering activities and helping pupils build and race Greenpower electric kit cars.
Shrewsbury & Oswestry Crucial Crew
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Teaches safety and life skills to up to 1,500 ten-year-olds a year from around 50 primary schools in the Shrewsbury and Oswestry area, through hands-on scenarios run with volunteers.
Friends of Pontesbury Library
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Pontesbury, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers who kept Pontesbury's library open when it was threatened with closure, then moved it into the Pavilion Community Hub and Library. They fund it with plant sales, Santa runs, talks and concerts, and run activities for schools and older people.
RUFF & RUBY Urban Youth Charity
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A youth charity in Stoke-on-Trent since 2010, working with disadvantaged young people through workshops, a hip hop collective, a music studio, the Endz:ST1 hub and employment projects.
Shenstone Community Library
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Shenstone, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers who saved Shenstone's library from closure and now run it on behalf of Staffordshire County Council, with book loans, ebooks, events and refreshments.
Own Books
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Book recycling project founded in 2014 that gets free books into about 100 schools, plus nurseries and playgroups, so children can choose books and keep them at home. Books come regularly from World of Books.
Market Bosworth Community Library
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Market Bosworth, Leicestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-run library on Station Road, Market Bosworth, open six sessions a week, offering book loans, free computers and wi-fi, a warm space and room hire. It opened in August 2016.
Quorn Community Library
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Quorn, Leicestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-run library in the Old School building, Quorn, open six days a week with a monthly reading group, Wriggly Readers for young children, a chat and craft afternoon, and holiday craft mornings. It works with Leicestershire Libraries.
Sherwood Observatory
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Observatory, planetarium and science centre in Sutton-in-Ashfield run by volunteers of the Mansfield and Sutton Astronomical Society, formed in 1969. It runs school and group visits, open evenings, courses and planetarium shows to teach astronomy and STEM.
United Youth Alliance
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Blackpool, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Youth and community work on the Fylde Coast, including a Young Women's Group, a Rainbow Equality Group and a Young Men's Identity Group. It is also an accredited centre for youth work qualifications and runs an annual What About The Boys? conference.
Cumbria Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Penrith, Cumbria
Checked 1 October 2026
A county federation of young farmers' clubs with over 1,400 members aged 10 to 28, who do not need a farming background. Runs competitions, field days, skills training, socials and community fundraising across Cumbria.
LEAP Children, Families & Communities
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Based at the LEAP Centre in Ashton-under-Lyne, with a preschool nursery, family support, community allotments in Hyde and Dukinfield, horticultural therapy and green skills training. Founded in 1998 as St Peter's Partnerships, with over 30 staff plus volunteers.
Maryport and Solway Sea Cadets
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Maryport, Cumbria
Checked 1 October 2026
Sea Cadet unit (TS Caesar) in Maryport that trains young people in dinghy sailing, powerboating, canoeing, mountain biking, rock climbing, camping and music, and runs as a Royal Yachting Association training centre.
Olympias Music Foundation
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Manchester charity giving children from low-income families free one-to-one music lessons and instruments. Since 2015 it has delivered over 42,000 lessons to more than 600 young people, alongside choirs, SEND workshops and teacher training.
Special Educational Needs Families Support Group (SEN-FSG)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Urmston, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Independent group offering confidential advocacy, guidance, outreach and emergency support to families of children with special educational needs or disabilities, working with parents, carers and professionals across the Manchester area.
4th Crosby (St William of York) Scout Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Thornton, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Scout group in Thornton, Merseyside, running Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts for ages 4 to 14 at St William of York Parish Centre, Edge Lane, led by volunteers.
Birkdale Community Hub and Library
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Southport, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-run community library and hub in the Station Master's House on Liverpool Road, Birkdale, with a book collection, home book delivery, author events, line dancing and Welcome Spaces. Opened after the council library closed in 2013.
HOBY UK
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Warrington, Cheshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Youth leadership charity founded in Warrington in 2006 that runs an annual residential leadership seminar for school students and one-day Community Leadership Workshops at UK universities, with over 1,200 young people taking part.
1st Cockermouth Scout Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Cockermouth, Cumbria
Checked 1 October 2026
Scout group in Cockermouth with over 180 young people across 8 sections, run by more than 50 adult volunteers from its own scout hut. Offers scouting to boys and girls aged 4 to 17.
St George's Mill Hill Scout Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Mill Hill, Blackburn, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Scout group in Mill Hill, Blackburn, with over 80 young people aged 4 to 18 each week. It runs its own canalside outdoor activity centre, used by other Scout, Guide and community groups, and offers Duke of Edinburgh's Award to its Explorers.
BMHC Scout Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Scout group in south Manchester founded in November 2014 as the first Muslim Scout group in Greater Manchester. It has over 150 young people aged 4 to 18 and more than 25 trained volunteers, from Squirrels to Explorers.
Sea Cadets Sefton
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Litherland, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
A Sea Cadets unit in Litherland, Merseyside that trains young people in sailing, canoeing, power boating, camping and team sports, with about 41 volunteers. It runs as its own registered charity, separate from the national Sea Cadets body.
Boldon & Cleadon Community Library
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
East Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Not confirmed by us for 6 months
A volunteer-run library on Boker Lane in East Boldon, open six days a week with books, computers, talks and a spring fayre.
UTurn4Support
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 6 months
Mentoring, weekly clubs in Clacton and Colchester and holiday clubs for young people aged 9 to 18 (up to 25 with low-level SEND), run from a hub on Old Road in Clacton-on-Sea.
Let's Talk Reading
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Ipswich, Suffolk
Confirmed active 16 September 2026
Ipswich literacy charity that gives books to homes, runs free baby groups and storytimes in nurseries and playgroups, and matches adults who want to improve their reading with volunteer coaches for one to one support.
1st Ockendon Cub Scout Pack
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Ockendon, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Cub pack in Ockendon, Thurrock, with about 50 Cubs attending regularly for camping, practical skills and badge work, run by seven long-standing adult volunteers who give over 3,000 hours a year.
Achieve, Thrive, Flourish (ATF)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Southend-on-Sea, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Southend charity working since 2012 with young people aged 5 to 24 at risk of exclusion, running holiday clubs, accredited education, and sport, art and heritage activities, with schools, the Probation Service and housing associations.
icanyoucantoo
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
London
Confirmed active 12 June 2026
Volunteer-run programme, active since 2016, giving coaching and mentoring to 16 to 18 year olds from less advantaged London communities. It also delivers hot meals and essentials to families, with over 500 young people completing the programme.
51st Pellon Scout Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Pellon, Halifax, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 4 months
Volunteer-led Scout group in Pellon, Halifax, running Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts sections for children aged 4 to 14 at Pellon Community Centre and Beech Hill School. Founded in 2012, with over 100 young people and 35 leaders each week.
Bangladeshi Youth Organisation (BYO Bradford)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Manningham, Bradford, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Community charity on Cornwall Road in Manningham, Bradford, founded in 1982. It runs youth clubs, holiday clubs, study support, free English classes and karate for children, plus groups for women and older men, health sessions and food parcels.
Flourishing Families Leeds
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 6 months
Leeds charity running family cookery clubs, literacy and wellbeing groups and early years play sessions in community venues and primary schools. It began in 2017 with a single cookery club and now works with over 1,000 people a year.
Nell Bank
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Ilkley, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 5 months
An outdoor learning centre in Ilkley welcoming over 24,000 children a year for day visits and residentials, with an adventure playground, ponds and an amphitheatre. It also runs holiday activity days and assisted places.
Newby & Scalby Library and Information Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Confirmed active 23 August 2026
A volunteer-run community library on Scalby Road in Scarborough, open five days a week with a garden, computers, free clubs such as art, scrabble and toddler storytimes, and Summer Reading Challenge events for 5-12 year olds.
71st Doncaster Hunafa Scout Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Doncaster, South Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 5 months
Scout group meeting every Saturday, 11am to 12:30pm, at Woodfield Park Community Hall in Doncaster, with Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers. Started in 2017 to make Scouting open to ethnically diverse communities, it runs camping, hiking, swimming and canoeing.
Reach Up Youth
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Confirmed active 19 July 2026
Youth organisation based at Verdon Recreation Centre in Burngreave, Sheffield, running the youth-led mentoring projects Big Brother Burngreave and Sisterhood, alternative activities on dark nights, Healthy Holidays sessions and a community Fun Run held on 19 July 2026.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 5
Gender Equality
Women and girls get the same rights, the same safety and the same say as everybody else.
It runs from equal pay to refuges and helplines, and to who actually gets listened to in a room.
The wins
- 99 legal reforms between 2019 and 2025 removed discriminatory laws and built gender equality into national frameworks.
- Women held 27.4% of seats in national parliaments on 1 January 2026, up 5.1 percentage points since 2015.
The challenges
- 61 of the 131 countries surveyed still restrict women from doing the same jobs as men.
- Nearly one in five young women aged 20 to 24 were married before they turned 18.
- Over 230 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation, and 4 million girls are at risk each year.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set. Where that page was behind the UN’s own Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026, or did not carry the figure at all, the number here is the report’s, checked 12 September 2026. Read the report page.
Key dates for this goal
25 November
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
The UN's day marking the start of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, and it sits under Goal 5 here - West Mercia Women's Aid is the local listing for it.
On this goal’s list: West Mercia Women's Aid
8 March
International Women's Day
The UN's day for Goal 5, Gender Equality, and a fair day to look at who's doing the work near you - women held 27.4% of seats in the world's parliaments on 1 January 2026, so there's plenty still to close.
June
Pride Month
The whole of June, and it sits across Goal 5, Gender Equality, and Goal 10, Reduced Inequalities, here - about who gets the same rights and the same say as everybody else.
Look closer at this goal
Who is actually in the room
This is the part that gets counted most often, and it is moving at a pace you measure in fractions of a percentage point.
- The rise has all but stopped. Parliamentary representation gained 0.2 percentage points between 2025 and 2026, against 5.1 points across the whole decade since 2015.
- Seven countries have 50% or more women in parliament, up from three in 2015. Three still have none at all, and 18 have fewer than one in ten.
- Women held 30.5% of managerial jobs in 2025 while holding around 40% of all jobs. At that pace, equal representation in management is more than 50 years away.
- Sub-Saharan Africa gained the most ground of any region over the decade, up 7.7 percentage points, and in 2025 had the highest share of women managers in the world at 44.6%.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Safety, and who decides
This is the strand that has barely moved in twenty years, and the other three sit on top of it.
- 2023 estimates put 840 million women, nearly one in three, as having been subjected to physical or sexual violence at least once. The figure has barely changed since 2000.
- The same 2023 estimates put 316 million women aged 15 and over, 11% of those who have ever had a partner, as having been subjected to violence by that partner in the previous 12 months.
- Child marriage fell twice as fast between 2015 and 2024 as it did in the decade before, and over that period it still stood at 31% of young women in sub-Saharan Africa and 25% in Southern Asia.
- Across 78 countries in 2025, 56.3% of married or partnered women had the final say on all three of contraception, their own healthcare and refusing sex. That runs from 87.2% in Europe and Northern America to 36.8% in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
What it is funded to do
Having a policy and having paid for one are two different things, and the UN now counts them separately.
- 123 countries used some form of gender-responsive budgeting in 2025, up from 69 in 2018, but only one in four had a complete system for tracking where the money went.
- 91% of countries reported having gender equality policies in 2025, and just over half had budgeted enough to deliver them.
- The share of countries checking afterwards what their spending did for women actually fell between 2018 and 2025, from 43% to 37%.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Which way it is going
Two figures from the UN's wider gender equality page, and they point in opposite directions.
- In 2024, nearly a quarter of governments worldwide reported a backlash on women's rights.
- Closing the gender equality gap by 2030 needs an additional $360 billion a year.
Gender Equality, UN Global Issues Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Gender Equality, UN Global Issues
Look closer at the UK
What the pay gap is, and what it isn't
The UK figure changes a lot depending on who is counted.
- The gender pay gap fell to 12.8% in April 2025, from 13.1% in April 2024.
- Among full-time employees it was 6.9% in April 2025, down from 7.1% in April 2024.
Office for National Statistics, Gender pay gap in the UK: 2025. Covers UK. Read it there
Safety at home
These figures cover England and Wales only, and they can't be compared with anything before March 2024 because the survey questions changed.
- About 3.8 million people aged 16 and over, 7.8%, experienced domestic abuse in the year to March 2025.
- That was an estimated 2.2 million women (9.1%) and 1.5 million men (6.5%) in the year to March 2025.
Office for National Statistics, Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2025. Covers England and Wales. Read it there
Who's in the room here
The Commons and the Lords are a long way apart.
- As of March 2026, around 41% of MPs in the House of Commons were women, and 32% of the House of Lords.
- 10 of the 22 cabinet members were women in March 2026.
House of Commons Library, Women in politics and public life. Covers UK. Read it there
How the UK compares
The World Economic Forum ranks 145 economies every year, and the UK is near the top of a list nobody has finished.
- The UK was 5th in 2026, with 84.2% of its gender gap closed.
- No economy had reached full parity in 2026. Iceland was closest at 93%.
- Worldwide the gap was 69.2% closed in 2026. At the pace of the 97 economies measured since 2006, parity is 120 years away.
World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2026. Covers UK against 145 economies. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
West Mercia Women's Aid
Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and 1 more
Checked 7 September 2026
Full member of the Women's Aid Federation of England. Runs a 24-hour domestic abuse helpline, refuge accommodation, outreach and floating support, and a children's support service across four counties.
Marked on: International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
WaterAid
United Kingdom
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia and 2 more
See the countries
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Colombia
Checked 7 September 2026
International charity working on clean water, sanitation and hygiene across 26 countries.
Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef
Earthshot Prize Winner 2022Revive Our Oceans
Australia
Checked 10 September 2026
Queensland Indigenous Women Rangers Network, building the next generation of women rangers who combine ancestral knowledge with modern technology to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
The Hunger Project
United States
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean
See the countries
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Peru
Confirmed active 8 September 2026
The global office of The Hunger Project, in New York, which sets programme strategy across thirteen countries and is the parent of eight fundraising country offices.
Disclosed connection: Past, lapsed. Founder was a member of Unleashed Women and fundraised via the ArcelorMittal Orbit abseil in September 2023.
Saathi House
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Aston, Birmingham
Checked 1 October 2026
A community hub in Aston supporting women, young people and migrant communities since 1977, with wellbeing work, a girls' youth club, debt advice and the 25-week Women Leading Change programme.
Shama Women's Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Leicester, Leicestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Leicester women's centre working for over 39 years with women from diverse communities. Services include counselling, domestic abuse support, employment help, education and training, childcare and befriending, at its centre on Sparkenhoe Street.
Women With Wings CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Little Hulton, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
An enterprise centre in Little Hulton where women can use office and training rooms, gain qualifications and start a business, with yoga, art classes and talking groups alongside. It supports women facing language and childcare barriers.
Supporting Sisters
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Bury, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Bury-based women's group formed in 2019, with bilingual volunteers and staff offering advice on benefits and housing, befriending, domestic abuse and mental health support, a walking group and drop-ins, with reach into south Asian communities.
Bury Active Women's Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Bury, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Women's centre on South Cross Street, Bury, open since 1996, with a bilingual female adviser on debt, benefits, housing and employment, plus exercise, cookery, craft and wellness courses mainly for South Asian women.
Diversity Matters North West
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Hyde, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Hyde charity based at the Hyde Healthy Living Centre that runs conversational English lessons, creative workshops, advice surgeries and a women's interpreting and translation service, mainly for South Asian women.
Merseyside Domestic Violence Service (MDVS)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Liverpool, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Liverpool charity giving free, confidential support to women and families affected by domestic violence, and running an integrated safety service that also works with male perpetrators. Run with 10 volunteers and a small staff team.
KRIMMZ Girls Youth Club CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Bolton, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs weekly sport, sewing, cooking and leadership sessions for women and girls from diverse ethnic communities across Bolton, reaching more than 450 participants. Incorporated as a CIC in February 2023.
Smart Works Newcastle
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear
Confirmed active 16 September 2026
Gives out-of-work women in the North East a free interview outfit and interview coaching at its Newcastle centre on Collingwood Street, with career coaching for those without an interview booked. It has run since 2018 and says it has helped over 3,700 women.
Essex Asian Women's Association
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Southend-on-Sea, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Registered in 2008, EAWA supports Asian women in Southend and across Essex with health awareness, advice for isolated women and help for those facing domestic abuse. Membership is open to women of any background.
Feathers Futures
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
Not confirmed by us for 9 months
Women's charity at Feathers House on Hall Quay, Great Yarmouth, offering drop-ins with no booking, one to one counselling, domestic abuse recovery support, and groups such as yoga, a book club and a gardening club.
Living Keys
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
Confirmed active 13 August 2026
Peterborough charity run by volunteers that offers women who have experienced abuse free courses, including the Freedom Programme, workshops and social spaces. It says it supported 436 women over three years.
York Women's Counselling Service
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
York, North Yorkshire
Confirmed active 14 September 2026
Trained volunteer counsellors give one to one counselling to women in York who cannot get help through public health services or afford private counselling. Running since 2001, it also offers domestic abuse support, from two counselling rooms at the Centre for Voluntary Service.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 6
Clean Water and Sanitation
Clean water out of the tap and a safe toilet. Still not true for an enormous number of people.
Closer to home it's about what gets discharged into the rivers and the sea.
The wins
- 961 million people gained safe drinking water between 2015 and 2024.
- 1.2 billion gained safe sanitation, and 1.6 billion gained basic hygiene.
The challenges
- 2.2 billion people still had no safely managed drinking water.
- 3.4 billion had no safely managed sanitation.
- 1.7 billion had no basic hygiene at home in 2024.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Look closer at this goal
Where the gains landed
The biggest improvements of the decade were rural, which is not where most people would guess.
- By 2024 global coverage stood at 74% for safely managed drinking water, up from 68% in 2015, 58% for sanitation up from 48%, and 80% for hygiene up from 66%.
- Between 2015 and 2024, in rural areas, safe drinking water grew from 50% to 60%, safe sanitation from 36% to 49% and basic hygiene from 52% to 71%. Open defecation fell by 429 million people and is nearly gone from urban areas.
- The least developed countries were around two to three times more likely to lack these services than the world average in 2024, and countries affected by conflict and instability lagged 33 to 38 percentage points behind stable ones.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Who actually uses the water
Nearly three quarters of the world's fresh water goes on growing food, and that sector gets the least value out of it.
- Agriculture also improved the most between 2015 and 2023, up 39%, against 33% in industry and 10% in services. It takes 72% of all freshwater withdrawals and is the least efficient user at $0.7 per cubic metre, against $38 in industry and $115.5 in services.
- Water-use efficiency improved 24% between 2015 and 2023, from $17.4 to $21.5 per cubic metre, driven less by using less water than by producing more from it.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Stress, and the rivers running low
The world average has not moved in a decade, and the regional figures behind it are nothing like it.
- Global water stress held at 18% in 2023, almost exactly the 2015 level, and exceeds 75% in Northern Africa and Western Asia and in Southern and Central Asia. Around 10% of the world lives in countries at high or critical stress.
- Around 46% of countries have seen minimum river flows shrink, and over a fifth report reductions above 10%, measured over 2019 to 2023 against a 2000 to 2019 baseline.
- 124 countries reported on water quality in 2023, up from 72 in 2017, and about half of the water bodies monitored showed good ambient quality.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Plans without the money to do them
This is a goal where the policy is largely written and the funding to carry it out is not there.
- The average score for integrated water resources management rose to 57 out of 100 in 2023, up from 49 in 2017. Of 183 countries surveyed, 73 remain significantly behind on implementing their frameworks.
- In 2023, 85% of countries reported insufficient revenue to carry out their water management plans, and around 70% lacked adequate funding at the local and basin level where water is actually managed.
- In 2023 only 43 countries had operational arrangements covering 90% or more of their shared transboundary basin area, and at least 20 countries had none at all.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
What clean water buys
Three figures from the UN's wider water page, and the first one is the reason this goal sits underneath goal 3.
- Improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene can save 1.4 million lives a year, according to the World Health Organization in 2023.
- Water-related disasters have dominated the list of disasters over the past 50 years and account for 70% of all deaths related to natural disasters, according to the World Bank in 2022.
- The Water for Life decade of action, 2005 to 2015, helped around 1.3 billion people in developing countries gain access to safe drinking water.
Water, UN Global Issues Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Water, UN Global Issues
Look closer at the UK
Rivers and lakes
England's rivers were assessed in 2025 for the first time since 2019, with a different method, so the two results can't be compared.
- 14.3% of England's surface waters achieved good ecological status in 2025.
- In 2025, 65.4% were moderate, 17% poor, 3.1% bad and 0.1% high.
- 82% of individual ecological indicators were good or high in the 2025 data.
- Around a third of the water bodies that failed to reach good status in 2025 failed on just one element.
Environment Agency, New data to drive action to improve England's rivers and lakes. Covers England. Read it there
What comes out of the tap
Drinking water is tested separately from rivers, and the results are very different.
- 99.97% of tests on public water supplies in England met the standards in 2025.
- The Inspectorate was notified of 586 water quality events in England in 2025. 217 of them, 37%, were outside the water companies' direct control, in consumers' own distribution systems.
Drinking Water Inspectorate, Drinking Water 2025, Chief Inspector's report for England. Covers England. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
WaterAid
United Kingdom
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia and 2 more
See the countries
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Colombia
Checked 7 September 2026
International charity working on clean water, sanitation and hygiene across 26 countries.
Acción Andina
Earthshot Prize Winner 2023Protect & Restore Nature
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and 2 more
Checked 10 September 2026
Grassroots initiative co-founded by the non-profits Global Forest Generation and Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos, uniting Indigenous and local communities across the Andes to protect and restore native high mountain forest and the water supplies that depend on it.
The Hunger Project
United States
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean
See the countries
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Peru
Confirmed active 8 September 2026
The global office of The Hunger Project, in New York, which sets programme strategy across thirteen countries and is the parent of eight fundraising country offices.
Disclosed connection: Past, lapsed. Founder was a member of Unleashed Women and fundraised via the ArcelorMittal Orbit abseil in September 2023.
Teme Valley Environment Group
Knighton, Powys
Checked 22 September 2026
An open group in and around Knighton for people of any age or ability concerned about local sustainability. Plants fruit trees around the town for free public picking, runs monthly litter picks, tests the River Teme for water quality, and has run an anti-plastics campaign.
Plastic Free Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
Plastic Free Lyme Regis is the Surfers Against Sewage-accredited plastic reduction campaign run under Turn Lyme Green, with active support from Lyme Regis Town Council. The site states 23 local businesses have earned its Plastic Free Business Champion award. Turn Lyme Green's own pages also document the River Lim Action Group, running litter picks and beach cleans and river monitoring and a water pollution reporting system for the River Lim, Dorset Seed Savers for food growing, Bee Friendly Lyme Regis for pollinator habitat, and a Recycle Sewing Group.
Grantham RiverCare
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Grantham, Lincolnshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers formed in 2004 who care for the River Witham in Grantham between Bridge End Road and Harrowby weir, litter picking, clearing Himalayan balsam and testing water at nine sites. They have completed over 150 outings.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 7
Affordable and Clean Energy
Energy people can afford that doesn't cook the planet to produce.
Insulation, heat pumps, solar, and community energy schemes owned by the people using them.
The wins
- Electricity access rose from 87% in 2015 to 92% in 2024, and 45 countries reached universal access.
- Clean cooking access reached 75% globally, up from 64% in 2015.
- Renewables reached 18% of final energy consumption, up from 15.6% in 2015.
The challenges
- 655 million people had no electricity at all in 2024.
- 1.8 billion are still expected to be cooking on unsafe, polluting fuels in 2030.
- International support for clean energy was $24.6 billion in 2024, down from a peak of $28.4 billion.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Key dates for this goal
27 March
Earth Hour
An hour with the lights off, and it sits across two goals here - Goal 7, Affordable and Clean Energy, and Goal 13, Climate Action, because it's the same switch.
Look closer at this goal
Where the last 8% is
Almost everyone left without electricity is in one region, and the rate of progress has halved.
- 655 million people had no electricity in 2024, only 11.5 million fewer than in 2023. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 86% of them.
- Since 2020 the average annual gain has fallen to around 0.35 percentage points, half the pace achieved between 2010 and 2020. Access is projected to reach only 92.5% by 2030.
- Clean cooking reached 75% globally in 2024 and just 22% in sub-Saharan Africa. A billion fewer people relied mainly on polluting cooking fuels in 2024 than in 2010.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Where the renewables actually are
Electricity is the part of this that is working. Heating and transport are the part nobody talks about.
- Renewables supplied over 30% of the world's electricity in 2023, up from 23% in 2015, with hydropower still the largest single source at close to 15% of consumption.
- Renewable heating reached 21.4% in 2023 and transport only 4.3%, though transport grew fastest, up nearly 12% between 2022 and 2023.
- Installed renewable capacity reached a record 544 watts per person in 2024, the largest annual increase to date.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Watts per person, and who has them
Developing countries are building renewable capacity faster than rich ones, and starting from so far behind that it barely shows.
- In 2024 high-income countries had 1,224 watts of installed renewable capacity per person and upper-middle-income countries 808, against 117 in lower-middle-income countries and 34 in low-income countries.
- Developing countries grew renewable capacity at 13% a year over the last five years against 8% in developed countries, and held 47% of installed capacity in 2024 against 45%.
- Eastern and South-Eastern Asia led regional growth between 2015 and 2024 with a near fourfold increase, while Oceania, sub-Saharan Africa, small island states and the least developed and landlocked countries all grew below average.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Using less to do the same
Efficiency is the cheapest thing on this list and the one nobody is hitting.
- Energy intensity improved 1.5% in 2023, slower than the 2.4% recorded in 2022 and slightly above the 2015 to 2023 average of 1.4%.
- No region met the 2.6% annual improvement rate the target requires between 2010 and 2023, though 6 of the 20 largest energy-consuming countries did.
- International support for clean energy in developing countries was $24.6 billion in 2024. Flows to the least developed countries fell 11% and to small island states 5% in the same year.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026
Look closer at the UK
Where the electricity comes from
This is one quarter, January to March 2026, not a full year.
- Renewables made up 53.1% of UK electricity generation in the first quarter of 2026.
- Low carbon generation, which adds nuclear to renewables, was 63.8% in the first quarter of 2026.
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Energy Trends: June 2026. Covers UK. Read it there
Keeping warm
England counts a household as fuel poor by its income and by how energy efficient its home is, and the 2025 figures are projections.
- An estimated 9.4% of households in England, 2.36 million, were in fuel poverty in 2025, down from 9.9%, 2.47 million, in 2024.
- The average fuel poverty gap in England was estimated at £379 in 2025.
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Annual fuel poverty statistics report: 2026. Covers England. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Centre for Alternative Technology
Machynlleth, Powys, Wales
Checked 7 September 2026
Eco-centre and charity founded in 1973, dedicated to inspiring, informing and enabling responses to the climate and biodiversity emergency through renewable energy demonstration, sustainability education and training courses.
Disclosed connection: Current, disclosed. Founder is a supporter and it is a line in the UnLtd budget.
Stretton Climate Care
Church Stretton, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A registered charity working across energy, transport, food, waste and nature in the Strettons. Runs the local repair cafe, electric vehicle days and open house demonstrations, and publishes information sheets and case studies for households.
Marches Energy Advice
The Pump House, Coton Hill, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Derbyshire and 1 more
Checked 22 September 2026
An independent charity offering impartial, person-centred energy advice across Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. Covers bill reduction, efficiency improvements and retrofit guidance including insulation and renewable heating. Operating since 1995.
Sharenergy
The Pump House, Coton Hill, Shrewsbury and United Kingdom
Checked 22 September 2026
Helps communities set up and own renewable energy societies, and has been involved in well over 100 community energy projects across the UK since 2011. Its Big Solar Co-op makes it straightforward for local groups to get rooftop solar started.
Sustainable Nantwich
Nantwich, Cheshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A volunteer-led CIC in Nantwich, Cheshire, working on what it names as the three planetary crises of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Grew out of Plastic Free Nantwich (launched 2019, Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status March 2022) into Sustainable Nantwich in January 2020. Runs the Nantwich Mill Community Energy Company and a community growing garden alongside its campaigning, and won Nantwich's Mayor's 'Salt of the Earth' outstanding organisation award in 2023.
Wellingborough Eco Group
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A community group working to reduce, reuse and recycle across the borough, in partnership with Wellingborough Town Council, North Northamptonshire Council, Greatwell Homes and Co-op. Runs a single-use plastic reduction campaign of its own - including a 2024 'Stop Using Plastic' advent calendar and advocacy for refill stations, pointing people to Food for Thought in Nene Court for package-free shopping - alongside an Energy Savers community energy project run with the Centre for Sustainable Energy and a Wellingborough Climate Action Project. Runs a tree nursery and tree planting days ('Love Your Tree Day'), a community allotment and Stanwell Community Garden, plus Repair Cafes, Swap Shops and litter picks ('Wellie Wombles', 'Two Hour Tidy Ups'). Won the Environment Award at the BBC Radio Northampton Make a Difference Awards.
Plastic Free Boston Spa
Boston Spa, West Yorkshire
Checked 23 September 2026
Run by Boston Green Group, a registered charity (Charity Number 1204438) describing itself as non-politically affiliated, with parish council members and local business owners on its Community Green Groups Steering Group. Boston Spa Parish Council passed a resolution in November 2022 supporting the journey to Plastic Free Community status; as of the site's most recent update the campaign needed one more business sign-up for national accreditation. Six local businesses and organisations have pledged support: Douglas Yeadons Hardware Store, The Pudding Lab, Boston Spa Library, Boston Spa Methodist Church, Oasis Human Relations and 2nd Boston Spa Brownies. The group also runs a tree cover and wildlife corridor project (bat boxes, hedgerow management, butterfly counting April to September) and an energy action area offering advice on heat pumps, solar PV, batteries and retrofit insulation alongside eco-energy fairs; it lists 'creating a clean river environment' and 'net zero carbon and energy efficiency' as developing projects, and takes part in the Yorkshire Wild Waters campaign.
Sustainable Swanage
Swanage, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
A volunteer-led group running environmental projects across Swanage and the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset. Swanage achieved Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status in July 2019, the 4th Dorset town to do so. Runs butterfly, wildflower and swift surveys and tree planting on local green spaces and helps manage the Downs Local Nature Reserve, and delivered Solar Streets Swanage, which had completed 21 solar installations by June 2022 and generated a £1,150 community fund.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 8
Decent Work and Economic Growth
Work that pays properly and treats people decently, for everybody who wants it.
Getting young people into work, and keeping experienced people in it rather than writing them off.
The wins
- Child labour fell to around 138 million children in 2024, more than 20 million fewer than in 2020.
- Global unemployment held at a record low of 4.9% in 2025, with 1.3 million fewer people out of work than the year before.
The challenges
- 57.9% of workers were still informally employed, without proper protection.
- National compliance with labour rights fell by 6.4% between 2015 and 2024.
- Youth unemployment was 12.4% in 2025, nearly four times the adult rate of 3.7%.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set. Where that page was behind the UN’s own Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026, or did not carry the figure at all, the number here is the report’s, checked 12 September 2026. Read the report page.
Look closer at this goal
The headline hides the map
Record low unemployment is a real figure and it is a world average, and the places furthest behind are further behind than in 2015.
- In the least developed countries, the landlocked developing countries and sub-Saharan Africa, unemployment was higher in 2025 than it was in 2015.
- Female unemployment has fallen slightly since 2015 and the gender gap has still widened by 0.2 percentage points. In Northern Africa and Western Asia women are twice as likely to be jobless as men.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Young people, and what they are not doing
One in five young people worldwide is not working, not studying and not training, and that share is rising again.
- The share of young people not in employment, education or training rose from 19.9% in 2024 to 20.0% in 2025 and is projected to reach 20.2% by 2027, an extra 4 million young people.
- In 2025 young women were twice as likely as young men to be in that position worldwide, and four times as likely in Central and Southern Asia.
- Youth unemployment reached 12.4% in 2025, nearly four times the adult rate of 3.7%.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Work without a contract
Having a job and having protection are different things for well over half the working world.
- Informal employment accounted for 57.9% of all work in 2025 and has barely changed since 2015. In the least developed countries and sub-Saharan Africa it is nearly nine workers in ten.
- The global score for freedom of association and collective bargaining stood at 4.83 in 2024 on a scale where 0 is best, a 6.4% decline since 2015. Weighting every country equally rather than by workforce size, the decline is 12.9%.
- Child labour has fallen by more than 20 million since 2020, and 138 million children remain in it, nearly 8% of all children, including 54 million in hazardous work. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly two thirds.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Growth, and who it reached
The countries that were promised the fastest growth by the 2030 Agenda are the ones getting the slowest.
- Global real GDP per person grew 1.7% a year on average over 2015 to 2024, down from 2.0% over 2010 to 2014.
- Growth in the least developed countries fell from 7.1% a year over 2005 to 2009 to 4.7% over 2015 to 2024, against the 7% target the 2030 Agenda sets.
- Output per worker grew 1.7% in 2025, above 3.5% in Central and Southern Asia and Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, and below 1% in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Bank accounts and tourism jobs
Two things in this goal are moving quickly in the right direction, and both of them run on a mobile phone.
- 79% of adults worldwide held an account at a bank, mobile money provider or other financial institution in 2025, up from 74% in 2021. Formal savings jumped from 24% of adults in 2021 to 40% in 2024.
- Tourism employed 173 million people across 134 countries in 2024, about one worker in twenty, up 14.3% since 2015.
- In the least developed countries tourism employment rose 42.4% since 2015 and in landlocked developing countries 27.8%. In small island states tourism is around 11% of all employment.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026
Look closer at the UK
The bottom of the pay scale
This comes from the annual survey of what UK jobs actually pay, taken every April.
- The share of low-paid employee jobs fell to 2.5% in April 2025, from 3.4% in 2024, the lowest since the series began in 1997.
- The share of high-paid employee jobs rose to 23.2% in April 2025.
- An estimated 447,000 jobs, 1.6% of the total, were paid below the National Living Wage or National Minimum Wage in April 2025.
Office for National Statistics, Low and high pay in the UK: 2025. Covers UK. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
The King's Trust
United Kingdom
Checked 7 September 2026
Youth charity supporting 11 to 30 year-olds facing unemployment, school exclusion or other barriers into work, education or training.
GAYO, Green Africa Youth Organization
Earthshot Prize Winner 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Ghana and Uganda
Checked 10 September 2026
Youth-led organisation running a Zero Waste Model that builds circular waste infrastructure and jobs, training people from across the community to turn waste into compost and charcoal briquettes.
The Hunger Project
United States
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean
See the countries
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Peru
Confirmed active 8 September 2026
The global office of The Hunger Project, in New York, which sets programme strategy across thirteen countries and is the parent of eight fundraising country offices.
Disclosed connection: Past, lapsed. Founder was a member of Unleashed Women and fundraised via the ArcelorMittal Orbit abseil in September 2023.
The Highlife Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Coventry
Checked 1 October 2026
A Coventry charity offering business and enterprise support, youth development and employability programmes, and community, arts and heritage work from Barras Green.
Women With Wings CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Little Hulton, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
An enterprise centre in Little Hulton where women can use office and training rooms, gain qualifications and start a business, with yoga, art classes and talking groups alongside. It supports women facing language and childcare barriers.
Yuvanis Foundation
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Oldham, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs employment guidance, free access to technology, sports sessions, mental health activities and the Holiday Activities and Food programme from Middleton Road in Oldham, mainly for young people, women and South Asian and other minority ethnic communities. Active since 2009.
Smart Works Newcastle
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear
Confirmed active 16 September 2026
Gives out-of-work women in the North East a free interview outfit and interview coaching at its Newcastle centre on Collingwood Street, with career coaching for those without an interview booked. It has run since 2018 and says it has helped over 3,700 women.
Enterprise East Group C.I.C.
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Saffron Walden, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 4 months
Social enterprise in Saffron Walden, founded in 2017, running a cafe, refill shop and salon that give people training, supported work and a route into employment, alongside outreach projects for people facing isolation.
Just the Job Environmental Enterprise
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Richmond, North Yorkshire
Confirmed active 29 September 2026
Gives adults practical work-based training in horticulture, garden maintenance, arts and crafts and performing arts in three acres of gardens at Richmond, and helps manage the Rufus Woods community woodland. Work on a £1.2 million new base began in September 2026.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 9
Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
The roads, bridges, broadband and industry a country actually runs on, built to last and built cleaner.
It's the least glamorous goal and quietly the one a lot of the others depend on.
The wins
- Manufacturing value added per person rose 18.1% between 2015 and 2025.
- 5G mobile broadband now reaches 55% of the world's population.
The challenges
- 4% of the world still had no mobile broadband at all in 2024.
- CO2 emissions from fuel burning and industry hit an all-time high of 38.1 gigatons.
- Manufacturing's share of employment slipped to 13.7%, down from 14.3% in 2015.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Look closer at this goal
Output up, jobs down
Industry is producing more and employing a smaller share of the world, and those two facts are the same fact.
- Manufacturing value added per person rose 18.1% between 2015 and 2025, from $1,657 to $1,956 at constant 2020 prices, while manufacturing's share of GDP stayed flat at 15.6%.
- Central and Southern Asia raised value added per person 47.9% since 2015. It fell 16.7% in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Medium and high-technology manufacturing rose from 44.95% of manufacturing value added in 2015 to a record 47.29% in 2023.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
The 5G gap is not a gap
Eighty-four against four. This is the single widest ratio anywhere in the seventeen goals.
- By 2025, 5G reached 84% of people in high-income countries and 4% of people in low-income countries.
- 4G covered 93% of the world and 3G 96% in 2025, leaving a mobile broadband gap of 4%.
- In 2025, in the least developed countries 12% of people and in landlocked developing countries 11% still had no mobile broadband signal at all.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Where the research money is
Research capacity is the thing that decides which countries get to solve their own problems.
- Research and development spending rose from 1.71% of world GDP in 2015 to 1.92% in 2023, growing 4.9% a year, and researchers per million people rose from 1,141 to 1,486.
- Europe and Northern America invested 2.55% of GDP in research in 2023 and had 4,358 researchers per million people. Sub-Saharan Africa had 88 researchers per million.
- Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa all invested under 1% of GDP in research in 2023. Women made up 31.4% of researchers worldwide.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
What the world moves, and what it emits
Four fifths of everything traded goes by sea, and the emissions figure underneath it turned a corner nobody expected.
- Seaborne trade reached an estimated 24.1 billion metric tons in 2024, 16% higher than 2015, carrying more than 80% of all merchandise trade.
- Eastern Asia and Europe each account for about 23% of seaborne trade, with Europe's share down 4.7 percentage points since 2015.
- CO2 emissions from fuel burning and industry hit a record 38.1 gigatons in 2025. For the first time in almost 30 years advanced economies grew emissions faster than emerging and developing ones, 0.5% against 0.3%, while China's fell 0.5%.
- Since 2019, solar, wind and nuclear power, electric vehicles and heat pumps together prevented around 3 gigatons of CO2 in 2025, about 8% of energy-related emissions.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026
Look closer at the UK
Who can get connected
Ofcom counts the homes that could get a fast connection, not the ones that have one.
- Gigabit-capable broadband was available to 89% of UK homes, 27.1 million, in January 2026, up from 87% in July 2025.
- Full fibre was available to 24.9 million UK homes, 82%, in January 2026.
- Good 4G coverage from every mobile network reached 84% of the UK landmass in January 2026, up three percentage points on July 2025.
Ofcom, Connected Nations update: Spring 2026. Covers UK. Read it there
Who pays for research
Most of the UK's research and development is done by business, not by universities or government.
- £79.4 billion was spent on research and development in the UK in 2024, £3.6 billion more than in 2023.
- Business did £55.6 billion of it in 2024, 70%, and universities £17.9 billion, 23%.
- It came to 2.71% of GDP in 2024, down slightly from 2.72% in 2023, because GDP changed rather than R&D.
Office for National Statistics, Gross domestic expenditure on research and development, UK: 2024. Covers UK. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
Nothing listed against this goal yet. If you know an organisation that belongs here, put it forward on the sign up form.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 10
Reduced Inequalities
Closing the gaps between people, whether the gap is disability, race, age or income.
This is the goal about who gets left out, and about the assumptions that leave them there.
The wins
- Incomes of the poorest 40% have been growing faster than the national average in most countries.
- Six in ten countries have reduced the share of people living on less than half the median income.
The challenges
- One person in five worldwide has experienced discrimination, with women and disabled people worst affected.
- Refugee numbers more than doubled over the decade, reaching 36.6 million under UNHCR's mandate by mid-2025.
- Discrimination rose to 24.3% in the world's least developed countries.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Key dates for this goal
3 December
International Day of Persons with Disabilities
The UN's day for Goal 10, Reduced Inequalities, and disability is one of the gaps that goal covers - Scope is the listing that sits closest to it here.
On this goal’s list: Scope
June
Pride Month
The whole of June, and it sits across Goal 5, Gender Equality, and Goal 10, Reduced Inequalities, here - about who gets the same rights and the same say as everybody else.
Look closer at this goal
Whose incomes rose
In most countries the poorest are gaining faster than the average. The exceptions are the places where poverty is worst.
- Of 112 countries with at least two comparable surveys since 2015, nearly 60% recorded income growth for the poorest 40% that outpaced the national average.
- Since 2015, East and South-East Asia led at 73% of countries achieving inclusive growth, while Central and South Asia trailed at 38%. Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa, where extreme poverty is most entrenched, had relatively low shares.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
The share that goes to wages
When the share of the economy paid out as wages falls, the gains go to whoever owns things instead. It is falling.
- Labour's share of GDP fell from 53.0% in 2015 to 52.6% in 2025, equivalent to $196 in purchasing power parity per worker each year.
- Between 2015 and 2025 the sharpest falls were in small island developing states, down 1.9 percentage points, and landlocked developing countries, down 1.5 points. Central and Southern Asia improved and the least developed countries recorded modest gains.
- 57.9% of the world's working-age population was employed in 2025, meaning labour income directly supporting 3.6 billion workers and their families.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
People on the move
The refugee share of the world has more than doubled in a decade, and the figure for people who died trying comes with a warning attached.
- The share of the world living as refugees reached 444 per 100,000 people by mid-2025, more than double the 2015 figure of 214 per 100,000.
- 36.6 million people were refugees under the UN refugee agency's mandate by the end of June 2025, with a further 5.9 million Palestinian refugees under a separate agency not counted in that figure.
- At least 7,900 people died or disappeared while migrating in 2025, down from the 2024 record of 9,197. Restricted access and reduced funding for humanitarian groups mean many deaths are likely going uncounted.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Where development money actually goes
More money in total, a smaller share of it the reliable kind.
- Total resource flows to developing countries reached $508 billion in 2024 in constant prices, 61% higher than 2015. Aid's share of that slipped from 54% in 2015 to 50% in 2024 as more volatile private flows grew.
- Asia received $133 billion in 2024, Africa $78 billion, Latin America and the Caribbean $76.5 billion, Europe $70.5 billion and Oceania $4.1 billion. The least developed countries received $80 billion.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
The first fall in a decade
Two figures from the UN's wider refugees page, and the first is the only good news on displacement for ten years.
- At the end of 2025 an estimated 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced, the first decline in global forced displacement in a decade, and still at historically high levels.
- At the end of 2025, among them were 41.6 million refugees and other people in need of protection across international borders, alongside tens of millions of internally displaced people and millions of asylum-seekers.
Refugees, UN Global Issues Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Refugees, UN Global Issues
Look closer at the UK
What taxes and benefits change
Inequality is measured here on a scale where 0% would mean every household had the same income. The difference between the first two figures is what taxes and cash benefits do.
- Before taxes and cash benefits, income inequality in the UK was 47.6% in the year to March 2024.
- After them it was 32.9% in the year to March 2024, from 33.1% the year before, a change too small to be significant.
- For retired households it was 27.9% in the year to March 2024, against 33.1% for everybody else.
Office for National Statistics, Household income inequality, UK: financial year ending 2024. Covers UK. Read it there
Disabled people and work
The gap is the difference between the employment rates for disabled and non-disabled people.
- 5.5 million disabled people were in work in the UK in April to June 2025, and their employment rate was 52.8%, against 82.5% for non-disabled people.
- The disability employment gap was 29.7 percentage points in April to June 2025.
Department for Work and Pensions, The employment of disabled people 2025. Covers UK. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Scope
England and Wales
Checked 7 September 2026
Disability equality charity for England and Wales, providing practical information, emotional support and a helpline to disabled people and their families, and campaigning to reduce structural inequality.
Marked on: International Day of Persons with Disabilities
Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Ecuador and Peru
Checked 10 September 2026
Indigenous-led alliance of Amazonian nations protecting 86 million acres of forest through territorial governance, advocacy and a regenerative bioeconomy.
Tenure Facility
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2025Protect & Restore Nature
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Global funding and legal mechanism dedicated to securing land and forest rights for Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant Peoples and local communities.
Shropshire European Organisation CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Started as the Polish Centre Shrewsbury and now helps people from across Europe and from ethnic minorities settle in Shropshire, with advice, a community cafe and help understanding life in the UK.
West Shropshire Talking Newspaper
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers record a weekly audio edition of local news from the Shropshire Star, and a digest of the Shropshire Magazine, for anyone who cannot read printed papers.
Body Positive Cheshire and North Wales
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Crewe, Cheshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A Crewe-based charity that has supported LGBTQ+ people for more than 30 years, with counselling, social and support groups, the Glow Choir, TransPositive and training across Cheshire and North Wales.
Saathi House
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Aston, Birmingham
Checked 1 October 2026
A community hub in Aston supporting women, young people and migrant communities since 1977, with wellbeing work, a girls' youth club, debt advice and the 25-week Women Leading Change programme.
The Wheely Different Theatre Company
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Kidderminster, Worcestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers running theatre, dance and drama workshops and productions for disabled adults in the Wyre Forest, building confidence and wellbeing.
Notts LGBT+ Network
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-led charity giving LGBT+ people across Nottinghamshire information and support since 1975, by phone, text, email and online chat from 7pm to 9pm on weekdays, plus a county-wide events calendar.
Bury LGBTQI+ Forum
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Bury, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
A charity founded in June 2021 that holds monthly meetings and events for LGBTQI+ people in Bury, including the Rainbow Train and Bury Pride, and signposts people to partner support services.
Bury People First
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Bury, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
A self-advocacy group run by and for learning disabled people in Bury. Members plan and run workshops and training on housing, employment, transport and hate crime, and work with local services on the issues they raise.
Caring and Sharing Rochdale
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Rochdale, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Rochdale charity founded in 2017 that supports refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and Black, Asian and minority ethnic families through workshops, community events and practical help, working with over 180 volunteers.
Diversity Matters North West
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Hyde, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Hyde charity based at the Hyde Healthy Living Centre that runs conversational English lessons, creative workshops, advice surgeries and a women's interpreting and translation service, mainly for South Asian women.
Fleetwood Beach Wheelchairs
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Fleetwood, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Lends all-terrain beach wheelchairs, supported seating and beach buggies free from The Wheel Base on the Esplanade in Fleetwood, booked by freephone with 24 hours' notice. Running since 2020 and funded by donations.
Happy Smiles Training
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Wigan, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Wigan social enterprise, led by disabled people, that delivers disability inclusion training to schools, employers and community groups, including Oliver McGowan training, and runs employment pathways for disabled people. Has trained over 12,500 people.
West African Development (WAD)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Based in Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside, it runs pre-ESOL and basic computer courses, a community interpreting project, advice and counselling, a multifaith chaplaincy and a football team, mainly for West African and other residents new to the area.
Hart Gables
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham
Confirmed active 11 August 2026
An LGBTQ+ charity offering one-to-one support, family support and groups across Teesside and East Durham, with a training arm, LGBT Advance, delivering diversity training to organisations across the North East since 2018.
African Families in the UK CIC (AFiUK)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Colchester, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 7 months
Runs parenting, youth and wellbeing programmes for African and other minority ethnic families in Colchester and Tendring, including cross-cultural parenting sessions, a young people's programme and support for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Community Ambassadors help deliver the workshops.
Herts Inclusive Theatre (HIT)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
St Albans, Hertfordshire
Confirmed active 25 June 2026
Runs theatre workshops for children and young people and drama groups for adults with disabilities from Trestle Arts Base in St Albans, plus projects in schools and communities and the annual Enrich Festival.
Access in Dudley
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Dudley, West Midlands
Confirmed active 25 June 2026
A user-led group of mostly disabled volunteers in Dudley that checks access to buildings, parks and services and works with the council and businesses to fix problems. Also runs a rowing project and holds regular meetings.
The Music Man Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Leigh-on-Sea, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 6 months
Offers music tuition and performance opportunities to people with learning disabilities through teaching hubs in England, founded nearly 30 years ago by David Stanley. Its ensembles have performed at the Royal Albert Hall.
Refugee, Asylum Seeker and Migrant Action (RAMA)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Colchester, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 4 months
Supports refugees, asylum seekers and people with no recourse to public funds in Colchester and Tendring, including regulated immigration advice and casework. Began in 2015 as Refugee Action Colchester and currently has a waiting list for advice.
Herts Welcomes Refugees
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Hertfordshire
Confirmed active 28 August 2026
Network of over 200 volunteers across Hertfordshire who befriend refugees and people seeking asylum, run English language practice and give practical help. Registered as a charity in 2017.
Vision Support Harrogate District
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Confirmed active 5 June 2026
Independent charity founded in 1921 for visually impaired people in Harrogate, Ripon and the surrounding district. Its East Parade centre offers IT training, craft and social groups, home visits and telephone befriending, and it is in regular contact with over 300 people.
Sheffield Talking News
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Confirmed active 29 July 2026
Weekly local news recorded for blind and visually impaired people in Sheffield, read aloud by volunteers and sent free on USB memory sticks, with online, podcast, app and Alexa options. Founded in 1988, it has over 200 registered listeners.
Outlookers
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Confirmed active 28 September 2026
A user-led group supporting people with sight loss across Kirklees with peer groups, technology help and an eye care liaison service. Recent work includes replacement equipment for lost or worn aids and a visit to Heckmondwike bus station to test accessibility.
YAMSEN
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Pudsey, Leeds, West Yorkshire
Confirmed active 14 July 2026
Runs music sessions for people with additional needs in West Yorkshire, including Friday adult music sessions, the One Accord children's choir, workshops and an annual Christmas concert at Pudsey Civic Hall. Registered as a charity in 1992.
Hull LGBT+ Community Pride
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Confirmed active 25 July 2026
Volunteer-run charity that organises Pride in Hull, the city's annual LGBT+ parade and festival, which reached its 25th year on 25 July 2026 with a parade from 11am through the city centre. People can sign up as volunteers through its website.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 11
Sustainable Cities and Communities
Places that work for the people living in them, market towns and villages included.
Transport that reaches the villages, housing people can afford, and somewhere to go that isn't the pub.
The wins
- 61.5% of the world's urban population had convenient access to public transport, up from 53.2% in 2020.
- 131 countries now have national and local disaster risk reduction strategies, up from 57 in 2015.
The challenges
- 1.16 billion people, almost one in four city dwellers, lived in slums or informal settlements in 2024, and more than 85% of them are in just three regions.
- Urban sprawl, air pollution and a shortage of open public space are all still getting worse.
- Buses make up 78% of public transport, with only 22% coming from higher-capacity systems.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set. Where that page was behind the UN’s own Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026, or did not carry the figure at all, the number here is the report’s, checked 12 September 2026. Read the report page.
Look closer at this goal
The slum figure is going the wrong way
The share is falling in places and the number is rising everywhere, because cities are growing faster than the housing in them.
- The share living in those conditions has declined slightly in some regions since 2015, and rapid urban population growth has pushed the total up anyway, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia.
- On current projections the global slum population could exceed 1.2 billion by 2030.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Nowhere to go outside
This is the measure that got worse while almost everything else in the goal got better.
- Across 414 cities in 126 countries, the share of urban land given to streets and open public spaces rose only from 16.6% to 17% between 2020 and 2025, against a recommended 30% to 45%. Streets are 15% of it and open public space just 2%.
- The share of city residents with an open space within 400 metres fell from 48.0% to 45.9% between 2020 and 2025, with sub-Saharan Africa facing the largest deficits.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Cities stopped sprawling faster than they grow
A quiet structural shift, and the first time in a quarter of a century that these two lines have nearly met.
- Across 781 cities in 123 countries, the annual rate of urban land consumption fell from 1.24% over 2015 to 2020 to 0.83% over 2020 to 2025, while population growth fell from 1.07% to 0.81%.
- Land consumption still marginally outpaced population growth in 2025, and the narrowing is backed by a small gradual rise in urban densification.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Getting about, and breathing
Access to public transport rose. What most of it consists of is the part that limits how much that helps.
- Across 412 cities in 127 countries, convenient access to public transport rose from 53.2% to 61.5% between 2020 and 2025, with sub-Saharan Africa lowest. Buses make up 78% of those options and higher-capacity rail and metro just 22%.
- Fine particulate matter fell from 34.4 micrograms per cubic metre in 2010 to 25.4 by 2020, then stalled at 26.1 in 2023.
- After the Second WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health in March 2025, more than 100 countries pledged stronger air-quality standards and action to halve the health impacts of air pollution by 2040.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026
Look closer at the UK
Temporary accommodation
This counts households in England that the council has placed in temporary accommodation, and it's updated every three months.
- 135,580 households were in temporary accommodation on 31 March 2026, up 3.6% on a year earlier.
- 177,530 children were living in temporary accommodation on 31 March 2026, up 5.2% on a year earlier.
- The most common time that households with children had spent there was 2 to 5 years, on 31 March 2026: 22,060 households, 25.5%.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Statutory homelessness in England: January to March 2026. Covers England. Read it there
The homes people live in
The Decent Homes Standard is the government's own test of whether a home is in a reasonable state.
- 4.0 million homes in England, 15%, failed the Decent Homes Standard in 2024, similar to 2022.
- 1.4 million homes, 5%, had a problem with damp in 2024, up on 2022.
- Damp was more common in private rented homes, 10%, than in owner occupied homes, 4%, or social rented homes, 7%, in 2024.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, English Housing Survey 2024 to 2025: housing quality. Covers England. Read it there
The air
PM2.5 is very fine particle pollution, measured in micrograms per cubic metre of air.
- PM2.5 in UK towns and cities, away from main roads, fell from 12.4 in 2009 to 8.0 in 2025.
- Beside roads it fell from 12.8 in 2009 to a low of 7.5 in 2024, then rose to 8.6 in 2025.
- England's interim target is a maximum annual average of 10 by December 2030.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Air quality statistics: particulate matter. Covers UK. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Oswestry Community Action (Qube)
The Qube Centre, Oswald Road, Oswestry
Checked 7 September 2026
Community hub for North Shropshire providing dial-a-ride community transport, a volunteer centre, arts and health programmes, and services targeted at rural poverty, isolation and disadvantage.
Living Seawalls
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2021Revive Our Oceans
Australia
Checked 10 September 2026
Flagship programme of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, fitting habitat panels to sea walls and coastal defences so marine life can recolonise them.
Polish Smog Alert
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2023Clean Our Air
Poland
Checked 10 September 2026
Clean air campaign group pressing for the legislation that has banned coal and wood burners across Polish cities, and now working across Central and Eastern Europe.
The Blue Map App
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2021Clean Our Air
China
Checked 10 September 2026
App from the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs giving citizens real-time air and water pollution data for their own area, so they can hold polluters to account.
Leegomery Community Garden
Leegomery, Telford
Checked 22 September 2026
Created in 2019 at Leegomery Community Centre, this community garden holds a drop-in work day on the second Tuesday of every month, 10am to 1pm, weather permitting. Planting, weeding, watering and simple garden tasks, with instruction given.
Church & Chetwynd Aston Village Hall
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Church Aston, Newport, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A village hall run as a community space for all ages, backgrounds and abilities, with a small meeting room and a larger hall used for live music, local groups and events. Recently renovated.
Chetton and District Parish Hall
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Chetton, Bridgnorth, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
The village hall for Chetton, three miles from Bridgnorth, where neighbours meet. It runs Chetton Active Friends, supervised seated exercise for people living in rural isolation, and is heated by a wood pellet boiler.
Wem Town Hall Community Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Wem, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs Wem Town Hall as a community hub for arts, learning and enterprise, with a cinema, live events, workshops, markets and a cafe bar, and works towards a dementia friendly Wem.
The Hub at St Peter's
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Peterchurch, Herefordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A community hub inside St Peter's Church, Peterchurch, in the Golden Valley, with a cafe, a volunteer-run library in the bell tower and activities that tackle rural isolation. More than 50 volunteers.
The Edward Marsh Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Kinver, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A volunteer-run community centre and recreation ground in Kinver, with sports pitches, a skate park, bike track, play area, outdoor gym, cafe and function room used by local groups.
Warley Woods Community Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Smethwick, Sandwell
Checked 1 October 2026
Manages Warley Woods, 100 acres of Grade II listed parkland in Smethwick, for the local community, with more than 270 volunteers a year and the Wild Warley conservation programme. Green Flag Award 18 times.
Wellingborough District Hindu Association
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs the Sanatan Hindu Mandir (opened 1977) and Highfield Community Centre (since 1992) on Highfield Road, Wellingborough, with space for sports, cultural and educational activities, school visits and a commercial kitchen for community events.
The Friends of Derby Arboretum
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Derby, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers who turned the vacant Loudon Lodge in Derby Arboretum into a community hub with a garden, on a council lease. They run three free events a year: Mayfest, Lark in the Park and Luminate.
Buxton Town Team
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Buxton, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Community interest company founded in 2012 with over 400 members, running volunteer projects in Buxton including a Slopes care team, litter picking, a Tuesday and Saturday market in Higher Buxton, talking signposts and a sustainable travel plan.
Mackworth Estate Community Association
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Mackworth, Derby
Checked 1 October 2026
Community association for the Mackworth estate in Derby, set up in 2002 and based at the community hall at St Francis Church on Prince Charles Avenue. It covers community development, community safety, leisure, and sports and exercise.
Friends of Didsbury Park
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Didsbury, Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers who look after Didsbury Park in south Manchester, meeting every Monday for litter picking, weeding, bed planting, hedge trimming and path work. They also manage a wildflower meadow, and recent sessions have drawn 30 to 47 people.
The One House
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Aspull, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Community centre on Haigh Road, Aspull, Wigan, running a cafe on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday mornings, with food parcels, debt advice, a knit and natter group and a gardening club.
Keswick Community Housing Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Keswick, Cumbria
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer-run housing trust set up in 2010 that has built or bought over 40 affordable homes in Keswick, let to people with family or work links to the town who would otherwise be priced out by second homes and holiday lets.
New Ferry Community Land Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
New Ferry, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer community land trust formed in November 2018 after the 2017 explosion in New Ferry. It runs monthly litter picks, planters and events, and rents out a refurbished building of shops and flats to pay for local projects.
Poulton-le-Fylde Community Hall
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Charity running the community hall at 3 Vicarage Road, Poulton-le-Fylde, with exercise and dance classes, drama and musical productions and mums and toddlers sessions. Run by 7 trustees and about 30 volunteers.
Stacksteads Countryside Park Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Stacksteads, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Rossendale charity with 10 trustees and 25 volunteers, working on parks and green space in Stacksteads, near Bacup. It runs an annual lantern parade in Riverside Park and has worked with St Joseph's Primary pupils on Rosemount community garden.
Breckfield & North Everton Neighbourhood Council (The Breckfield Centre)
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Liverpool, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Runs the Breckfield Centre in north Liverpool for about 15,000 local residents, with a food bank, welfare rights advice, youth sessions for ages 10 to 15, a men's project, a cycle club and allotments.
Deeplish Community Centre Association
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Rochdale, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Has run the community centre on Hare Street in Deeplish, Rochdale since 1989, hosting education, advice, health and family activities and volunteering for children, adults and older people, with a focus on isolation, language barriers and money worries.
Friends of Waterloo Park
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers who run events in Waterloo Park, Ashton-under-Lyne and look after its community garden, which meets free every Friday from 10am to noon and has raised beds that wheelchair users can reach.
Friends of Ropner Park
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham
Confirmed active 23 August 2026
Volunteer charity that runs the cafe and organises events in Ropner Park, Stockton-on-Tees, including summer band concerts and a picnic in the park, and encourages schools and art groups to use the park.
Seaton Sluice Community Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Seaton Sluice, Northumberland
Not confirmed by us for 10 months, archived from this site in 3 months
Community association that owns and runs Seaton Sluice Community Centre on Albert Road, hiring rooms to local groups and hosting parent and toddler sessions, yoga, gardening, woodworking, craft clubs and a history society.
The Glendale Gateway Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Wooler, Northumberland
Not confirmed by us for 4 months
Community development trust in Wooler that runs the Cheviot Centre, housing a library, food bank and warm space, plus a repair cafe every two months. It also manages 20 affordable homes and small business units in Glendale.
Amble Development Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Amble, Northumberland
Confirmed active 26 August 2026
A community-led regeneration charity in Amble. It publishes The Ambler newspaper, delivered free to homes in the town since January 2000, and runs Amble Harbour Village with 15 retail pods, affordable homes and the Amble Welfare recreation space.
Longhoughton Community and Sports Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Longhoughton, Northumberland
Confirmed active 13 July 2026
A community centre on Park Road in Longhoughton with a function room and community room for hire, a free natural play area, and pitches used by football clubs. It hosts regular groups for all ages and takes volunteers.
Moat House Community Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Coventry, West Midlands
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Community trust based at the Moat House Leisure and Neighbourhood Centre in Wood End and Henley Green, Coventry. It runs the Grub Hub food pantry, a community cafe and activities for older people, and owns a small stock of community homes.
Friends of Roundhay Park
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire
Confirmed active 26 August 2026
Volunteer group founded in 1994 that works with Leeds City Council to look after Roundhay Park, running working parties for planting and upkeep of gardens, woodland, streams and footpaths, plus litter picks and park events through the year.
Gallows Close Centre
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Barrowcliff, Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Confirmed active 23 September 2026
Community centre in Barrowcliff, Scarborough, running youth clubs, football, performing arts and a youth recycle bicycle scheme, plus a construction skills Youth Pathway Project for young people out of school. It also offers food parcels, a drop-in and an affordable cafe.
Edlington Community Organisation
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Edlington, South Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 6 months
Runs the Yorkshire Main Community Centre office in Edlington, Doncaster, with a food bank, community market and cupboard, a youth club, walking groups, a choir and a weekly timetable of classes. Formed in 2000.
Sancton Village Hall
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Sancton, East Riding of Yorkshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Village hall in Sancton, East Riding, run by a volunteer committee, hosting activities through the year and community events such as the VE Day 80 afternoon tea, quiz and film, funded by an East Riding of Yorkshire Council grant. Registered since 1966.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 12
Responsible Consumption and Production
Using less and wasting less, at every stage from the factory to the bin.
Repair, reuse, refill, and the unglamorous work of not throwing away things that still work.
The wins
- 609 policies on sustainable consumption and production were submitted across 75 countries, up 16% since 2019.
- Fossil fuel subsidies fell to $921 billion in 2024, down from $1.68 trillion in 2022.
The challenges
- 1.05 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year, 19% of all the food available.
- Electronic waste reached 65 million tonnes in 2023.
- High-income countries use ten times the material per person that low-income countries do.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Key dates for this goal
July
Plastic Free July
A habit-changing month that started in Western Australia in 2011, and it covers three goals here - Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13, Climate Action, because plastic starts as oil, and Goal 14, Life Below Water.
Look closer at this goal
Using more, not less
Every policy in this goal is aimed at one number, and that number went up by a quarter.
- Material consumption rose 25% between 2015 and 2022, from 92.1 to 115.1 billion tons, and per person from 12.3 to 14.4 tons. The rise spans all income levels.
- In 2022, 80% of all global materials were consumed by the half of the world's population living in higher-income countries.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
The waste nobody catches
Three waste streams, and on all three the share actually dealt with properly is the small half.
- E-waste reached 65 million tons in 2023, 8.1 kg per person, and only 15.5 million tons of it was formally recycled.
- 13.3% of food produced was lost after harvest and before reaching shops in 2023, slightly worse than the 13.0% of 2015. A further 1.05 billion tons was wasted at retail, food service and household level in 2022, 19% of all available food.
- Food loss and waste together account for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly $1 trillion in annual economic losses a year, on those 2022 and 2023 figures.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
The subsidy that undoes the rest
Subsidies are falling and the reason they are falling is not that anybody decided to cut them.
- Fossil fuel subsidies fell 10% between 2023 and 2024, from $1.03 trillion to over $921 billion, a second consecutive drop from the 2022 peak of $1.66 trillion and still far above the pre-pandemic low of $402 billion in 2020. The UN puts the fall down to the unwinding of pandemic emergency support rather than to deliberate reform.
- Between 2023 and 2024, Europe and Northern America led the fall at 21.9% and sub-Saharan Africa followed at 20.2%. Central and Southern Asia was the only region where subsidies rose, by 10.2%.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Policy on paper, and what is measured
The gap in this goal has moved from writing the policies to finding out whether they did anything.
- 609 policies on sustainable consumption and production were submitted across 75 countries as of 2025, up 16% on the 2019 to 2024 period. Of the 86 new ones in 2025, 65% were strategies and road maps and 28% legal instruments.
- 54 countries reached compliant scores on sustainable public procurement in 2025, up from 49 in 2022. Only 39 of those report monitoring the value or number of sustainable contracts, and only 11 report monitoring sustainability outcomes.
- Between 2015 and 2024, 56% of countries compiled at least one of the two agreed tools for tracking tourism sustainability. Coverage reached 100% in Australia and New Zealand and 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, with small island states at 27% and the least developed countries at 23%.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
The treaties underneath it
The unglamorous machinery of this goal is chemicals and waste treaties, and it is one of the few places where compliance is rising.
- Achievement scores rose between the 2014 baseline and the 2020 to 2024 reporting period: from 63% to 73% for the Basel Convention, 70% to 79% for Rotterdam and 53% to 56% for Stockholm.
- The Minamata Convention on Mercury completed its second full national reporting cycle in 2026, with 115 of the 151 required parties reporting on 2021 to 2024, a 76% submission rate.
- Japan had cut food waste by 58% in food-related businesses and 46% in households by 2023, measured against 2000 levels.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026
Look closer at the UK
What gets recycled
The four nations collect household waste differently, and it shows in the rates.
- The UK recycled 44.5% of household waste in 2024, down from 44.6% in 2023.
- In 2024 the rate was 43.8% in England, 50.1% in Northern Ireland, 42.7% in Scotland and 58.6% in Wales.
- Provisional figures show 70.5% of UK packaging waste was recycled in 2025.
- Biodegradable household waste sent to landfill fell to 4.9 million tonnes in 2024, from 5.3 million tonnes in 2023.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK statistics on waste. Covers UK and each nation. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What that looks like where you are
Consumption is the goal people hand to somebody else, so here is the date your own country runs out. It is worked out from what each person there uses, not from what the country produces or exports.
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Shrewsbury Food Hub
Shrewsbury
Checked 7 September 2026
Volunteer-powered charity rescuing surplus food from shops, manufacturers and farms and redistributing it to more than 60 local community groups and 13 to 14 weekly Foodshare tables across Shrewsbury.
Sustainable Newport Shropshire
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Newport, Shropshire, roughly a 25 mile radius
Checked 7 September 2026
Shropshire community group working across the circular economy, climate education and sustainability advocacy. Formed in 2009 as Newport 21 and rebranded in 2019. Recognised with the King's Award for Voluntary Service.
Disclosed connection: Past. Founder chaired this organisation, and was Plastic Free Lead and Refill Lead.
ABALOBI
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2023Revive Our Oceans
South Africa
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa
See the countries
Seychelles, South Africa, Namibia
Checked 19 September 2026
Non-profit partnership between small-scale fishers and scientists, founded in South Africa, whose app lets fishers record their catch, prove sustainable practice, earn fairer prices and build a picture of ocean health.
GAYO, Green Africa Youth Organization
Earthshot Prize Winner 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Ghana and Uganda
Checked 10 September 2026
Youth-led organisation running a Zero Waste Model that builds circular waste infrastructure and jobs, training people from across the community to turn waste into compost and charcoal briquettes.
Repair Cafe Highley
Highley, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
Volunteers fix, restore and repurpose everyday items including toasters, clothing, bicycles and furniture, with around 75% of items successfully repaired. Sessions run 10am to 1pm at Highley Community Primary School.
Walter's Workshop
Bishop's Castle, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A community repair service providing a repair service to the people of South Shropshire while reducing the number of items that go to landfill each year. Open every Friday morning, 10am to 12pm, at Enterprise House in Bishop's Castle.
A Good Thing
Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A community interest company matching surplus goods from businesses with charities, schools and community groups that need them, keeping usable items in circulation and out of waste streams.
Bayston Hill Repair Cafe
Bayston Hill, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A community repair cafe in Bayston Hill where volunteers help residents fix broken household items rather than replace them.
Stretton Climate Care
Church Stretton, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A registered charity working across energy, transport, food, waste and nature in the Strettons. Runs the local repair cafe, electric vehicle days and open house demonstrations, and publishes information sheets and case studies for households.
Bridgnorth Repair Cafe
Bridgnorth, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A team of volunteers repairing toys, small household electricals, clothing, textiles, jewellery and general small or mechanical items, free of charge. Runs 10am to 1pm at St James Church Hall in Bridgnorth.
Broseley Repair Cafe
Broseley, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A volunteer repair cafe in Broseley, publicised by the town council, where local people can bring broken items to be mended rather than replaced.
Ellesmere Repair Cafe
Ellesmere, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A volunteer repair cafe serving Ellesmere and the surrounding north Shropshire villages, held at the Town Hall on Willow Street.
Newport Repair Cafe
Newport, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A team of friendly volunteers repairing broken household items free of charge at The Hub on Newport High Street, with drinks and cakes available. Runs 10am to 1pm.
Pontesbury Repair Cafe
Pontesbury, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A volunteer repair cafe in Pontesbury, fixing household items brought in by local residents.
Oswestry & Borders Repair Cafe
Oswestry, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A volunteer repair cafe covering Oswestry and the Welsh border area, held at the Memorial Hall on Smithfield Street on Saturday afternoons, 12pm to 3pm, roughly every two months.
Shrewsbury Men's Shed
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A registered charity offering practical making and repair activities in a workshop at the West Midland Showground, open six days a week. Named Shed of the Year 2024.
Marked on: World Mental Health Day, International Men's Day
Teme Valley Environment Group
Knighton, Powys
Checked 22 September 2026
An open group in and around Knighton for people of any age or ability concerned about local sustainability. Plants fruit trees around the town for free public picking, runs monthly litter picks, tests the River Teme for water quality, and has run an anti-plastics campaign.
Warrington Litter Volunteers
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Warrington, Cheshire
Checked 1 October 2026
More than a dozen local litter-picking teams across Warrington, about 4,000 members, who have filled over 44,000 bags since 2019 and recycle cans to raise money for the Orford Veterans Hub.
Hope City Furniture
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Derby, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Derby charity giving free furniture and household items to people rehoused after a crisis, by referral only. It collects donated furniture free of charge so usable items stay out of landfill.
The Hummingbird Project
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Glossop, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Free clothing, baby and hygiene bank in Glossop where people take what they need from a shop-style space, open Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10am to 2pm. It says it has re-gifted over 2 million donated items.
Harborough Morsbags
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Market Harborough, Leicestershire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteer group in Market Harborough that sews shopping bags from donated fabric and gives them away, including to independent shops, charities and food banks. It meets monthly and says it has made over 48,000 bags since 2008.
Bootle Action Group CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Bootle, Merseyside
Checked 1 October 2026
Community interest company in Bootle, incorporated in 2017, whose volunteers litter pick and clear grot spots, raise awareness of dog fouling and littering, and have put planters and flower beds into several areas of the town.
MyColdhurst
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Coldhurst, Oldham, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers in Coldhurst, Oldham who run Friday and Sunday sessions for six to 18 year olds, regularly over 150 attending, with a free hot meal on Sundays. They also hold monthly litter picks, clean alleyway schemes and an annual street party.
Still Good Food
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Not confirmed by us for 8 months
Bury St Edmunds charity that collects surplus food from supermarkets, farms and growers and sells it on a pay-as-you-feel basis at Elsey's Yard and Great Barton, alongside a community fridge and a farm gleaning project.
Bradford 4 Better
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Bradford, West Yorkshire
Confirmed active 19 September 2026
Volunteer-led community action group in Bradford, started in April 2019 when a group of women cleaned up their street. It runs community action days and clean-ups, basic life support training through Bradford Lifesavers, bonfire night patrols and public speaking courses.
Uniform Exchange
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 5 months
Collects second-hand school uniform in Huddersfield and gives it free to families across Kirklees, delivered to their school or nearest library. It says it helped about 13,000 children in 2025 and has run since 2011.
Malton Free Fridge
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Malton, North Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 10 months, archived from this site in 3 months
Volunteers collect surplus fresh food from local shops, businesses and gardens and give it away free from the Wesley Centre in Malton on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10am to 11.30am. Running since December 2018.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 13
Climate Action
Cutting emissions fast, and coping with the change that is already coming whatever we do next.
This is the one with the deadline attached, and the deadline is 2030.
The wins
- Deaths from disasters have fallen by nearly 65% over the past decade.
- Almost three quarters of countries have now adopted a national climate strategy.
The challenges
- Greenhouse gas emissions hit a record 57.7 gigatons of CO2 equivalent in 2024, up 2.3% on 2023.
- The number of people affected by disasters has more than doubled.
- The UN's own assessment is that current climate plans are wholly insufficient.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Key dates for this goal
27 March
Earth Hour
An hour with the lights off, and it sits across two goals here - Goal 7, Affordable and Clean Energy, and Goal 13, Climate Action, because it's the same switch.
22 April
Earth Day
Running since 1970, and it lands across Goal 13, Climate Action, and Goal 15, Life on Land, here.
5 June
World Environment Day
The UN's day for the environment, covering Goal 13, Climate Action, and Goal 15, Life on Land, here - the theme changes country to country each year, so which one leads can shift.
July
Plastic Free July
A habit-changing month that started in Western Australia in 2011, and it covers three goals here - Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13, Climate Action, because plastic starts as oil, and Goal 14, Life Below Water.
Look closer at this goal
How hot, and how hot next
The 1.5 degree line is what everything else gets measured against, and 2024 is the year it was crossed.
- 2024 was the hottest year on record, capping 11 record-breaking years in a row, at 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels and past the 1.5°C threshold for the first time.
- 2025 came in second or third warmest at around 1.43°C, despite the cooling effect of La Niña.
- The World Meteorological Organization projects every year from 2026 to 2030 at 1.3°C to 1.9°C above pre-industrial levels, and a new El Niño began in June 2026.
- Worst-case projections have fallen from the 3 to 3.5°C expected when the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. Current pledges still point to 2.3 to 2.5°C this century, and current policies to 2.8°C.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
What the ocean is taking
Nine tenths of the extra heat goes into the sea, which is why air temperature is the smaller half of this story.
- The ocean absorbs around 91% of the excess heat building up in the Earth's system. In 2025 its heat content hit a record for the ninth straight year.
- Ocean warming between 2005 and 2025 ran at more than twice the rate of 1960 to 2005.
- Global mean sea level has risen 11 centimetres since 1993, and Arctic sea ice reached its lowest winter maximum on record in 2025.
- The fourth global coral bleaching event hit 84% of reefs across 83 countries and territories, and likely ended in mid-2025.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Fewer deaths, far more lives upended
Two things happened at once over the last decade, and reporting either one on its own gives the wrong impression.
- Disaster deaths fell from 2.11 to 0.75 per 100,000 people between 2015 and 2024, measured against 2005 to 2014. Average annual deaths fell 53%.
- Between 2015 and 2024 the rate of people affected more than doubled, from 1,199 to 2,445 per 100,000, around 123 million people a year.
- 56 countries had a national disaster risk strategy in 2015. By 2024 that had nearly tripled to 141.
- Between 2015 and 2024 an average of 91,847 units of critical infrastructure were destroyed or damaged every year, alongside more than 1.5 million yearly disruptions to basic services.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
What it costs, and who pays
The countries carrying the losses are not the countries that caused them, and the gap is measurable.
- Direct disaster losses averaged over $110 billion a year between 2015 and 2024, 0.28% of reporting countries' GDP. Counting cascading effects and ecosystem damage, losses exceed $2.3 trillion a year.
- Between 2015 and 2024 least developed countries took nearly 13% of reported losses while holding 1.36% of world GDP, a more than tenfold disproportion. Landlocked developing countries took losses more than five times higher relative to their size.
- Between 2015 and 2024 least developed countries accounted for 29% of disaster deaths while making up 12% of the reporting population.
- Climate finance for developing countries reached $132.8 billion in 2023 and $136.7 billion in 2024, passing the $100 billion pledge for a third year after first crossing it at $115.9 billion in 2022. Nearly two thirds went to cutting emissions, and adaptation held at about a quarter, down from a third in 2020.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
What is coming for health and water
Four projections from the UN's wider climate change page, all of them with a date on them.
- Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths a year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress, according to the World Health Organization.
- By 2030 the direct health costs of climate change are estimated at between $2 billion and $4 billion a year.
- Glaciers are projected to vanish from one-third of their current sites by 2050.
- By 2050 droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world's population.
Climate Change, UN Global Issues Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Climate Change, UN Global Issues
Look closer at the UK
How far UK emissions have come down
This is the government's own count of what's emitted inside UK borders, and the 2025 figure is provisional until February 2027.
- UK emissions were provisionally 367 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025, down 2% on 2024 and 54% on 1990.
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, 2025 UK greenhouse gas emissions, provisional figures. Covers UK. Read it there
The version with flights and shipping in
The Climate Change Committee also counts international aviation and shipping, which is why its number is bigger than the one above.
- Provisional emissions for 2025 were 407 million tonnes including international aviation and shipping, 50% lower than 1990.
- The final figure for 2024 was 415 million tonnes including international aviation and shipping, 49% below 1990.
Climate Change Committee, Progress in reducing emissions, 2026 report to Parliament. Covers UK. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What that looks like where you are
Both of these are about your country rather than about the world in general. The first is every year of measured temperature where you are, one bar per year, against the 1961 to 2010 average. The second is the date a year of what the Earth can renew would run out if everybody lived the way your country does.
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Surfers Against Sewage
United Kingdom
Checked 23 September 2026
National marine conservation and campaigning charity protecting oceans, beaches, waves and wildlife. Runs the Plastic Free Communities accreditation scheme and a real-time sewage alert app.
Disclosed connection: Disclosed. The accrediting body behind Sustainable Newport's Plastic Free Community status under the founder's leadership.
Sustainable Newport Shropshire
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Newport, Shropshire, roughly a 25 mile radius
Checked 7 September 2026
Shropshire community group working across the circular economy, climate education and sustainability advocacy. Formed in 2009 as Newport 21 and rebranded in 2019. Recognised with the King's Award for Voluntary Service.
Disclosed connection: Past. Founder chaired this organisation, and was Plastic Free Lead and Refill Lead.
WaterAid
United Kingdom
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia and 2 more
See the countries
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Colombia
Checked 7 September 2026
International charity working on clean water, sanitation and hygiene across 26 countries.
ABALOBI
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2023Revive Our Oceans
South Africa
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa
See the countries
Seychelles, South Africa, Namibia
Checked 19 September 2026
Non-profit partnership between small-scale fishers and scientists, founded in South Africa, whose app lets fishers record their catch, prove sustainable practice, earn fairer prices and build a picture of ocean health.
Acción Andina
Earthshot Prize Winner 2023Protect & Restore Nature
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and 2 more
Checked 10 September 2026
Grassroots initiative co-founded by the non-profits Global Forest Generation and Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos, uniting Indigenous and local communities across the Andes to protect and restore native high mountain forest and the water supplies that depend on it.
Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative
Earthshot Prize Winner 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Kazakhstan
Checked 10 September 2026
Conservation partnership led by the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan, bringing the Saiga antelope back from near extinction and restoring the Golden Steppe grasslands through research and work with local communities.
Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Ecuador and Peru
Checked 10 September 2026
Indigenous-led alliance of Amazonian nations protecting 86 million acres of forest through territorial governance, advocacy and a regenerative bioeconomy.
Bonds for Ocean Conservation
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2025Revive Our Oceans
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Debt conversion pioneered by the Debt for Nature Coalition, refinancing national debt so the savings are redirected into ocean conservation and climate resilience.
Coastal 500
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2023Revive Our Oceans
Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras and 5 more
Checked 10 September 2026
Global network of mayors and local government leaders working to restore ocean habitats, protect coastlines and support sustainable fishing communities.
Friendship
Earthshot Prize Winner 2025Fix Our Climate
Bangladesh
Checked 10 September 2026
Social purpose organisation combining healthcare, education and climate resilience work to protect communities in Bangladesh most exposed to climate-driven disaster.
GAYO, Green Africa Youth Organization
Earthshot Prize Winner 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Ghana and Uganda
Checked 10 September 2026
Youth-led organisation running a Zero Waste Model that builds circular waste infrastructure and jobs, training people from across the community to turn waste into compost and charcoal briquettes.
High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People
Earthshot Prize Winner 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Intergovernmental coalition pressing governments to protect 30% of land and ocean by 2030, with toolkits and technical support to turn biodiversity commitments into action.
Hutan
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2022Protect & Restore Nature
Malaysia
Checked 10 September 2026
Grassroots wildlife research and conservation organisation creating corridors and replanting degraded land in Malaysian Borneo so orangutans and other endangered species can move safely, alongside work with local communities.
Pole Pole Foundation
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2021Protect & Restore Nature
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Checked 10 September 2026
Foundation set up in 1992 tackling the causes of deforestation and poaching rather than the symptoms, through farming projects, work with former poachers, conservation education and replanting.
Polish Smog Alert
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2023Clean Our Air
Poland
Checked 10 September 2026
Clean air campaign group pressing for the legislation that has banned coal and wood burners across Polish cities, and now working across Central and Eastern Europe.
Pristine Seas
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2021Revive Our Oceans
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Ocean conservation programme run under National Geographic, bringing scientists, filmmakers and policy experts together to establish marine reserves and help protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.
Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef
Earthshot Prize Winner 2022Revive Our Oceans
Australia
Checked 10 September 2026
Queensland Indigenous Women Rangers Network, building the next generation of women rangers who combine ancestral knowledge with modern technology to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
Tenure Facility
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2025Protect & Restore Nature
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Global funding and legal mechanism dedicated to securing land and forest rights for Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant Peoples and local communities.
The Blue Map App
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2021Clean Our Air
China
Checked 10 September 2026
App from the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs giving citizens real-time air and water pollution data for their own area, so they can hold polluters to account.
The High Seas Treaty
Earthshot Prize Winner 2025Revive Our Oceans
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
The first global legal framework for Marine Protected Areas on the high seas, and the route to protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030.
Tropical Forest Forever Facility
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2025Protect & Restore Nature
Brazil and Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Investment facility led by the Government of Brazil and designed with ten countries alongside Indigenous Peoples and local communities, paying tropical forest nations to keep their forests standing.
Stretton Climate Care
Church Stretton, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A registered charity working across energy, transport, food, waste and nature in the Strettons. Runs the local repair cafe, electric vehicle days and open house demonstrations, and publishes information sheets and case studies for households.
Teme Valley Environment Group
Knighton, Powys
Checked 22 September 2026
An open group in and around Knighton for people of any age or ability concerned about local sustainability. Plants fruit trees around the town for free public picking, runs monthly litter picks, tests the River Teme for water quality, and has run an anti-plastics campaign.
Friends of the Earth International
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Works across Global
Checked 22 September 2026
The world's largest grassroots environmental federation, made up of roughly 70 autonomous national member groups organised across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America. An International Secretariat in Amsterdam provides administrative, programme, communication and fundraising support.
Fight the Plastic (Bishop's Castle)
Bishop's Castle, Shropshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A volunteer campaign group that made Bishop's Castle the first accredited Plastic Free Community in Shropshire in 2019. Runs a monthly farmers' market stall selling plastic-free alternatives, beach and river cleans, and works with local schools and businesses to cut single-use plastic.
Sustainable Bridgnorth
Bridgnorth, Shropshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A voluntary grassroots environmental group covering Bridgnorth and the surrounding area, running monthly energy-advice sessions with the Marches Energy Agency and the Prevent Pointless Plastic campaign, which won the town Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community accreditation in 2020. Hosts the Bridgnorth Green Festival.
WWF International
Rue Mauverney 28, 1196 Gland, Switzerland
Works across Global
Confirmed active 10 September 2026
The secretariat of the WWF network, an independent foundation registered under Swiss law at Rue Mauverney 28 in Gland. Formed in 1961, it leads and coordinates a network active in more than 100 countries, developing policies and priorities, fostering global partnerships and coordinating international campaigns.
Plastic Free Much Wenlock
Much Wenlock, Shropshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group, led by Jacky Walter, that achieved Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community accreditation for Much Wenlock in 2024. Recruits a growing roster of local Business Champions cutting single-use plastic - including The Fox pub, Colours Florists and Simple Life Unwrapped - and partners with Much Wenlock Primary School on Plastic Free July.
Sustainable Nantwich
Nantwich, Cheshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A volunteer-led CIC in Nantwich, Cheshire, working on what it names as the three planetary crises of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Grew out of Plastic Free Nantwich (launched 2019, Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status March 2022) into Sustainable Nantwich in January 2020. Runs the Nantwich Mill Community Energy Company and a community growing garden alongside its campaigning, and won Nantwich's Mayor's 'Salt of the Earth' outstanding organisation award in 2023.
Sustainable Telford and Wrekin
Telford
Checked 23 September 2026
Telford & Wrekin Council's climate change programme, run through the Telford & Wrekin Climate Change Partnerships with businesses, parish and town councils, community groups, schools and universities. Declared a Climate Emergency in 2019, committed the council to carbon neutrality by 2030 and to removing single-use plastics from its own operations by 2023, and supports individual towns in the borough through Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Communities scheme, including Wellington and Madeley.
Plastic Free Pickering
Pickering, North Yorkshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign run by a Plastic Free Pickering Steering Group with the formal support of Pickering Town Council, operating under Ryedale Environment Group, a registered charity (number 1202762). The campaign is working towards Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community accreditation - the site notes more than 160 communities have already achieved it - and needs five local businesses to sign up to reduce avoidable single-use plastic (coffee cups, bottles, carrier bags, food packaging) before Pickering can qualify. No businesses are yet named. Also engages local schools and community groups.
Earth Action North Devon
North Devon (Barnstaple, South Molton, Braunton, Croyde & Georgeham, Woolacombe, Ilfracombe and North Devon District)
Checked 23 September 2026
A registered charity (Reg No. 1182464) covering North Devon, including Braunton (where its office is), Croyde, Combe Martin, Ilfracombe, Westward Ho! and Bideford. Began as a Plastic Free Braunton Facebook group set up by local teacher Desiree Young, who partnered with local Surfers Against Sewage representatives to roll out Plastic Free Communities across North Devon; traded as Plastic Free North Devon for seven years before rebranding as Earth Action North Devon under chief executive Claire Moodie once its work had grown beyond plastic. Runs a Community Cleans programme that has removed over four tonnes of rubbish from Saunton Beach alone since 2018, plus a Tarka Trail & Estuary Clean Up, a Repair Cafe network, an Ocean Explorer Academy and school workshops, and a short documentary on the state of the coastline's water quality. Business partners named on the site include Turnstyle Designs and PowerVault ('Game Changers') and Dry Robe, Holiday Cottages and John Fowler Holidays ('Impact Makers'); funders include the Devon Environment Foundation and the National Lottery Community Fund.
Plastic Free Oxshott
Oxshott, Surrey
Checked 23 September 2026
A campaign run under Oxshott Net Zero, signed up to Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community programme and working towards the award rather than holding it yet. Aims to cut avoidable single-use plastic rather than eliminate all plastic. Runs a tiered Business Champion award requiring businesses to remove at least three single-use plastic items, though no business is yet named as having qualified; Oxshott Brownies and Rainbows and Royal Kent School (which ran a 'Plastics in the Ocean Project') are pictured as already involved. Also runs a monthly Repair Cafe and works with Ecocentric Us, a local zero-waste refill shop.
Plastic Free Knebworth
Knebworth, Hertfordshire
Checked 23 September 2026
Run by Knebworth Environmental Group in conjunction with Surfers Against Sewage, with the parish council represented on the steering group. Achieved Plastic Free village accreditation in June 2026, certified with at least ten community allies and three business allies plus the council; the certificate was presented to the Parish Council Chairman by the Stevenage MP. Named business allies are Lucas May, Potstop and Coasters; named community allies include Knebworth Library, Knebworth Primary School and the Knebworth Family of Churches. Support runs through four channels - individuals, community allies, businesses and schools - and the group also organises litter picks.
Wellingborough Eco Group
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A community group working to reduce, reuse and recycle across the borough, in partnership with Wellingborough Town Council, North Northamptonshire Council, Greatwell Homes and Co-op. Runs a single-use plastic reduction campaign of its own - including a 2024 'Stop Using Plastic' advent calendar and advocacy for refill stations, pointing people to Food for Thought in Nene Court for package-free shopping - alongside an Energy Savers community energy project run with the Centre for Sustainable Energy and a Wellingborough Climate Action Project. Runs a tree nursery and tree planting days ('Love Your Tree Day'), a community allotment and Stanwell Community Garden, plus Repair Cafes, Swap Shops and litter picks ('Wellie Wombles', 'Two Hour Tidy Ups'). Won the Environment Award at the BBC Radio Northampton Make a Difference Awards.
Sustainable Cheshire / Plastic Free Cheshire
Cheshire (Chester, Neston, Tattenhall, Frodsham, Ellesmere Port, Willaston, Hoole and Helsby)
Checked 23 September 2026
Run by Eco Communities, a Chester-based group that took Chester to Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community accreditation in 2018 and has since worked with Neston, Tattenhall, Frodsham, Ellesmere Port, Willaston and Hoole to pursue their own accreditation - Neston and Tattenhall were confirmed awarded Plastic Free Community status by Surfers Against Sewage in 2023. Eco Communities' own description of the process is to register each area with Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Communities scheme and pull together key local organisations and businesses behind a five-point plan of action. Sustainable Cheshire's own site also promotes a 'Full Circle' community-led circular economy programme (refill, reuse, recycle, repair), a Chester Green Festival, and Green Travel and Greener Homes initiatives, though without the specific detail needed to tag separate goals for them.
VOW (Verwoodians on Waste), Verwood
Verwood, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
A community group focused on litter picking, recycling and reducing plastic use in Verwood, under the strapline 'Reduce, Reuse, Inspire'. In 2026 the group's stated focus has been making homemade cleaning products, in its own words 'to help you remove the chemicals from your home and reduce the mountain of plastic they come in'; it plans to look at homemade skincare products in 2027. Runs weekly litter-picking sessions (typically ten full bags per hour), an eco shops directory, a tool-lending service and a medicine blister-pack collection at pop-up surgeries. Partners named include Dorset Council, Litter Free Dorset, Three Legged Cross Solar Farm, Verwood Rotary, the Postcode Lottery and Verwood Town Council.
Plastic Free Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon)
Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), Gwynedd
Checked 23 September 2026
Run by Eryri National Park Authority (Snowdonia National Park Authority) as the 'Plastic-Free Path', aiming to make Yr Wyddfa 'the first plastic-free mountain in the world' by cutting single-use plastics such as drinks bottles, takeaway cups, wrappers, cigarette butts and wet wipes. The Authority's own survey data, cited on the page, found 85% of people take responsibility for their rubbish and 71% take it home, while soil samples from the mountain were found to contain up to 5% microplastics. The page invites businesses, visitors and schools to take part but names no specific business champions.
Plastic Free Boston Spa
Boston Spa, West Yorkshire
Checked 23 September 2026
Run by Boston Green Group, a registered charity (Charity Number 1204438) describing itself as non-politically affiliated, with parish council members and local business owners on its Community Green Groups Steering Group. Boston Spa Parish Council passed a resolution in November 2022 supporting the journey to Plastic Free Community status; as of the site's most recent update the campaign needed one more business sign-up for national accreditation. Six local businesses and organisations have pledged support: Douglas Yeadons Hardware Store, The Pudding Lab, Boston Spa Library, Boston Spa Methodist Church, Oasis Human Relations and 2nd Boston Spa Brownies. The group also runs a tree cover and wildlife corridor project (bat boxes, hedgerow management, butterfly counting April to September) and an energy action area offering advice on heat pumps, solar PV, batteries and retrofit insulation alongside eco-energy fairs; it lists 'creating a clean river environment' and 'net zero carbon and energy efficiency' as developing projects, and takes part in the Yorkshire Wild Waters campaign.
Plastic Free Beaminster
Beaminster, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group in Beaminster, Dorset, led by Cllr Craig Monks, that achieved Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community accreditation in December 2022. Runs a five-point plan covering a community-led steering group, the SAS Plastic Free Schools programme, town council commitment, and work with local businesses and community groups to cut avoidable single-use plastic.
Plastic Free Lady Bay
Lady Bay, West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group in Lady Bay, West Bridgford, run as part of Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Communities initiative, that achieved Plastic Free Community status in November 2023. Activities documented on its own news page include an Eco Committee at Lady Bay School making decorations for an Arts Trail, a stall at the 2024 British Rowing Championships, participation in a Million Mile Cleanup, and events including The Big Un-wrap (May 2023) and The Rubbish Fashion Show (October 2022).
Plastic Free Farnham
Farnham, Surrey
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group formed in 2021 through a partnership between the two Rotary Clubs of Farnham and Isabel Robson of Zero Carbon Guildford. Surfers Against Sewage accredited Farnham as the first Plastic Free Community in Surrey in October 2024, after volunteers built more than 40 local partnerships over three years. Works with businesses towards Bronze, Silver and Gold Plastic Free Champion awards, each requiring three types of plastic removed from operations, and lists partner organisations including Space2Grow, The Maltings and the University for the Creative Arts.
University of Winchester Plastic Free Campus
University of Winchester, Hampshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A university sustainability initiative. The University of Winchester states it was 'officially awarded our Plastic Free University status from national charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS)' in July 2022, following work removing unnecessary single-use plastics from campus since 2018. A surcharge on disposable cups and distribution of reusable Gum-tec mugs, made from recycled chewing gum, running since November 2016, has saved over 294,000 disposable cups. The university has committed to carbon net zero by 2030, has sent no waste to landfill since 2013, and runs a Biodiversity Action Plan including wildflower meadows, hedgehog habitats and swift nest boxes, achieving Hedgehog Friendly Gold status in March 2022.
Aberystwyth University Plastic Free Campus
Aberystwyth University, Ceredigion
Checked 23 September 2026
A university sustainability initiative. Aberystwyth University states that in 2018 it became 'the first University in the World to be granted the Plastic Free University Certificate' by Surfers Against Sewage, targeting single-use plastic bottles, coffee cups and lids, bags, cutlery, straws and stirrers. In 2019 the university published a formal single-use plastic pledge. Water fountains and free bottle refill stations are installed and mapped across campus, alongside a partnership with the Refill App.
Plastic Free Canterbury
Canterbury, Kent
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-reduction campaign hosted by the Canterbury Climate Action Partnership (CCAP), a partnership of community groups, organisations, institutions and local government, working towards Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community accreditation for Canterbury city and surrounding villages, with an initial focus on single-use plastics. The Refillery, a Canterbury zero-waste shop, describes itself as 'an active member of Plastic Free Canterbury' supporting the council's RecycleMe? recycling campaign.
Plastic Free Cotgrave
Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-reduction campaign group awarded Plastic Free Community status by Surfers Against Sewage in 2021, after registering with the SAS Plastic Free Communities movement and running a five-point plan covering a steering group, the SAS Plastic Free Schools programme, town council commitment and work with local businesses and community groups. Runs Community Allies and Champions programmes, litter-picking, and household guidance on reducing plastic in shopping, toiletries, gardening and celebrations.
Plastic Free Bookham
Bookham, Surrey
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-reduction campaign that began in late 2019, initiated by Transition Bookham (formed 2010, part of the Transition Towns network, now inactive on other projects), working towards Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community accreditation. The group's own site describes the project as over 85% complete against five objectives: Mole Valley District Council passed a supporting resolution and appointed two councillors to the steering group in June 2020; 22 Community Allies had signed up by November 2025; two businesses hold Bronze Business Champion status, with four more needed; and the steering group has met regularly from 2020 through 2026 under SAS approval.
Eco Friends (Plastic Free Newbury and Thatcham)
Newbury, West Berkshire and Thatcham, West Berkshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A West Berkshire community group, Eco Friends, running Plastic Free Communities campaigns covering both Newbury and Thatcham under Surfers Against Sewage's scheme, alongside a Plastic Free Schools programme, a Water Refill service, Business Champions and Allies, and a Plastic Swaps scheme. Its own site states its aim is to help people in West Berkshire 'reduce their single use plastic and carbon footprint' through reduce, reuse, repair and recycle.
Mold Plastic Reduction
Mold, Flintshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A registered charity (number 1207470) working to eliminate single-use plastic and reduce avoidable plastic waste in Mold and the surrounding villages, North Wales. Runs Plastic Free Business Champions, Plastic Free Schools and Plastic Free Community Champions strands, and has held events including a plastic-free crafting session in August 2024 and a Spring Clean in 2025.
Plastic Free Buxton
Buxton, Derbyshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A project of Transition Buxton (a Community Interest Company, number 8783449) campaigning against single-use plastic under the reduce-reuse-refill-before-recycling hierarchy. Recruits Plastic Free Business Champions and Community Allies, runs the reusable 'Buxton Cup' for events and a Library of Things, and by late 2025 counted High Peak Baby Bank and Solitary Bee Nursery among its participating groups.
Plastic Free Chesterfield
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A campaign started in summer 2019 by Tapton resident Greg Hewitt, which brought together a community-led steering group, local council backing and local businesses and groups to cut single-use plastic. Awarded Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status on 7 May 2021, by which point 50 local businesses and 40 community organisations had signed up, each committing to at least three single-use plastic substitutions.
Sustainable Swanage
Swanage, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
A volunteer-led group running environmental projects across Swanage and the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset. Swanage achieved Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status in July 2019, the 4th Dorset town to do so. Runs butterfly, wildflower and swift surveys and tree planting on local green spaces and helps manage the Downs Local Nature Reserve, and delivered Solar Streets Swanage, which had completed 21 solar installations by June 2022 and generated a £1,150 community fund.
Plastic Free High Littleton
High Littleton, Somerset
Checked 23 September 2026
A community network in High Littleton, Somerset, tackling single-use plastic 'from our streets and green spaces all the way back to the brands and businesses who create it', through five strands: Pollution Picks, Community Education, Events, Make Your Own Workshop, and Campaigning for Change. Open to local community groups, clubs, classes, businesses, schools and individuals.
Sea The Change
Eyemouth and Berwick-upon-Tweed, Scottish Borders
Checked 23 September 2026
A Scottish charity (SC050664), based at the Cycle Shack in Eyemouth, working to connect communities to the Berwickshire and Northumberland coast. Its own site states Plastic-Free Status for Eyemouth (2021) and for Berwick-upon-Tweed (2023), alongside 1% for the Planet and Certified Carbon Lite certifications. Wider work covers bike repair and lending, beach wheelchairs, trishaw rides and a Berwickshire Anti-Litter Group.
Plastic Free Lincoln
Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A community campaign, founded 2019, working with Lincoln businesses, schools, colleges, universities and households as part of Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Communities scheme, aiming for accreditation as a plastic-free city. Activities listed include business engagement, community events, council liaison, a repair cafe and education outreach.
Plastic Free Strode College
Street, Somerset
Checked 23 September 2026
A campaign at Strode College, Street, Somerset, that in 2019 became the first college in the UK awarded Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Communities Approved status. Led by staff member Adrian Smith, who signed up after meeting Plastic Free Wells at the college Freshers Fair, and art and design lecturer Duncan Cameron, building on a college paper recycling system dating to 2002 and a formal Sustainability Group formed in 2013.
Plastic Free Broad Haven and Little Haven
Broad Haven, Pembrokeshire and Little Haven, Pembrokeshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group covering the linked villages of Broad Haven and Little Haven on the Pembrokeshire coast, and Pembrokeshire's first community to achieve Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community status, in February 2019. Lists eight Plastic Free Champion businesses and names Broad Haven School, Broad Haven Village Hall, Broad Haven Baptist Church, Little Haven Beach Guardians and Pembrokeshire Coast Triathlon among its local allies.
Plastic Free BoA
Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group for Bradford-on-Avon, run by a Steering Group named on its site as Jill, Maureen, Councillor Alex Kay, Ruth, Eunice, Alex, Rebecca, John, Sally and Jess. States its application for Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community status was successful in April 2019, achieved with partner group Climate Friendly Bradford-on-Avon. Installed three public water fountains in the town, produced a plastic-free shopping guide, and worked with local businesses to phase out plastic straws and stirrers.
Plastic Free Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A Monmouthshire County Council programme, not a single independent community group, coordinating separate town-level Plastic Free campaigns across the district: Plastic Free Abergavenny, Plastic Free Chepstow (run with Transition Chepstow) and Plastic Free Monmouth, each with its own contact email on the council's page. States that Chepstow achieved Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status, though no date is given; the page was last updated 22 October 2020. Documents litter-picking walks, engagement with takeaways on packaging, water-refill promotion at cafes and pubs, school initiatives on plastic milk bottles and straws, and a wet-wipes awareness campaign.
Breaking The Plastic Habit (Canary Wharf)
Canary Wharf, London
Checked 23 September 2026
A behavioural-change campaign covering the Canary Wharf estate, run by Canary Wharf Group with Surfers Against Sewage. States Canary Wharf became the world's first commercial centre awarded Plastic Free Communities status, on World Environment Day, 5 June 2019, following the campaign's launch in June 2018. Documents a UK-first on-estate Deposit Return Scheme, a Clean Coffee Zone running since June 2017 that recycles cups, lids and coffee grounds into coffee logs, and a partnership with the HELPFUL app that rewards shoppers for recycling plastic bottles and cups.
Abingdon Cuts Plastic
Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-reduction sub-group of Abingdon Carbon Cutters, led by Kim Jones with a Town Council representative, covering Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. States Abingdon became the 65th UK community granted Plastic-Free status by Surfers Against Sewage in summer 2019. Runs twice-yearly river and riverbank cleanups with the AbiBinit litter-picking group, gives talks on plastic pollution to schools and scouts, and names 12 local businesses as Plastic-Free Champions, including Kingfisher Barn. Records that founding member Anne Smart died in summer 2024.
Stroud District Action on Plastic (SDAP)
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Checked 23 September 2026
A volunteer-led group working to cut single-use plastic across Stroud District, Gloucestershire. States it joined Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Communities scheme in 2019 and achieved Plastic Free Community accreditation for the whole district in 2020, and that it received the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service in June 2022. Runs a plastic-free business champions network, works with schools, has installed water fountains and pushed for free tap-water refills in cafes and pubs, and has signed open letters supporting World Refill Day and Greenpeace's Big Plastic Count. States it is funded by the Laura Kinsella Foundation and the Summerfield Charitable Trust.
Sidmouth Plastic Warriors
Sidmouth, Devon
Checked 23 September 2026
A campaign group founded in January 2018 to make Sidmouth, Devon, single-use-plastic-free, chaired by Denise Bickley with Cllr Rachel Perram as Vice Chair, Lesley Chapman as Secretary and Charissa Evans as Treasurer. States it began the Surfers Against Sewage accreditation process in February 2018 and announced on 22 July 2018 that Sidmouth had gained Plastic Free Coastline status. Runs monthly beach and town cleanup events, an Adopt-A-Spot scheme, a Warrior Businesses network, and campaigns for cigarette butt bins.
Clean Coast Outer Hebrides
Knock, Isle of Lewis and Na h-Eileanan Siar (Outer Hebrides)
Checked 23 September 2026
A Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO, charity number SC049307), based in Knock, Isle of Lewis, working to end coastal pollution across the Outer Hebrides' roughly 4,000km of coastline and 100-plus islands. States it is pursuing Plastic Free Communities status through Surfers Against Sewage. Leads beach cleanups and coaches community groups to run their own, and delivers outreach sessions to schools and community groups. Lists partnerships with NatureScot, Climate Hebrides, Fauna and Flora International and Surfers Against Sewage.
Plastic Free Eastbourne
Eastbourne, East Sussex
Checked 23 September 2026
A campaign group working to eliminate single-use plastics in Eastbourne, which its site describes as operating as part of Surfers Against Sewage; no accreditation date is stated. Runs refill water stations, beach clean-ups and seafront maintenance, an Adopt A Beach sponsorship scheme, the Spring Water Festival, an Eco Fair, and a drawing competition for local schools.
Plastic Free Wimborne
Wimborne Minster, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign for Wimborne Minster, run as part of the Planet Wimborne site, that became the 32nd UK community to gain Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community accreditation in September 2018, having launched on 23 April 2018. Runs a Business Champions scheme for businesses that switch away from at least three single-use plastic items, and a Plastic Free Allies scheme for schools, churches and community centres. Works with local councils and the town's Business Improvement District, and separately holds Fairtrade Community and Bee Friendly Wimborne recognition.
Dawlish Against Plastic
Dawlish, Devon
Checked 23 September 2026
Dawlish Against Plastic (DAP) campaigns to reduce single-use plastic under the principle 'Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle', and has been awarded Plastic Free Community status by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS). Rachel Yates, named on the site as SAS's Plastic Free Communities Project Officer, is quoted on Dawlish's achievement. The group's five-point plan covered a community steering group, SAS Plastic Free Schools education, local council commitment and business engagement. Runs monthly town litter picks (last Saturday of the month) and separately scheduled beach cleans, plus the Dawlish Cup reusable cup scheme, and takes part in the 'Turn the Tide 2026' festival on 23 May 2026 led by Turn the Tide Teignbridge CIC.
Plastic Free Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
Plastic Free Lyme Regis is the Surfers Against Sewage-accredited plastic reduction campaign run under Turn Lyme Green, with active support from Lyme Regis Town Council. The site states 23 local businesses have earned its Plastic Free Business Champion award. Turn Lyme Green's own pages also document the River Lim Action Group, running litter picks and beach cleans and river monitoring and a water pollution reporting system for the River Lim, Dorset Seed Savers for food growing, Bee Friendly Lyme Regis for pollinator habitat, and a Recycle Sewing Group.
Plastic Free Overton
Overton, Hampshire
Checked 23 September 2026
Plastic Free Overton is run by Sustainable Overton, a registered charity (Charity Number 1214768, registered as a CIO), and achieved Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status in 2021. Its Business Champions scheme requires businesses to complete a plastic audit and pledge to remove at least three single-use plastics, in return for a wooden plaque, a certificate and a website listing. Community spaces and groups can sign the Plastic Free Communities Pledge to become Community Allies, and the site offers template letters for residents to write to companies, supermarkets, hospitality businesses and MPs about plastic waste, alongside community litter picks.
Plastic Free Wells
Wells, Somerset
Checked 23 September 2026
Plastic Free Wells is a community campaign site working to reduce plastic consumption in Wells, offering a WWF carbon footprint calculator, plastic-reduction tips, a blog and a 'Plastic Free Champions' section for local businesses.
Plastic Free Penzance
Penzance, Cornwall
Checked 23 September 2026
Plastic Free Penzance states on its own site that it was the first community in the UK to be awarded Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Communities status. It runs PackSwap PZ, a swap and reuse scheme, Refill PZ, a water and product refill station scheme, a directory of participating local businesses, and a 'Life Hacks' section of practical tips for cutting plastic use.
Plastic Free Falmouth
Falmouth, Cornwall
Checked 23 September 2026
Plastic Free Falmouth (PFF) describes itself as part of a 'nationwide people-powered movement dedicated to breaking free from single-use plastic and stopping its production for good.' Runs beach cleanups and public education workshops, works with Falmouth's council, businesses and schools through a Plastic Free Champions scheme for businesses and a Plastic Free Schools initiative, and partners with the neighbouring Helford River, Penryn and Mylor Plastic Free Communities and with the Party Kit Network.
Plastic Free Guisborough
Guisborough, Redcar & Cleveland
Checked 23 September 2026
A single-use-plastic campaign group that, alongside neighbouring PF Saltburn, ran a protest stand during Surfers Against Sewage's national People vs Plastic day in July 2025, bringing together residents, local Plastic Free Champion business owners, community allies and their local councillor behind calls for a UK Deposit Return Scheme and new plastic-reduction legislation.
Plastic Free Budleigh
Budleigh Salterton, Devon
Checked 23 September 2026
A single-use-plastic campaign for Budleigh Salterton, led by Sue Glover, environment lead for Budleigh Lions, which launched about a year before gaining Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community status. Runs a five-point plan with a steering group and the town council, has moved local businesses onto paper bags, paper straws and reusable cups, holds community education events, and organises regular litter picks with Budleigh Lions and Clean Beach Budleigh. Backed by the Town Council, Love Budleigh, Shop Budleigh, Budleigh Lions, St Peter's School and the Otter Valley Association.
Plastic Free Knutsford
Knutsford, Cheshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A campaign working towards Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status for Knutsford, led by volunteer Carol Goodwin with a small team of friends. Runs a pop-up stall at Knutsford indoor market on Fridays (by arrangement with Knutsford Town Council), takes part in the Picnic in the Park event, campaigns against single-use plastic cups with local coffee shops, and does outreach to local schools.
Plastic Free Forest Gate
Forest Gate, Newham, London
Checked 23 September 2026
A single-use-plastic campaign for Forest Gate run by Eco7, a voluntary sustainability group formed around 2024 by founding member Cathy Stack, with volunteer Cllr Rachel Tripp also involved. Accredited under the Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Communities Initiative, celebrated at an event at Forest Gate Library on 3 February 2026 with over 30 attendees. Has recruited 12 local businesses to pledge plastic reductions, including Madinah Dry Cleaners on Woodgrange Road switching to biodegradable garment covers, and works through a stall at Woodgrange Market.
Plastic Free Aberdyfi
Aberdyfi, Gwynedd
Checked 23 September 2026
A community-led single-use plastic reduction campaign for Aberdyfi (Aberdovey), driven by volunteers including Phil Morgan, that has signed the community council and local businesses up to Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Communities scheme, committing to remove at least three single-use plastic items from their operations. Runs a water bottle refill station and a USE-REUSE-RECYCLE point on the jetty that collected hundreds of used plastic crabbing nets last season, plus monthly community beach cleans on the first Sunday of the month. Local schools Ysgol Pennal and Ysgol Dyffryn Dulas Corris raised £378.81 through a sponsored skipping challenge to fund extra litter pickers.
Plastic Free Betws-y-Coed & District
Betws-y-Coed & District, Conwy
Checked 23 September 2026
The Betws-y-Coed and District arm of Plastic Free Yr Wyddfa, the Surfers Against Sewage-backed campaign to reduce single-use plastic reaching Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and its surrounding villages, which see around 600,000 visitors a year. Led locally by Michelle, who describes Betws-y-Coed as 'the Gateway to Snowdonia' through which most walkers pass for supplies and accommodation on their way to the mountain. Works alongside the wider campaign's lead, Alec Young, on business champions and refill/reuse schemes, modelled on Plastic Free Exmoor's approach.
Plastic Free Marple
Marple, Greater Manchester
Checked 23 September 2026
A volunteer group working to reduce single-use plastics in Marple, Stockport, protecting local green spaces and waterways, led by contact Chloe Farrow. Runs a Facebook Group for community advice and is launching a festival reusable pint cup scheme in spring, alongside a reusable coffee cup scheme with local cafes, starting with Lentils and Lather as the first venue. Funded by a £300 grant from Stockport Hydro plus further Stockport Council grants and sponsorship from Marple Beer Run, Make It Marple and The Marple Website; many members also take part in Climate Action Marple.
Plastic Free Minster
Minster, Thanet, Kent
Checked 23 September 2026
The Minster arm of Plastic Free Thanet, the campaign covering Margate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Minster that works with Thanet District Council, local businesses and community groups, alongside Rise Up Clean Up, Surfers Against Sewage and Refill Revolution. Danielle signed up to represent Minster on the campaign's road to Plastic Free Community status. Thanet District Council formally and unanimously backed the wider campaign by December 2022. Businesses are recruited as Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Champions by removing at least three single-use plastic items from their offer.
Plastic Free Pembrokeshire (St Davids, Solva & Llanrhian)
St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Solva, Pembrokeshire and Llanrhian, Pembrokeshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A single-use plastic reduction campaign led by EcoDewi in partnership with St Davids City Council, which took around two years of work before St Davids received Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community Award in July 2024. Recruits local businesses as Plastic Free Champions and organisations as Plastic Free Allies, and the pupils and staff of Ysgol Penrhyn Dewi earned formal Plastic Free School accreditation. Runs beach cleans, talks and film nights on reducing single-use plastic, and as of the August 2024 update was continuing the St Davids work while extending the campaign towards awards in the Solva and Llanrhian wards.
Plastic Free Sheffield Central
Sheffield Central
Checked 23 September 2026
A volunteer-run campaign launched around March 2022 by organisers including Greg Hewitt and Marketa Rychla, working towards Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community Approved status for the Sheffield Central constituency. Asks local businesses to drop at least three single-use plastic items such as disposable coffee cups, plastic bags, throwaway cutlery, balloons, condiment sachets and disposable razors, and has looked at running a 'mass unwrap' event where shoppers leave unnecessary packaging in-store. Since May 2022 has also been exploring reusable pint and coffee cup schemes.
Plastic Free Brockenhurst
Brockenhurst, Hampshire
Checked 23 September 2026
Brockenhurst was awarded Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status on 13 July 2023, following a campaign led by Greener Brockenhurst under Bronya Szatkowska. The five-point plan set up a community steering group, brought in the Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Schools education programme, secured local council support, and engaged businesses and organisations to cut disposable plastic use. Over a dozen local organisations signed pledges as community allies, including St Saviour's Church, the Scouts, Brownies, Mother's Union, the allotment association, the village hall, the business association, the cricket club and the Women's Institute.
Plastic Free Shefford
Shefford, Bedfordshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A local single-use plastic reduction campaign in Shefford, represented in the community by Nicola Burr. Documented as an active participant in the 2024 Shefford Community Festival: Nicola Burr gave a well-attended talk on 'Bess of Hardwick and Plastic Free Shefford' alongside the WI at the Community Hall, ran a library session with Shefford Crafts, and led a discussion on the environment, climate change and encouraging people to be more active about the planet at the Brewery Tap.
Plastic Free Okehampton
Okehampton, Devon
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group that has coordinated Okehampton's involvement in the national Great Big Green Week campaign for four years running, joining with other local environmental groups to hold an annual Eco Fair with litter picks, bioblitz activities and wildflower trails. Runs 'green drinks' social evenings at local venues for people to discuss green initiatives, and held a lantern-making workshop at Okehampton Community Garden on 18 March 2024 ahead of Earth Hour. Some residents have also set up a Plastic Free Community Steering Group, which grew out of the town's plastic recycling scheme, to raise the project's profile.
Plastic Free Bodmin
Bodmin, Cornwall
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group, led by Beth Woolley (who also runs the Old Library Cafe), that began in November 2021 and received Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community status in March 2023. Over 25 Bodmin-based community groups, businesses and organisations are signed up as supporters, including Business Champions Celtic Produce, Oggy Oggy Pasties and Discovery42. All Bodmin primary schools and Bodmin and Callywith College take part in the Plastic Free Schools education programme, and the group has worked with Bodmin Way to cut single-use plastic and hand out reusable bottles to children at the town's St Piran's Day parade. Bodmin Town Council has passed a resolution supporting the plastic-free journey.
Plastic Free Barton
Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group with its own steering group. Barton-upon-Humber Town Council's full council meeting on 6 March 2024 agreed to elect Cllr A Watson onto the Plastic Free Barton Steering Group, agreed to support all Plastic Free Communities initiatives in the town (with a councillor suggesting a presence at local events), and pledged that the council itself would act by example and remove single-use plastic items from its own premises and operations.
Plastic Free Newport
Newport, South Wales
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign working towards Newport becoming an official plastic-free city, run in partnership with Sero Zero Waste, a Newport zero-waste shop. Its published objectives are running community events encouraging people to reduce plastic consumption, recruiting schools, colleges, universities and public spaces (libraries, leisure centres, parks) as 'Community Allies', working with independent businesses as 'Business Champions' to eliminate at least three single-use plastic items each, and securing a formal resolution of support from Newport City Council. Posts under the handle @PlasticfreeNPT.
Plastic Free West Somerset (Porlock Vale, Watchet and Exmoor)
Watchet, Somerset, Porlock, Somerset and Exmoor, Somerset
Checked 23 September 2026
A cluster of Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community campaigns across west Somerset, run under one Facebook page. Watchet, led by Community Leader Sam Westmacott, and neighbouring Minehead became the UK's 130th and 131st accredited Plastic Free Communities in April 2021, drawing over 100 residents to a January beach clean and signing up businesses including Watchet Marina and the Corner Cafe. Porlock Vale, led by Stephen Colson with Ella Keal on communications, grew out of a 4R's Waste Reduction group formed in 2020 covering parishes from Wootton Courtenay to Culbone, went on to gain its own Plastic Free Community status, and has recruited Business Champions such as Porlock Fayre (refillable milk bottles) and Cross Lane House and Dunkery Beacon Hotel (glass replacing plastic packaging), with funding from Somerset County Council. Plastic Free Exmoor, run through Exmoor National Park, has built a network of over twenty free water-refill stations and lists twenty-nine participating businesses.
Plastic Free Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion
Checked 23 September 2026
Aberystwyth became the first major town in Wales to achieve Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community status, awarded in April 2018 and coordinated by Plastic Free Steering Group lead Chris Woodfield with SAS regional representative Laura Truelove. Aberystwyth Town Council backed the campaign from July 2017 and Ceredigion County Council later pledged support. Accredited Business Champions include Medina, The Treehouse, Baravin, Maeth y Meysydd, Sophie's and Crimson Rhino, and activities have included school talks, beach cleans and a Plastic Free Movie Night.
Plastic-Free St Ives (covering Carbis Bay and Lelant)
Carbis Bay, Cornwall (campaign covers St Ives, Carbis Bay and Lelant)
Checked 23 September 2026
Set up in early 2018 as part of Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic-Free Communities scheme, the campaign is led by a steering group of local business operators working toward Plastic-Free status for St Ives, Carbis Bay and Lelant together, rather than for Carbis Bay alone. It has signed up over 30 local businesses, including the St Ives Business Improvement District, each committing to eliminate at least three avoidable single-use plastic items, has secured town council backing, and runs campaign stands at local events plus beach-cleaning initiatives.
Plastic Free Bollington
Bollington, Cheshire
Checked 23 September 2026
Bollington achieved Surfers Against Sewage's Kitemarked Plastics-Free Town status, which sparked the Plastic Free Bollington alliance network. The grassroots group behind it, Transition Bollington, runs the Bolly Mug Library (loaning reusable mugs for events) and #Refill Bollington (encouraging reusable water bottles via the national Refill mapping scheme), and meets monthly to coordinate activity.
Plastic Free Mumbles
Mumbles, Swansea
Checked 23 September 2026
Plastic Free Mumbles signed up to the Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Communities scheme on 1 May 2020 and had completed three of its five accreditation objectives within a year. It held three events in its first year, including socially-distanced cleans and a beach art festival, ran a keep-cup campaign backed by Mumbles Community Council, and the council commissioned short videos, including one promoting Swansea Council's reusable-nappy grant, to support the campaign.
Plastic Free Bridport
Bridport, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
Bridport achieved Plastic Free Community status, announced in September 2021, after a campaign the Mayor set as a personal challenge in May 2020, led with team members Robin Boston, Sarah West and Scott Morrison. Twenty businesses met the standard, including Groves Nurseries, Red Brick Cafe and Chilli by the Sea, alongside fifteen community organisations such as Bridport Community Shed, Bridport Rotary Club and Transition Town Bridport, each removing at least three single-use plastic items from their operations.
Plastic Free Feering
Feering, Essex
Checked 23 September 2026
Feering became the first place in Essex to be awarded Plastic Free Community status by Surfers Against Sewage, after a campaign launched by resident Danielle Levart. Feering Parish Council, Feering Rainbows, Feering Community Centre, Kelvedon and Feering Cricket Club and Prested Hall all signed a pledge to reduce single-use plastic, and the campaign has run community litter picks and awareness fairs demonstrating simple plastic-reduction swaps.
Plastic Free Ruddington
Ruddington, Nottinghamshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A single-use-plastic reduction campaign run as a project of Ruddington Village Community Partnership (RVCP), working towards the village achieving Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Communities status. RVCP's own account of the project describes holding Plastic Free markets and carrying out litter picks in the village.
Woodhouse Eaves Plastic Free
Woodhouse Eaves, Leicestershire
Checked 23 September 2026
A Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community group in Woodhouse Eaves, Leicestershire, registered on the Restart Project's Restarters.net platform. Runs a Repair Cafe launched as part of a Sustainable Living Fair, with a plan to hold four repair cafes a year in the village hall, offering fixers for electronics and textiles, tool sharpening, and a pop-up refill shop for household items.
Plastic Free Buckingham
Buckingham, Buckinghamshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A single-use-plastic reduction campaign led by Buckingham Town Council, which unanimously agreed on 12 March 2018 to do all it could to encourage the town, residents and businesses to reduce single-use plastic. The Council phased out single-use plastic products at its own events, offices and community centres, consulted with local businesses and market traders, and ran the #RefillBuckingham scheme letting people refill reusable water bottles for free.
Plastic Free Ringwood
Ringwood, Hampshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A single-use-plastic campaign group in Ringwood, Hampshire (Facebook group name Ecobricks Ringwood Area), which co-organised the Big Community Litter Pick on 2-3 April 2022 alongside Ringwood Actions for Climate Emergency (RACE against time) and Ringwood & District Round Table, with meeting points at Market Place and Poulner Scout Hut.
Longridge Environment Group (Plastic Free Longridge)
Longridge, Lancashire
Checked 23 September 2026
A community environment group in Longridge, Lancashire, formed in 2019 following pleas from local schoolchildren, inspired by the climate school strikes. Achieved Plastic Free Community status awarded by Surfers Against Sewage, opened a regular plastic-free market in the town, and worked with local schools to become Plastic Free Schools.
Plastic Free Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire
Checked 23 September 2026
A single-use-plastic reduction campaign in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, run at plasticfreetewkesbury.com and supported by Tewkesbury Town Council. The Council declared a Climate Emergency on 9 September 2019 and formed a Climate Change Working Group, removed single-use plastics from the Watson Hall bar and kitchens and the Town Hall kitchen, and made the Town Hall a water refill point.
Plastic Free Torridge
Bideford, Devon, Northam and Westward Ho!, Devon, Appledore, Devon and 1 more
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group covering Bideford, Northam, Appledore and Westward Ho! in the Torridge district of North Devon, part of the wider Plastic Free North Devon Consortium formed in April 2018 to cut single-use plastic across communities, tourism, farming/fishing and business. Co-hosted a beach clean with the Northam Burrows Rangers at Westward Ho! on 24 March 2024, as part of the Great British Spring Clean 2024, supplying volunteers with cleanup equipment.
Plastic-Free Dalgety Bay
Dalgety Bay, Fife
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group in Dalgety Bay, Fife, accredited by Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Communities scheme in 2020. Community lead Joaquin Blasco has described how, after accreditation, Dalgety Bay began working jointly with the neighbouring Dunfermline and Charlestown, Limekilns & Patiesmuir groups as the Plastic-Free Fife network, giving the combined groups more weight when approaching Fife Council. The group has run a 'Period Plastics' campaign and, working with Balfour Beatty's community programme, helped equip local primary schools with litter grabbers, gloves and hi-vis vests for litter-picking.
Plastic Free Highcliffe-on-Sea
Highcliffe-on-Sea, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
A Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Communities campaign for Highcliffe-on-Sea, Dorset, working to remove single-use plastic from the village. Led as a volunteer Team Leader by Amelia Raine. Has awarded 'Plastic Free Champion' certificates to three local businesses (Cliffhanger Restaurant, Napoleons Bar and Hoburne Naish) for removing items such as plastic straws, bags and water bottles, is working with Highcliffe School and targeting Highcliffe St Mark Primary, and partners with the community gardening group Highcliffe and Walkford In Bloom.
Plastic Free New Milton
New Milton, Hampshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Communities campaign for New Milton, Hampshire, listed by SAS as a 'community in progress' (behind neighbouring Lymington, which is certified), reported in the Lymington & New Milton Advertiser & Times. Zero-waste shop The Naked Pantry, run by Kathy Sirl, signed up as community leaders for the campaign; its own site sets out targets of at least a third of local schools becoming Plastic Free Schools and businesses pledging to cut single-use plastic in three ways to earn a certificate, with individuals invited to help run street cleans, beach cleans and events. The Naked Pantry won the Environmental Contribution award at the New Forest Brilliance in Business Awards on 9 December 2021.
PACE Manningtree
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Manningtree, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 4 months
Volunteer charity in Manningtree and Lawford, registered in 2023, that runs the Manningtree Earth Festival, a programme of more than 60 events, and community projects such as opening local gardens that support wildlife.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 14
Life Below Water
Oceans, rivers and everything living in them.
Sewage, plastic and overfishing are the three big ones, and all three are visible from a British beach.
The wins
- Marine protected area has grown more than tenfold since 2000, and 10.01% of the ocean was protected by April 2026.
- 77.2% of the world's ocean catch came from biologically sustainable stocks in 2021.
The challenges
- More than a third of global fish stocks are being fished beyond sustainable limits.
- The ocean is 30% more acidic than it was before the industrial revolution.
- 84% of the world's reefs were hit between 2023 and 2025 by the most widespread coral bleaching on record.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Key dates for this goal
8 June
World Oceans Day
Marked by the UN since 2008, and it's Goal 14 here, Life Below Water - more than a third of global fish stocks are already fished beyond sustainable limits, so there's no shortage of things to look at.
July
Plastic Free July
A habit-changing month that started in Western Australia in 2011, and it covers three goals here - Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13, Climate Action, because plastic starts as oil, and Goal 14, Life Below Water.
Look closer at this goal
Two treaties that just came into force
After decades of negotiation, two of the biggest pieces of ocean law in a generation started working within four months of each other.
- The agreement on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction came into force on 17 January 2026, covering the two thirds of the ocean outside national limits. As of 1 June 2026, 89 countries had become parties.
- The World Trade Organization agreement on fisheries subsidies has been in force since 15 September 2025, banning subsidies linked to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Harmful fisheries subsidies cost taxpayers $22 billion a year.
- 10.01% of the ocean was protected or conserved by April 2026, six years after the 2020 deadline. The target is now 30% by 2030, and around 5 million square kilometres has been newly protected since 2024.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
The fish, and the measuring of them
The decline in fish stocks has slowed rather than stopped, and the monitoring behind any of these figures is a good deal younger than the problem.
- 35.5% of assessed stocks were overfished in 2021 and 64.5% were within biologically sustainable levels. The decline in sustainable stocks has slowed markedly since 2015, falling about two percentage points over six years after decades of rapid decline.
- Ocean pH monitoring stations across 45 reporting countries rose from 178 in 2021 to 906 in 2026, and only 13 countries submit data sets spanning more than a decade.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
What fishing is worth to the places that depend on it
As a share of the world economy this is tiny. As a share of some economies it is everything.
- Sustainable fisheries fell to 0.08% of world GDP in 2023, a third consecutive decline and 7% down on 2021, even as fisheries and aquaculture generated a combined $175 billion and supported much of the world's 58.5 million fisheries and aquaculture workers.
- In small island developing states the share fell from 0.57% to 0.52% between 2021 and 2023, still more than six times the world figure. In the least developed countries it fell from 0.75% to 0.73%, nine times the world figure.
- Sub-Saharan Africa was the only region to grow, from 0.39% in 2021 to 0.43% in 2023, with Middle Africa reaching 0.81%. Europe and Northern America stayed around 0.03%.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026
Look closer at the UK
How much of the sea is protected
This counts the areas designated for protection, not how well each one is managed.
- In June 2026 the UK had 378 Marine Protected Areas, covering 38% of UK waters.
- They covered 47% of inshore waters and 36% of offshore waters in June 2026.
Joint Nature Conservation Committee, UK Marine Protected Area network statistics. Covers UK waters. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Surfers Against Sewage
United Kingdom
Checked 23 September 2026
National marine conservation and campaigning charity protecting oceans, beaches, waves and wildlife. Runs the Plastic Free Communities accreditation scheme and a real-time sewage alert app.
Disclosed connection: Disclosed. The accrediting body behind Sustainable Newport's Plastic Free Community status under the founder's leadership.
ABALOBI
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2023Revive Our Oceans
South Africa
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa
See the countries
Seychelles, South Africa, Namibia
Checked 19 September 2026
Non-profit partnership between small-scale fishers and scientists, founded in South Africa, whose app lets fishers record their catch, prove sustainable practice, earn fairer prices and build a picture of ocean health.
Bonds for Ocean Conservation
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2025Revive Our Oceans
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Debt conversion pioneered by the Debt for Nature Coalition, refinancing national debt so the savings are redirected into ocean conservation and climate resilience.
Coastal 500
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2023Revive Our Oceans
Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras and 5 more
Checked 10 September 2026
Global network of mayors and local government leaders working to restore ocean habitats, protect coastlines and support sustainable fishing communities.
High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People
Earthshot Prize Winner 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Intergovernmental coalition pressing governments to protect 30% of land and ocean by 2030, with toolkits and technical support to turn biodiversity commitments into action.
Living Seawalls
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2021Revive Our Oceans
Australia
Checked 10 September 2026
Flagship programme of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, fitting habitat panels to sea walls and coastal defences so marine life can recolonise them.
Pristine Seas
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2021Revive Our Oceans
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Ocean conservation programme run under National Geographic, bringing scientists, filmmakers and policy experts together to establish marine reserves and help protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.
Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef
Earthshot Prize Winner 2022Revive Our Oceans
Australia
Checked 10 September 2026
Queensland Indigenous Women Rangers Network, building the next generation of women rangers who combine ancestral knowledge with modern technology to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
The High Seas Treaty
Earthshot Prize Winner 2025Revive Our Oceans
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
The first global legal framework for Marine Protected Areas on the high seas, and the route to protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030.
WildAid Marine Program
Earthshot Prize Winner 2023Revive Our Oceans
Bahamas, Ecuador, Gabon and 4 more
Checked 10 September 2026
Marine programme of the global non-profit WildAid, building enforcement capacity in Marine Protected Areas so illegal fishing stops and ocean ecosystems can recover.
Fight the Plastic (Bishop's Castle)
Bishop's Castle, Shropshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A volunteer campaign group that made Bishop's Castle the first accredited Plastic Free Community in Shropshire in 2019. Runs a monthly farmers' market stall selling plastic-free alternatives, beach and river cleans, and works with local schools and businesses to cut single-use plastic.
WWF International
Rue Mauverney 28, 1196 Gland, Switzerland
Works across Global
Confirmed active 10 September 2026
The secretariat of the WWF network, an independent foundation registered under Swiss law at Rue Mauverney 28 in Gland. Formed in 1961, it leads and coordinates a network active in more than 100 countries, developing policies and priorities, fostering global partnerships and coordinating international campaigns.
Earth Action North Devon
North Devon (Barnstaple, South Molton, Braunton, Croyde & Georgeham, Woolacombe, Ilfracombe and North Devon District)
Checked 23 September 2026
A registered charity (Reg No. 1182464) covering North Devon, including Braunton (where its office is), Croyde, Combe Martin, Ilfracombe, Westward Ho! and Bideford. Began as a Plastic Free Braunton Facebook group set up by local teacher Desiree Young, who partnered with local Surfers Against Sewage representatives to roll out Plastic Free Communities across North Devon; traded as Plastic Free North Devon for seven years before rebranding as Earth Action North Devon under chief executive Claire Moodie once its work had grown beyond plastic. Runs a Community Cleans programme that has removed over four tonnes of rubbish from Saunton Beach alone since 2018, plus a Tarka Trail & Estuary Clean Up, a Repair Cafe network, an Ocean Explorer Academy and school workshops, and a short documentary on the state of the coastline's water quality. Business partners named on the site include Turnstyle Designs and PowerVault ('Game Changers') and Dry Robe, Holiday Cottages and John Fowler Holidays ('Impact Makers'); funders include the Devon Environment Foundation and the National Lottery Community Fund.
Abingdon Cuts Plastic
Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-reduction sub-group of Abingdon Carbon Cutters, led by Kim Jones with a Town Council representative, covering Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. States Abingdon became the 65th UK community granted Plastic-Free status by Surfers Against Sewage in summer 2019. Runs twice-yearly river and riverbank cleanups with the AbiBinit litter-picking group, gives talks on plastic pollution to schools and scouts, and names 12 local businesses as Plastic-Free Champions, including Kingfisher Barn. Records that founding member Anne Smart died in summer 2024.
Sidmouth Plastic Warriors
Sidmouth, Devon
Checked 23 September 2026
A campaign group founded in January 2018 to make Sidmouth, Devon, single-use-plastic-free, chaired by Denise Bickley with Cllr Rachel Perram as Vice Chair, Lesley Chapman as Secretary and Charissa Evans as Treasurer. States it began the Surfers Against Sewage accreditation process in February 2018 and announced on 22 July 2018 that Sidmouth had gained Plastic Free Coastline status. Runs monthly beach and town cleanup events, an Adopt-A-Spot scheme, a Warrior Businesses network, and campaigns for cigarette butt bins.
Clean Coast Outer Hebrides
Knock, Isle of Lewis and Na h-Eileanan Siar (Outer Hebrides)
Checked 23 September 2026
A Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO, charity number SC049307), based in Knock, Isle of Lewis, working to end coastal pollution across the Outer Hebrides' roughly 4,000km of coastline and 100-plus islands. States it is pursuing Plastic Free Communities status through Surfers Against Sewage. Leads beach cleanups and coaches community groups to run their own, and delivers outreach sessions to schools and community groups. Lists partnerships with NatureScot, Climate Hebrides, Fauna and Flora International and Surfers Against Sewage.
Plastic Free Eastbourne
Eastbourne, East Sussex
Checked 23 September 2026
A campaign group working to eliminate single-use plastics in Eastbourne, which its site describes as operating as part of Surfers Against Sewage; no accreditation date is stated. Runs refill water stations, beach clean-ups and seafront maintenance, an Adopt A Beach sponsorship scheme, the Spring Water Festival, an Eco Fair, and a drawing competition for local schools.
Dawlish Against Plastic
Dawlish, Devon
Checked 23 September 2026
Dawlish Against Plastic (DAP) campaigns to reduce single-use plastic under the principle 'Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle', and has been awarded Plastic Free Community status by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS). Rachel Yates, named on the site as SAS's Plastic Free Communities Project Officer, is quoted on Dawlish's achievement. The group's five-point plan covered a community steering group, SAS Plastic Free Schools education, local council commitment and business engagement. Runs monthly town litter picks (last Saturday of the month) and separately scheduled beach cleans, plus the Dawlish Cup reusable cup scheme, and takes part in the 'Turn the Tide 2026' festival on 23 May 2026 led by Turn the Tide Teignbridge CIC.
Plastic Free Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
Plastic Free Lyme Regis is the Surfers Against Sewage-accredited plastic reduction campaign run under Turn Lyme Green, with active support from Lyme Regis Town Council. The site states 23 local businesses have earned its Plastic Free Business Champion award. Turn Lyme Green's own pages also document the River Lim Action Group, running litter picks and beach cleans and river monitoring and a water pollution reporting system for the River Lim, Dorset Seed Savers for food growing, Bee Friendly Lyme Regis for pollinator habitat, and a Recycle Sewing Group.
Plastic Free Falmouth
Falmouth, Cornwall
Checked 23 September 2026
Plastic Free Falmouth (PFF) describes itself as part of a 'nationwide people-powered movement dedicated to breaking free from single-use plastic and stopping its production for good.' Runs beach cleanups and public education workshops, works with Falmouth's council, businesses and schools through a Plastic Free Champions scheme for businesses and a Plastic Free Schools initiative, and partners with the neighbouring Helford River, Penryn and Mylor Plastic Free Communities and with the Party Kit Network.
Plastic Free Budleigh
Budleigh Salterton, Devon
Checked 23 September 2026
A single-use-plastic campaign for Budleigh Salterton, led by Sue Glover, environment lead for Budleigh Lions, which launched about a year before gaining Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community status. Runs a five-point plan with a steering group and the town council, has moved local businesses onto paper bags, paper straws and reusable cups, holds community education events, and organises regular litter picks with Budleigh Lions and Clean Beach Budleigh. Backed by the Town Council, Love Budleigh, Shop Budleigh, Budleigh Lions, St Peter's School and the Otter Valley Association.
Plastic Free Aberdyfi
Aberdyfi, Gwynedd
Checked 23 September 2026
A community-led single-use plastic reduction campaign for Aberdyfi (Aberdovey), driven by volunteers including Phil Morgan, that has signed the community council and local businesses up to Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Communities scheme, committing to remove at least three single-use plastic items from their operations. Runs a water bottle refill station and a USE-REUSE-RECYCLE point on the jetty that collected hundreds of used plastic crabbing nets last season, plus monthly community beach cleans on the first Sunday of the month. Local schools Ysgol Pennal and Ysgol Dyffryn Dulas Corris raised £378.81 through a sponsored skipping challenge to fund extra litter pickers.
Plastic Free Pembrokeshire (St Davids, Solva & Llanrhian)
St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Solva, Pembrokeshire and Llanrhian, Pembrokeshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A single-use plastic reduction campaign led by EcoDewi in partnership with St Davids City Council, which took around two years of work before St Davids received Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community Award in July 2024. Recruits local businesses as Plastic Free Champions and organisations as Plastic Free Allies, and the pupils and staff of Ysgol Penrhyn Dewi earned formal Plastic Free School accreditation. Runs beach cleans, talks and film nights on reducing single-use plastic, and as of the August 2024 update was continuing the St Davids work while extending the campaign towards awards in the Solva and Llanrhian wards.
Plastic Free West Somerset (Porlock Vale, Watchet and Exmoor)
Watchet, Somerset, Porlock, Somerset and Exmoor, Somerset
Checked 23 September 2026
A cluster of Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community campaigns across west Somerset, run under one Facebook page. Watchet, led by Community Leader Sam Westmacott, and neighbouring Minehead became the UK's 130th and 131st accredited Plastic Free Communities in April 2021, drawing over 100 residents to a January beach clean and signing up businesses including Watchet Marina and the Corner Cafe. Porlock Vale, led by Stephen Colson with Ella Keal on communications, grew out of a 4R's Waste Reduction group formed in 2020 covering parishes from Wootton Courtenay to Culbone, went on to gain its own Plastic Free Community status, and has recruited Business Champions such as Porlock Fayre (refillable milk bottles) and Cross Lane House and Dunkery Beacon Hotel (glass replacing plastic packaging), with funding from Somerset County Council. Plastic Free Exmoor, run through Exmoor National Park, has built a network of over twenty free water-refill stations and lists twenty-nine participating businesses.
Plastic Free Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion
Checked 23 September 2026
Aberystwyth became the first major town in Wales to achieve Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Community status, awarded in April 2018 and coordinated by Plastic Free Steering Group lead Chris Woodfield with SAS regional representative Laura Truelove. Aberystwyth Town Council backed the campaign from July 2017 and Ceredigion County Council later pledged support. Accredited Business Champions include Medina, The Treehouse, Baravin, Maeth y Meysydd, Sophie's and Crimson Rhino, and activities have included school talks, beach cleans and a Plastic Free Movie Night.
Plastic-Free St Ives (covering Carbis Bay and Lelant)
Carbis Bay, Cornwall (campaign covers St Ives, Carbis Bay and Lelant)
Checked 23 September 2026
Set up in early 2018 as part of Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic-Free Communities scheme, the campaign is led by a steering group of local business operators working toward Plastic-Free status for St Ives, Carbis Bay and Lelant together, rather than for Carbis Bay alone. It has signed up over 30 local businesses, including the St Ives Business Improvement District, each committing to eliminate at least three avoidable single-use plastic items, has secured town council backing, and runs campaign stands at local events plus beach-cleaning initiatives.
Plastic Free Torridge
Bideford, Devon, Northam and Westward Ho!, Devon, Appledore, Devon and 1 more
Checked 23 September 2026
A plastic-free campaign group covering Bideford, Northam, Appledore and Westward Ho! in the Torridge district of North Devon, part of the wider Plastic Free North Devon Consortium formed in April 2018 to cut single-use plastic across communities, tourism, farming/fishing and business. Co-hosted a beach clean with the Northam Burrows Rangers at Westward Ho! on 24 March 2024, as part of the Great British Spring Clean 2024, supplying volunteers with cleanup equipment.
Plastic Free New Milton
New Milton, Hampshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Communities campaign for New Milton, Hampshire, listed by SAS as a 'community in progress' (behind neighbouring Lymington, which is certified), reported in the Lymington & New Milton Advertiser & Times. Zero-waste shop The Naked Pantry, run by Kathy Sirl, signed up as community leaders for the campaign; its own site sets out targets of at least a third of local schools becoming Plastic Free Schools and businesses pledging to cut single-use plastic in three ways to earn a certificate, with individuals invited to help run street cleans, beach cleans and events. The Naked Pantry won the Environmental Contribution award at the New Forest Brilliance in Business Awards on 9 December 2021.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 15
Life on Land
Forests, soil, wildlife and the land itself.
Nature recovery, tree planting, and stopping the quiet disappearance of species nobody notices going.
The wins
- 20% of the world's forests now sit inside legally established protected areas.
- The share of forest protected or under long-term management has held steady or risen in most regions.
The challenges
- 41 million hectares of forest have been lost since 2015.
- The share of warm-water reef corals at high risk of extinction rose from a third in 2008 to 44% by 2025.
- More than 48,600 species are threatened with extinction, and global extinction risk continues to worsen.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set. Where that page was behind the UN’s own Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026, or did not carry the figure at all, the number here is the report’s, checked 12 September 2026. Read the report page.
Key dates for this goal
22 April
Earth Day
Running since 1970, and it lands across Goal 13, Climate Action, and Goal 15, Life on Land, here.
5 June
World Environment Day
The UN's day for the environment, covering Goal 13, Climate Action, and Goal 15, Life on Land, here - the theme changes country to country each year, so which one leads can shift.
Look closer at this goal
The forest is still shrinking, more slowly
Two true sentences that sound contradictory: deforestation is falling fast, and the world still has less forest every year.
- Forests shrank by 203.1 million hectares over the past 35 years, including 41 million hectares since 2015, taking forest from 33.3% of the Earth's land in 1990 to 31.8% today.
- Deforestation fell from 17.6 million hectares a year over 1990 to 2000 to 10.9 million hectares a year over 2015 to 2025.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Three regions are doing most of the losing
Forest is growing back across Asia, Europe and Northern America. The loss is concentrated, and it has not slowed where it is worst.
- Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and South-Eastern Asia have each lost more than 14% of their forests since 1990, and the pace has not slowed since 2000.
- Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 8 of the 10 countries with the largest percentage decline in forest area since 1990, some of which have lost more than half.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
The species count
The Red List Index is the closest thing there is to a single number for how life on Earth is doing, and it has fallen every year measured.
- The Red List Index, which tracks how close whole groups of species are to extinction, fell from 0.80 in 1993 to below 0.75 in 2025, with the sharpest declines in Southern Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- One third of warm-water reef-building corals were at high risk of extinction in 2008, rising to 44% by 2025. Almost a billion people rely on reefs for fisheries, tourism, coastal protection and cultural value.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
The sites that matter most
Protecting land in general is not the same as protecting the places the species are actually in.
- There are more than 16,600 identified key biodiversity areas. Average protected coverage of each reached 45% by 2025, up from 25% in 2000, but has largely stalled since 2015.
- In 2025 coverage exceeded 60% in Europe and Northern America and fell below 25% in parts of Oceania. Many countries may have identified only about half of their key biodiversity areas.
- In 2025 newly protected and conserved areas were established across Argentina, Canada, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, French Polynesia, Indonesia, Mozambique, New Zealand and Peru.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Law is arriving faster than money
Nearly every country has the legislation. A quarter of them have a budget line to go with it.
- 155 countries had established national biodiversity targets by 2025, and 98 were implementing environmental-economic accounting, a 42% increase since 2017.
- 142 countries and the European Union had ratified the Nagoya Protocol by the end of 2025, more than double the 70 of 2015, and projects in 78 developing countries have helped over 1 million small-scale farmers, researchers and breeders conserve crop diversity.
- Invasive species damage has quadrupled each decade since 1970, reaching at least $423 billion in 2019. Only about 26% of countries have dedicated invasive species laws, and of 57 surveyed only 67% reported a dedicated national budget for managing them.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026
Look closer at the UK
The species each nation has named as a priority
These are 251 species that the four nations have listed as priorities, tracked back to 1970.
- By 2023, the relative abundance of the UK's priority species had fallen to 38% of its 1970 level.
- Between 2018 and 2023 there was no significant change.
- Moths declined the most, to around 18% of their 1970 level by 2023.
Joint Nature Conservation Committee, UK Biodiversity Indicators: status of priority species, relative abundance. Covers UK. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Sustainable Newport Shropshire
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Newport, Shropshire, roughly a 25 mile radius
Checked 7 September 2026
Shropshire community group working across the circular economy, climate education and sustainability advocacy. Formed in 2009 as Newport 21 and rebranded in 2019. Recognised with the King's Award for Voluntary Service.
Disclosed connection: Past. Founder chaired this organisation, and was Plastic Free Lead and Refill Lead.
Woodland Trust
United Kingdom
Checked 7 September 2026
Woodland conservation charity managing many physical natural sites across the United Kingdom.
Acción Andina
Earthshot Prize Winner 2023Protect & Restore Nature
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and 2 more
Checked 10 September 2026
Grassroots initiative co-founded by the non-profits Global Forest Generation and Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos, uniting Indigenous and local communities across the Andes to protect and restore native high mountain forest and the water supplies that depend on it.
Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative
Earthshot Prize Winner 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Kazakhstan
Checked 10 September 2026
Conservation partnership led by the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan, bringing the Saiga antelope back from near extinction and restoring the Golden Steppe grasslands through research and work with local communities.
Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Ecuador and Peru
Checked 10 September 2026
Indigenous-led alliance of Amazonian nations protecting 86 million acres of forest through territorial governance, advocacy and a regenerative bioeconomy.
GAYO, Green Africa Youth Organization
Earthshot Prize Winner 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Ghana and Uganda
Checked 10 September 2026
Youth-led organisation running a Zero Waste Model that builds circular waste infrastructure and jobs, training people from across the community to turn waste into compost and charcoal briquettes.
High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People
Earthshot Prize Winner 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Intergovernmental coalition pressing governments to protect 30% of land and ocean by 2030, with toolkits and technical support to turn biodiversity commitments into action.
Hutan
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2022Protect & Restore Nature
Malaysia
Checked 10 September 2026
Grassroots wildlife research and conservation organisation creating corridors and replanting degraded land in Malaysian Borneo so orangutans and other endangered species can move safely, alongside work with local communities.
Pole Pole Foundation
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2021Protect & Restore Nature
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Checked 10 September 2026
Foundation set up in 1992 tackling the causes of deforestation and poaching rather than the symptoms, through farming projects, work with former poachers, conservation education and replanting.
Tenure Facility
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2025Protect & Restore Nature
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Global funding and legal mechanism dedicated to securing land and forest rights for Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant Peoples and local communities.
Tropical Forest Forever Facility
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2025Protect & Restore Nature
Brazil and Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Investment facility led by the Government of Brazil and designed with ten countries alongside Indigenous Peoples and local communities, paying tropical forest nations to keep their forests standing.
Shropshire Community Wildlife Groups
Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
The link to the community wildlife groups across Shropshire. Ten local groups cover most of the Shropshire Hills and the north-west of the county, running surveys, walks and events that are open to new people.
3 Parishes Wildlife Group
Gobowen, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A community wildlife group covering the parishes of Gobowen and Selattyn, Weston Rhyn and St Martins, recording and conserving local wildlife.
Abdon District Wildlife Group
Abdon, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
Local residents interested in the natural history of their area, meeting to record and protect wildlife around Abdon and the Brown Clee.
Camlad Valley Wildlife Group
Chirbury, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A wildlife group working partly in England and partly in Wales, covering Churchstoke, Hyssington, Priest Weston and Chirbury.
Clee Hill Wildlife Group
Clee Hill, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
Centred on the open hill land of Titterstone Clee, Clee Hill Common and Catherton Common, extending as far as Knowlegate and Knowbury to the south, Bitterley to the west, Cleedownton and Bromdon to the north, and Doddington to the east.
Rea Valley Wildlife Group
Pontesbury, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
Covering Pontesbury, Minsterley, the Stiperstones and the Hope Valley, running wildlife surveys, walks and conservation activities open to local people.
Severn-Vyrnwy Confluence Wildlife Group
Melverley, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A community wildlife group covering Alberbury, Melverley, Pentre and Westbury, where the Severn and Vyrnwy rivers meet.
Strettons Area Wildlife Group
Church Stretton, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
Active since 2012 in the Strettons area, recording and conserving local wildlife through surveys, talks and practical conservation work.
Tanat to Perry Wildlife Group
Oswestry, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
Covering the area from Oswestry in the north to Kinnerley in the south, recording and helping protect wildlife between the Tanat and Perry rivers.
Upper Clun Wildlife Group
Clun, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
Working across the River Clun catchment west of Clun, recording wildlife and supporting habitat conservation in the south-west corner of Shropshire.
Upper Onny Wildlife Group
Upper Onny Valley, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
Covers the six parishes of Ratlinghope, Wentnor, Norbury, Myndtown, More and Lydham, roughly 126 square kilometres between the Long Mynd and the Welsh border, with a programme of bird and wildlife surveys involving local volunteers.
Friends of Pontesford Hill
Pontesbury, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
Established in 2015 to fundraise for the purchase of the nature reserve, the Friends now manage Pontesford Hill and Earl's Hill with Shropshire Wildlife Trust. The reserve is rich in wildlife: rare plants, butterflies and a wide variety of birds, bats, lizards and other animals.
Friends of Whitcliffe Common
Ludlow, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A volunteer group managing Whitcliffe Common on the southern edge of Ludlow in partnership with Shropshire Wildlife Trust, through regular work parties covering woodland management, footpath restoration and grassland cutting for wildflowers.
Friends of Mortimer Forest
Ludlow, Shropshire
Checked 22 September 2026
A community charity protecting and enhancing Mortimer Forest and nearby woodlands on the Shropshire and Herefordshire border. Runs guided walks, talks and conservation activities, promoting wellbeing through contact with nature.
Friends of the Earth International
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Works across Global
Checked 22 September 2026
The world's largest grassroots environmental federation, made up of roughly 70 autonomous national member groups organised across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America. An International Secretariat in Amsterdam provides administrative, programme, communication and fundraising support.
The Wildlife Trusts
United Kingdom
Checked 22 September 2026
A federation of 46 independent, place-based charities working for nature's recovery across the United Kingdom, Alderney and the Isle of Man, supported by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, the central coordinating charity founded in 1912 by Charles Rothschild.
WWF International
Rue Mauverney 28, 1196 Gland, Switzerland
Works across Global
Confirmed active 10 September 2026
The secretariat of the WWF network, an independent foundation registered under Swiss law at Rue Mauverney 28 in Gland. Formed in 1961, it leads and coordinates a network active in more than 100 countries, developing policies and priorities, fostering global partnerships and coordinating international campaigns.
Sustainable Nantwich
Nantwich, Cheshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A volunteer-led CIC in Nantwich, Cheshire, working on what it names as the three planetary crises of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Grew out of Plastic Free Nantwich (launched 2019, Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status March 2022) into Sustainable Nantwich in January 2020. Runs the Nantwich Mill Community Energy Company and a community growing garden alongside its campaigning, and won Nantwich's Mayor's 'Salt of the Earth' outstanding organisation award in 2023.
Wellingborough Eco Group
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A community group working to reduce, reuse and recycle across the borough, in partnership with Wellingborough Town Council, North Northamptonshire Council, Greatwell Homes and Co-op. Runs a single-use plastic reduction campaign of its own - including a 2024 'Stop Using Plastic' advent calendar and advocacy for refill stations, pointing people to Food for Thought in Nene Court for package-free shopping - alongside an Energy Savers community energy project run with the Centre for Sustainable Energy and a Wellingborough Climate Action Project. Runs a tree nursery and tree planting days ('Love Your Tree Day'), a community allotment and Stanwell Community Garden, plus Repair Cafes, Swap Shops and litter picks ('Wellie Wombles', 'Two Hour Tidy Ups'). Won the Environment Award at the BBC Radio Northampton Make a Difference Awards.
Plastic Free Boston Spa
Boston Spa, West Yorkshire
Checked 23 September 2026
Run by Boston Green Group, a registered charity (Charity Number 1204438) describing itself as non-politically affiliated, with parish council members and local business owners on its Community Green Groups Steering Group. Boston Spa Parish Council passed a resolution in November 2022 supporting the journey to Plastic Free Community status; as of the site's most recent update the campaign needed one more business sign-up for national accreditation. Six local businesses and organisations have pledged support: Douglas Yeadons Hardware Store, The Pudding Lab, Boston Spa Library, Boston Spa Methodist Church, Oasis Human Relations and 2nd Boston Spa Brownies. The group also runs a tree cover and wildlife corridor project (bat boxes, hedgerow management, butterfly counting April to September) and an energy action area offering advice on heat pumps, solar PV, batteries and retrofit insulation alongside eco-energy fairs; it lists 'creating a clean river environment' and 'net zero carbon and energy efficiency' as developing projects, and takes part in the Yorkshire Wild Waters campaign.
University of Winchester Plastic Free Campus
University of Winchester, Hampshire
Checked 23 September 2026
A university sustainability initiative. The University of Winchester states it was 'officially awarded our Plastic Free University status from national charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS)' in July 2022, following work removing unnecessary single-use plastics from campus since 2018. A surcharge on disposable cups and distribution of reusable Gum-tec mugs, made from recycled chewing gum, running since November 2016, has saved over 294,000 disposable cups. The university has committed to carbon net zero by 2030, has sent no waste to landfill since 2013, and runs a Biodiversity Action Plan including wildflower meadows, hedgehog habitats and swift nest boxes, achieving Hedgehog Friendly Gold status in March 2022.
Sustainable Swanage
Swanage, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
A volunteer-led group running environmental projects across Swanage and the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset. Swanage achieved Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community status in July 2019, the 4th Dorset town to do so. Runs butterfly, wildflower and swift surveys and tree planting on local green spaces and helps manage the Downs Local Nature Reserve, and delivered Solar Streets Swanage, which had completed 21 solar installations by June 2022 and generated a £1,150 community fund.
Plastic Free Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis, Dorset
Checked 23 September 2026
Plastic Free Lyme Regis is the Surfers Against Sewage-accredited plastic reduction campaign run under Turn Lyme Green, with active support from Lyme Regis Town Council. The site states 23 local businesses have earned its Plastic Free Business Champion award. Turn Lyme Green's own pages also document the River Lim Action Group, running litter picks and beach cleans and river monitoring and a water pollution reporting system for the River Lim, Dorset Seed Savers for food growing, Bee Friendly Lyme Regis for pollinator habitat, and a Recycle Sewing Group.
The Wonky Garden
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Widnes, Cheshire
Checked 1 October 2026
A nature-based community garden at Ditton Community Centre in Widnes, run by about 40 volunteers since 2018. It grows food for the foodbank, offers nature-based therapy and works on hedgehog conservation.
Colwall Orchard Group
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Colwall, Herefordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Restores and manages traditional orchards and community green spaces around Colwall, including Colwall Village Garden since 2011, with membership, events and orchard heritage resources.
Friends of Saltwells Nature Reserve
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Quarry Bank, Dudley
Checked 1 October 2026
A volunteer group formed in March 2019 that works with the wardens to protect and improve Saltwells Nature Reserve in Dudley, 250 acres with two Sites of Special Scientific Interest, through conservation sessions and guided walks.
Warley Woods Community Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Smethwick, Sandwell
Checked 1 October 2026
Manages Warley Woods, 100 acres of Grade II listed parkland in Smethwick, for the local community, with more than 270 volunteers a year and the Wild Warley conservation programme. Green Flag Award 18 times.
Whistlewood Common
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Melbourne, Derbyshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Community-owned woodland in Melbourne, Derbyshire, run as a permaculture project with volunteering sessions, workshops and events. It also lets people hire a roundhouse and book camping and yurt stays.
Grantham RiverCare
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Grantham, Lincolnshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers formed in 2004 who care for the River Witham in Grantham between Bridge End Road and Harrowby weir, litter picking, clearing Himalayan balsam and testing water at nine sites. They have completed over 150 outings.
Heaton Mersey Village Conservation Group CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Heaton Mersey, Greater Manchester
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers who look after green spaces in Heaton Mersey, Stockport, including the Craig Road community orchard and the Vale Close bog garden, with task days, bat walks and wildlife work alongside Stockport Council, Cheshire Wildlife Trust and The Mammal Society.
Friends of King's Arms Garden, Ampthill
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Ampthill, Bedfordshire
Not confirmed by us for 7 months
Volunteers who have looked after the 1.5 acre King's Arms woodland garden in Ampthill since 1987, with working mornings on Mondays and Thursdays and public openings on the last Sunday of most months. The garden is managed for wildlife.
PACE Manningtree
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Manningtree, Essex
Not confirmed by us for 4 months
Volunteer charity in Manningtree and Lawford, registered in 2023, that runs the Manningtree Earth Festival, a programme of more than 60 events, and community projects such as opening local gardens that support wildlife.
Eden-Rose Coppice Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Ipswich, Suffolk
Not confirmed by us for 5 months
Charity trading as With Nature that turns former wasteland in Suffolk into woodland, including Brickmakers Wood in Ipswich and Armes Wood in Cornard, as accessible outdoor space for people with long-term or life-limiting illness and disabilities.
Lower Ure Conservation Trust
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Ripon, North Yorkshire
Confirmed active 21 September 2026
Manages Nosterfield Nature Reserve near Ripon and runs habitat projects across the lower Ure and Swale valleys, with volunteer work parties, school and group visits and bird recording. Volunteers handled habitat management through summer 2026.
Friends of Whirlow Brook Park
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers care for the 39-acre Whirlow Brook Park in Sheffield, with four work sessions a month covering planting, bench and path repairs and woodland restoration, plus a community orchard. The group began in 2021 and became a charity in July 2023.
Huddersfield Woodscape
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Not confirmed by us for 4 months
Volunteers look after about 130 acres of ancient woodland in Bradley, Deighton and Brackenhall, Huddersfield, on Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoons, building paths and bridges, planting trees and hedgerows and running a community allotment. The group began in the early 1990s.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 16
Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Safety, fair courts, honest institutions, and a way for ordinary people to be heard.
It stretches from conflict on the news to domestic abuse three streets away.
The wins
- Conflict-related civilian deaths fell by 23% in 2025.
- The global homicide rate fell from 5.9 per 100,000 people in 2015 to 5.1 in 2024.
The challenges
- 117 million people were forcibly displaced by June 2025.
- Detected human trafficking victims were up 25% on pre-pandemic levels.
- About a fifth of civilian deaths in conflict are children.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Key dates for this goal
10 December
Human Rights Day
Marks the day the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and it's Goal 16 here, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
Look closer at this goal
Killing, and where
The world rate is falling steadily and will still miss the target, and the regional spread is more than twentyfold.
- The homicide rate fell from 5.9 victims per 100,000 people in 2015 to 5.1 in 2024, and the female rate fell at only half the pace of the male rate.
- Latin America and the Caribbean recorded 19.3 per 100,000 in 2024 and sub-Saharan Africa 11.7, against 0.9 in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia and 2.8 in Central and Southern Asia.
- On current trends the 2030 homicide rate will be around a quarter lower than in 2015, short of the halving the target implies.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Who dies in the conflicts
A 23% fall is real and it is a fall from the worst year on record. The breakdown of who was killed is the part worth reading twice.
- Conflict-related civilian deaths fell 23% in 2025, from 48,011 to 37,163, ending three consecutive years of increases, and remain well above post-2015 levels.
- In 2025 one in five of those killed was a child and one in four was female. Gaza alone accounted for 70% of all child deaths and 60% of female deaths recorded in conflicts worldwide.
- In 2025 Northern Africa and Western Asia accounted for 65% of all civilian deaths and sub-Saharan Africa 24%. Heavy weapons and explosive munitions were the leading cause at 41%, followed by small arms and light weapons at 20%.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
The people who speak up
One killed or disappeared every ten hours, and a third of them were defending land or the environment.
- At least 5,307 human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists were killed between 2015 and 2024, one killed or disappeared every 10 hours in 2024. An estimated 740 killings and 190 disappearances are projected for 2025.
- In 2025, 3 in every 10 defenders killed or disappeared were working on environmental or land issues, 3 in 10 were from Indigenous or minority groups, and 1 in 10 was a woman.
- Latin America and the Caribbean accounts for around 60% of all such killings since 2015, while the share in Northern Africa and Western Asia has nearly doubled to 25%.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Who has to pay a bribe
Corruption is usually discussed as a national characteristic. On these figures it tracks income far more closely.
- In 2024, or the latest year available, across 139 countries roughly 17% of people had paid a bribe to a public official in the past year or been asked to.
- In 2024, or the latest year available, that was 9% in high-income countries against 27% in low-income countries. Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia recorded the highest median rates at 24% and 22.5%, against 9% in Europe and Northern America.
- Within sub-Saharan Africa the range ran from 5% to 80% in 2024, which suggests income is not the only thing that decides it.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Who is in the room, and who can ask a question
Two thirds of the world is 40 or younger. Three quarters of the people chairing its parliaments are men over 40.
- 64% of the world's population is 40 or younger and roughly half are female. In 2025, 77% of speakers in parliament and 63% of committee chairs were men over the age of 40.
- Members of parliament aged 30 or younger were 2.8% in 2025 and those 40 or younger 19%, both unchanged since 2023 and below the Inter-Parliamentary Union targets of 15% and 35%. The share of women speakers fell 3.8 percentage points between 2024 and 2025 to 19.9%.
- 141 countries had access-to-information laws as of 2026, and a stress test across 76 countries found 38% of requests received no substantive response and only 42% resulted in full disclosure.
- Countries with fully compliant national human rights institutions rose from 70 in 2015 to 89 in 2025, and the number plateaued in 2025.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026
Look closer at the UK
Crime people actually experience
This is a survey of people's own experience of crime, so it includes what never gets reported to the police. It covers England and Wales.
- There were an estimated 9.6 million incidents of headline crime in the year to March 2026, no significant change on the year before.
- Fraud made up 4.5 million incidents in the year to March 2026, and the number of fraud victims rose 10% to 3.8 million.
- 2.1% of people aged 16 and over, around 1 million, experienced sexual victimisation in the year to March 2026.
Office for National Statistics, Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2026. Covers England and Wales. Read it there
Who votes
The Electoral Commission reports on every UK general election, and this is the most recent.
- Turnout at the 2024 UK general election was 60.0%, down from 67.5% in 2019.
- Around 48.2 million people were eligible to vote in the 2024 general election.
Electoral Commission, Report on the 2024 UK Parliamentary general election. Covers UK. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
West Mercia Women's Aid
Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and 1 more
Checked 7 September 2026
Full member of the Women's Aid Federation of England. Runs a 24-hour domestic abuse helpline, refuge accommodation, outreach and floating support, and a children's support service across four counties.
Marked on: International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
Alliance for Middle East Peace
Washington DC, United States
Works across Israel and Palestine
Checked 7 September 2026
Coalition organisation working on peacebuilding between Israelis and Palestinians.
Tenure Facility
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2025Protect & Restore Nature
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Global funding and legal mechanism dedicated to securing land and forest rights for Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant Peoples and local communities.
The Blue Map App
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2021Clean Our Air
China
Checked 10 September 2026
App from the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs giving citizens real-time air and water pollution data for their own area, so they can hold polluters to account.
WildAid Marine Program
Earthshot Prize Winner 2023Revive Our Oceans
Bahamas, Ecuador, Gabon and 4 more
Checked 10 September 2026
Marine programme of the global non-profit WildAid, building enforcement capacity in Marine Protected Areas so illegal fishing stops and ocean ecosystems can recover.
The Hunger Project
United States
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean
See the countries
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Peru
Confirmed active 8 September 2026
The global office of The Hunger Project, in New York, which sets programme strategy across thirteen countries and is the parent of eight fundraising country offices.
Disclosed connection: Past, lapsed. Founder was a member of Unleashed Women and fundraised via the ArcelorMittal Orbit abseil in September 2023.
Telford & Wrekin Interfaith Council
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Wellington, Telford, Shropshire
Checked 1 October 2026
People of every faith working together for a just and inclusive Telford and Wrekin. Its community hub in Wellington offers emergency food parcels, hot meals for people who are homeless, an interfaith youth club and equality and diversity workshops.
Stafford Street Pastors
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Stafford, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Trained volunteers on Stafford's streets from 10.30pm to 4am on Fridays and Saturdays since 2009, listening, caring for and helping vulnerable people, with a safe space minibus.
Tamworth Street Angels
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Tamworth, Staffordshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers on Tamworth town-centre streets on weekend nights, caring for vulnerable people and working alongside the night-time economy and emergency services.
Care after Combat
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2023
Newark, Nottinghamshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Newark-based charity supporting former armed forces personnel in prison or the justice system, and their families, with mentoring and practical help. It runs a free 24 hour helpline on 0300 343 0255 and takes volunteers.
Northampton Guardians
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Northampton, Northamptonshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Volunteers who patrol Northampton town centre on weekend nights, working with the police, ambulance service and Street Pastors to help vulnerable people get home safely. Running since December 2021, with over 15,000 volunteer hours and more than 2,600 people supported.
Off The Streets NN CIC
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
Checked 1 October 2026
Community interest company formed in 2021 after a fatal stabbing in Wellingborough. It has placed over 350 bleed control kits and 19 knife amnesty bins across Northamptonshire and given 75 talks to young people.
Building Bridges in Burnley
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Burnley, Lancashire
Checked 1 October 2026
Interfaith partnership set up in 2002 after the 2001 disturbances in Burnley, running dialogue, school and community activities between faith groups from the Burnley and Pendle Faith Centre on Barden Lane.
City of Hull Street Angels
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2025
Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Confirmed active 30 September 2026
Volunteers in red jackets patrol Hull city centre every Friday and Saturday evening and on bank holidays, giving practical help and support to people in difficulty and working alongside door staff, the emergency services and the city council.
All seventeen goals What's coming up Back to the main page Put me on the list
Goal 17
Partnerships for the Goals
None of the other sixteen happen on their own. This one is about working together.
It's the reason this site exists. We don't have to start again, we have to go together to go far.
The wins
- Almost 75% of the world used the internet in 2025, up from 40% in 2015.
The challenges
- External debt hit a record $8.9 trillion in 2024.
- Official development assistance dropped 23.1% in 2025, back to 2015 levels, with further falls expected.
- There are 280 million more men than women online.
Figures from the UN’s own Facts and Figures for this goal, gathered 8 September 2026. Read the full set.
Look closer at this goal
The largest fall in aid ever recorded
This is the single biggest thing that happened to the seventeen goals in the last year, and it happened in 2025.
- Aid fell to $174.3 billion in 2025, 0.26% of contributors' combined gross national income. The 23.1% drop from 2024 is the largest annual decline ever recorded and returns aid to 2015 levels.
- In 2025, twenty-six of 34 donor countries cut their aid, and five accounted for 95.7% of the decline: France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
- In 2025 the United States alone was responsible for three quarters of the drop, cutting its own aid by 56.9%, the largest reduction by any single donor on record.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Money is going where it is least needed
Investment rose sharply in 2025. Almost all of the increase went to countries that were already rich.
- Foreign direct investment rose 14% in 2025 to an estimated $1.6 trillion. Developed economies captured nearly half, with their flows rising 43% to $728 billion, while flows to developing economies fell 2% to $877 billion.
- Three quarters of the least developed countries saw stagnant or declining inflows in 2025.
- Remittances to low- and middle-income countries rose nearly 10% in 2024 to $687 billion, with India the largest recipient.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Paying out more than comes in
For three years running, the money leaving developing countries in debt service has been more than the money arriving.
- External debt reached a record $8.9 trillion in 2024, up 1.1% on 2023, and interest payments rose 2.2% to $415.4 billion.
- In 2024, for the third consecutive year, countries paid out more in debt service than they received in new financing, and many governments turned increasingly to domestic borrowing.
- In 2025 only 54 countries had formal mechanisms to promote outward foreign direct investment, and fewer than half of those had instruments aimed specifically at developing countries.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Trade, and who is in it
Developing economies are now nearly half of world trade. The poorest are barely one per cent of it, and going backwards on services.
- Developing economies reached 48.3% of world merchandise exports in 2024, up 1.4 points on 2023 and 2.9 points since 2015, and 31.5% of services exports.
- The least developed countries went from 0.91% of world merchandise exports in 2015 to 1.13% in 2024, while their services exports fell from 0.73% to 0.59%.
- The target to double the least developed countries' share of global exports by 2020 has still not been met.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Online, and counted
Two kinds of infrastructure sit in this goal. One is the internet. The other is whether anybody is counting at all.
- Nearly three quarters of the world was online in 2025, up from 71% in 2024 and 40% in 2015. Only 34% of people in the least developed countries and 38% in landlocked developing countries were online.
- 77% of men were online in 2025 against 71% of women, leaving 280 million more men connected than women.
- 163 countries had statistical legislation aligned with the fundamental principles of official statistics by 2025, up from 139 in 2019. Of 135 countries implementing national statistical plans, only 80 were fully funded, down from 95 the previous year.
- Between 2015 and 2024, 87% of countries conducted at least one population and housing census. 31 countries did not.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 Read it there
Every figure above is on the UN page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as the UN states them, gathered 12 September 2026. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026
Look closer at the UK
What the UK gives in aid
This is what the UK spent on overseas aid, and what that came to as a share of national income.
- UK aid spending was £13,095 million in 2025, £987 million or 7.0% less than in 2024.
- That was 0.44% of gross national income in 2025, against 0.50% in 2024.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Statistics on International Development: final UK ODA spend 2025. Covers UK. Read it there
Who volunteers
This is the thing this site exists to grow, and it covers England only.
- 18% of people aged 16 and over volunteered formally at least once a month in 2025/26, up from 17% in 2024/25.
- 25% volunteered informally at least once a month in 2025/26, up from 24%.
- 35% did one or the other at least once a month in 2025/26, up from 33%.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Community and Engagement Survey 2025/26. Covers England. Read it there
Every figure above is on the page named beside it, with the numbers left exactly as its publisher states them, gathered 26 September 2026. You are seeing this because we think you are in the UK. Change it
What we can do about it
These organisations are working to close that gap. Not talking about it, doing it. Give them your time, your voice or your money.
Each listing says when we last checked it. That is about our records, not about how the organisation is doing, and an old date means we have not looked recently rather than that anything has changed at their end. We stop publishing a listing once our information is over a year old.
Sustainable Newport Shropshire
King's Award for Voluntary Service 2024
Newport, Shropshire, roughly a 25 mile radius
Checked 7 September 2026
Shropshire community group working across the circular economy, climate education and sustainability advocacy. Formed in 2009 as Newport 21 and rebranded in 2019. Recognised with the King's Award for Voluntary Service.
Disclosed connection: Past. Founder chaired this organisation, and was Plastic Free Lead and Refill Lead.
ABALOBI
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2023Revive Our Oceans
South Africa
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa
See the countries
Seychelles, South Africa, Namibia
Checked 19 September 2026
Non-profit partnership between small-scale fishers and scientists, founded in South Africa, whose app lets fishers record their catch, prove sustainable practice, earn fairer prices and build a picture of ocean health.
Bonds for Ocean Conservation
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2025Revive Our Oceans
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Debt conversion pioneered by the Debt for Nature Coalition, refinancing national debt so the savings are redirected into ocean conservation and climate resilience.
Coastal 500
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2023Revive Our Oceans
Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras and 5 more
Checked 10 September 2026
Global network of mayors and local government leaders working to restore ocean habitats, protect coastlines and support sustainable fishing communities.
High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People
Earthshot Prize Winner 2024Protect & Restore Nature
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Intergovernmental coalition pressing governments to protect 30% of land and ocean by 2030, with toolkits and technical support to turn biodiversity commitments into action.
The High Seas Treaty
Earthshot Prize Winner 2025Revive Our Oceans
Global
Checked 10 September 2026
The first global legal framework for Marine Protected Areas on the high seas, and the route to protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030.
Tropical Forest Forever Facility
Earthshot Prize Finalist 2025Protect & Restore Nature
Brazil and Global
Checked 10 September 2026
Investment facility led by the Government of Brazil and designed with ten countries alongside Indigenous Peoples and local communities, paying tropical forest nations to keep their forests standing.
The Hunger Project
United States
Works across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean
See the countries
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Peru
Confirmed active 8 September 2026
The global office of The Hunger Project, in New York, which sets programme strategy across thirteen countries and is the parent of eight fundraising country offices.
Disclosed connection: Past, lapsed. Founder was a member of Unleashed Women and fundraised via the ArcelorMittal Orbit abseil in September 2023.
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