The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2019 – Activists: Equality

Meghan Markle has had a busy year, beginning in January when her new royal patronages were announced. The Queen handed over two to her — The National Theatre and The Association of Commonwealth Universities — and she also accepted the patronage of two further organisations: Smart Works, which helps women prepare to get back into the workplace, and the animal welfare charity Mayhew. Last month the duchess unveiled her five-piece clothing and accessory collection for Smart Works called The Smart Set, much of which instantly sold out.

Knife crime campaigner and activist | NEW
Founder of the boxing and exercise charity Dwaynamics in memory of her son Dwayne Simpson, a victim of knife crime. Lives in Angell Town, Brixton, and is a champion of the Standard’s The Estate We’re In campaign. Gone on to be chair of the Lambeth police independent advisory group to improve police/community relations and was invited to the Prime Minister’s Serious Youth Violence Summit at Downing Street to give her input.

Social entrepreneur and founder of the 4Front Project | NEW
This youth-led enterprise aims to find solutions to street violence. Mwale set up the inspirational project to tackle youth violence after her friend was shot dead in 2012. She still lives in Grahame Park, the largest housing estate in Barnet, in one of the most deprived boroughs in London and in February this year appeared on the cover of Elle magazine along with grime artist Stormzy.

Former leader of Lambeth council, now head of the Mayor’s new Violence Reduction Unit | NEW
Peck is charged with the job of reducing knife crime in London, arguably one of Sadiq Khan’s most important appointments. Initially Khan resisted creation of a centralised violence reduction unit but caved in to pressure by the Standard’s Save London Lives investigation which called on the Mayor to adopt a public health approach with the VRU at its centre — in line with the model that had worked successfully in Glasgow.

Chair of governors, University of East London | NEW
Former world karate champion, combines this top job with activism to tackle knife crime and is a huge advocate of bringing sport into the lives of young people.

Chancellor of Manchester University and activist performance poet | NEW
The official poet of the London Olympics has written an unflinching memoir, out this autumn. My Name is Why is the story of how he went from being fostered and living in four care homes to becoming chancellor of The University of Manchester and winning the 2019 PEN Pinter Prize. Now living in London, he is a brilliant and inspirational performer who tells his story with passion and tenderness. Likely to be the next Poet Laureate.

Vice chancellor of London Metropolitan University | NEW
Grew up on a council estate in Newcastle and overcame tough background to rise to VC, and now bringing her social activism to the university to try and make their research more relevant and link it to real social problems, such as youth violence and drugs, and partnering with other groups such as the Met police and the Evening Standard and various councils to produce “research that’s practical and useful”.

Headteacher of Dunraven School in Lambeth | NEW
A pioneering head who initiated a hugely successful on-site inclusion unit at his school which has significantly reduced the number of pupils given permanent or fixed term exclusions — at a time when damaging exclusions are increasingly under the microscope.

Founder and CEO of The Difference, set up to improve the education of excluded schoolchildren | NEW
Gill founded this organisation a year ago to improve the outcomes for vulnerable children who typically get excluded from school. A dynamic, energetic new mover in this field, she was previously head of vocational and higher educational policy at the Social Mobility Commission.

Parish priest, Brixton | NEW
Influential figure located in the thick of things on the edge of Angell Town, the flagship estate at the heart of the Standard’s ground-breaking The Estate We’re In campaign that backed local heroes seeking to transform the area.

Founder and managing director of Juvenis | NEW
This charity helps and supports young people at risk of being involved in the criminal justice system. Goode is a key mover working in south London to help reduce knife crime.

Co-founder and director of Volteface | NEW
This cross-party cannabis advocacy group and think tank is trying to inform the public debate about cannabis and drug policy in the UK. Moore was a key partner in the Evening Standard’s cannabis investigation and had previously worked at 10 Downing Street on Cameron’s Big Society initiative.

Executive head, St Mary’s Catholic primary school, Battersea | NEW
Brading is an inspirational head of this flagship school in the Standard’s Get London Reading campaign, which he turned from a failing place of education into a highly successful one.

Chair of Grenfell United | NEW
Elcock, a survivor of the Grenfell Tower fire which claimed 72 lives, put her own trauma to one side and helped form Grenfell United, the survivor group, which she now chairs, and which continues to fight for the rights of survivors.

Founder of the SOS Project run by ex-offenders | NEW
Smart came out of prison in 2006 ready to make a difference — he now runs this extraordinary project with 40 other fully trained ex-offenders, aiming to de-glamorise life behind bars. The charity is housed by St Giles Trust in Camberwell and is always in need of more funds. The humble Smart also founded SOS Plus which gives talks at schools — now heavily oversubscribed. An inspirational man.

Founder of Kids on the Green | NEW
This was set up by Levack to help children in the wake of the Grenfell fire. It continues to work with traumatised young people impacted by the disaster in June 2017.

Actor | NEW
London-born Jamil started her career co-hosting the morning music TV show Freshly Squeezed alongside Nick Grimshaw. In 2019, she became a leading voice for body positivity with her I Weigh movement.

Political activist | NEW
In April, Martin won a landmark victory for women’s equality when, after her 18-month national campaign, the British Parliament passed the so-called ‘Upskirting Bill’. Now other countries are following Martin’s lead including Germany and Ireland.

Activist, feminist, journalist
Her first national campaign demanded female experts be better represented in the media and she later persuaded the Bank of England to put Jane Austen on the £10 note — which led to subsequent Twitter trolling. Invisible Woman, her exposé of the gender data gap that has created a world biased against women, this year won her the Royal Society science book prize.

The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standard’s celebration of the people changing London’s future for the better. #Progress1000