Introducing the 2026 Breakthrough Accelerator Cohort

Breakthrough are delighted to announce our 2026-27 Accelerator campaigners – five powerful, direct-experience led campaigns fighting for justice, dignity, and change. Over the course of the year, Breakthrough will be providing our five Accelerator campaigns with the support they need to make a difference.

Meet our new campaigners

Rethink Repayment
Ollie runs Rethink Repayment, a grassroots campaign run by graduates who want to make the student loan repayment system fairer. Ollie started campaigning after experiencing the injustices of the system himself and reaching thousands more online experiencing the same, and is now working to stop graduates like him being trapped in a vicious spiral of student loan debt.

UNGRIPP
Donna Mooney founded UNGRIPP after her brother, Tommy, tragically took his own life whilst serving an IPP sentence. IPP sentences are indeterminate - they have no set time limit. And although they have been banned, thousands of people who received the sentence before 2012 remain trapped in the system. Now working together with Marc Conway, who himself served an IPP, UNGRIPP (opens in a new tab) are campaigning to end all IPP sentences still being served.

Justice 4 Windrush
The Justice 4 charity was co-founded by actor and campaigner Colin McFarlane and singer Annie Lennox. Colin's father, Sidney McFarlane MBE, came to Britain from Jamaica in 1955 and is a member of the Windrush generation. The Justice 4 Windrush campaign (opens in a new tab) is committed to exposing the ongoing Home Office scandal that still impacts the Windrush generation and other Commonwealth communities, while also driving systemic change to combat the hostile and racist attitudes towards immigration in Britain.

Make it Mandatory
What began as a Change.org petition by student Faustine Petron, created in the aftermath of leaving an abusive relationship that started at 16, grew into a group of friends confronting the Relationships and Sex Education RSE gap, which was leaving young people vulnerable to experiencing domestic abuse. Together, they have built the youth‑led campaign Make It Mandatory, (opens in a new tab)fighting for mandatory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) up to the age of 18.

LABRATS
The LABRATS (opens in a new tab) (also known as the Nuclear Test Veterans) have been campaigning for justice after being ordered to participate in British nuclear tests. They were given no protection, and since then, they have suffered lifelong health conditions & had children with life-changing disabilities. They have received no compensation or justice from the British government, so they are campaigning for Andy Burnham to act. They’re calling for a Truth, Justice and Legacy Special Tribunal - to deliver the justice they need, while they are still alive to witness it.