My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
Yes
I am 18 years of age or above, by the application deadline.
Yes
My organisation is a registered UK entity and has a London-based address.
Yes
My organisation is a non-profit (e.g. school, university, or local authority) — not a for-profit, which can only join as a partner.
Yes
If there is a for-profit organisation as a partner in my initiative, they work on a cost-recovery basis only.
Yes
My solution is implemented at scale, or if not, I have a clear business plan, a minimum viable solution (prototype, pilot, or proof of concept), evidence of access to a lease for the space you are leveraging, and evidence of work or impact in London within your coalition.
Yes
I am aware that, if I am submitting more than one application to a Challenge run by Ashoka and Go! London, only one of them is able to progress through the stages.
Yes
Are you an employee (and their children and grandchildren) of Ashoka or any of its respective affiliates and participating advertising and promotion agencies?
No
I have read and accepted the Challenge Terms & Conditions.
Yes
First Name
Dean
Last Name
Foster
Pronouns
He/Him
Email address
I would like to receive notifications and updates about Go London!, Ashoka, Ashoka Changemakers, and other Ashoka opportunities.
1
Are you an Ashoka Fellow?
No
Are you applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow?
No
If you are applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow, please specify the name and organisation of the fellow below.
Lead Organisation Name
Peckham Soup Kitchen
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2022
Initiative Title
Up The Path
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
www.peckhamsoupkitchen.org
Initiative Stage
Pilot-Stage (The first activities have happened, and you have proof of concept)
Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Children & Youth
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
Up The Path brings young people and communities together to unlock access to sport and physical activity for those who face the biggest barriers. Through strategically placed boot recycling bins, we encourage families and local residents to donate or upcycle footwear, ensuring children have the equipment they need to participate. We run free holiday and after-school sessions in safe, inclusive spaces, provide essential equipment and scholarships to partner football clubs, and offer structured pathways with mentorship and development opportunities to build skills, confidence, and long-term engagement. Participants also contribute to a youth-led podcast, sharing their stories, reflecting on their experiences, and amplifying the voices of young people in the community. By combining access, support, and empowerment, Up The Path strengthens social connections, promotes wellbeing, and creates a scalable, replicable model for activating underused spaces across London.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve and who will benefit the most from your solution? How close are you to the problem and/or community impacted?
Children and young people in underserved London communities face multiple barriers to sport and physical activity, including the cost of equipment like football boots, lack of access to safe and inclusive spaces, and limited structured opportunities during school holidays. These challenges disproportionately affect low-income and at-risk youth, leading to inactivity, social isolation, lower confidence, and reduced engagement with education and community life. Up The Path is deeply embedded in the communities it serves, working directly with over 300 young people per year across Southwark, Peckham, and surrounding areas. We have strong, ongoing relationships with local schools, families, and community groups, which allow us to understand the lived experiences of young people and respond to their needs effectively. By providing Boot Bins for donation and upcycling, free holiday and after-school sessions, equipment support and scholarships to partner football clubs, and a youth-led podcast giving participants a platform to share their stories, we remove barriers while fostering participation, confidence, and long-term engagement. The programme benefits children aged 5–16, their families, schools, and local communities by improving access, building skills and resilience, promoting social inclusion, and strengthening community cohesion. Through active involvement of residents, volunteers, and local partners, Up The Path creates visible, measurable impact in the areas we serve and provides a scalable, replicable model for activating underused spaces and supporting youth engagement across London.
Your approach: How are you/ will you addressing the problem outlined above? How does your solution unlock or reimagine access to spaces for sport and physical activity? What role do landowners, local authorities, or other decision-making stakeholders play in your approach? We'd love to know about the origin of your idea, and what was your "aha" moment" that led you to take action?
Up The Path began during our summer camp when we noticed many children had nothing to do and were missing meals because their free school meal at school was their main meal. Many also didn’t have proper football boots. To help, we cleaned and handed down our sons’ boots. The joy on the children’s faces, and the pride our sons felt giving, sparked our “aha” moment: parents across the community likely had boots their children had outgrown, while other children needed them to play. That insight became the foundation for our Boot Bins, a community-driven way to recycle boots, reduce waste, and remove barriers to participation. As demand grew, we realised the need wasn’t limited to summer. Up The Path now runs free football camps during every school holiday, providing safe, inclusive spaces for play, coaching, and mentorship. We also offer equipment support and scholarships to partner football clubs, ensuring children can continue playing. Children have access to a youth-led podcast, reflecting on experiences and sharing stories, building their confidence, resilience, and belonging. Our approach relies on partnerships with schools, local authorities, landowners, and community organisations. Schools and landowners provide access to pitches and venues, while local authorities help facilitate permissions and guidance. These collaborations allow us to activate underused spaces sustainably, and community engagement. What began as a simple act of giving boots has grown into an organic community-driven programme that removes barriers, strengthens connections between young people, families, and local stakeholders, and reimagines underused spaces as safe, inclusive, and empowering environments.
Collaboration with young people and the community: In what ways does your initiative engage young people and community members closest to the problem? What role do they play in building the solution you deliver?
Up The Path is built with, not just for, the young people and communities we serve. From the very beginning, our programmes have been shaped by the lived experiences of children, parents, and local residents in Southwark and surrounding areas. Young people are at the heart of the initiative: they help run the youth-led podcast, reflecting on their experiences, sharing stories, and shaping content that inspires peers. They also provide feedback and ideas for sessions, activities, and the operation of Boot Bins, ensuring the programme meets their real needs. Participants engage in the No Shortcuts School Rewards Programme, submitting school reports to demonstrate consistent attendance, effort, and behaviour. High performance can unlock scholarships for partner football clubs, encouraging both academic and extracurricular achievement. They also contribute to the wider community by volunteering at Peckham Soup Kitchen and taking part in Cadets sessions, building responsibility, teamwork, and leadership. Community members and parents are integral partners. The Boot Bin system enables families to recycle boots, actively supporting children who cannot afford equipment while fostering a sense of contribution. Local schools, landowners, and community organisations are engaged from the start, providing spaces at low cost or no cost, guidance, and insight into local needs. Together, this ensures that activities, access, and resources are co-designed, inclusive, and sustainable, embedding young people and the wider community into every step of what we do.
Potential for/Evidence of Impact: How do you imagine your initiative will make a difference in unlocking spaces for and access to physical activity and sport so far? If you have already implemented it, what difference have you made so far? What is the impact your initiative has had , and or what impact do you envision having in the future?
Up The Path removes key barriers that prevent many young people from accessing sport due to cost, lack of equipment, food insecurity, and limited safe spaces. By providing free holiday camps, nutritious meals, equipment, scholarships, and supervised environments, we enable children from low-income households to participate in physical activity who would otherwise be excluded. The programme has already supported over 400 young people per year, for the past 3 years during school holidays, when structured activities and meals are often unavailable. The Children benefit from routine, physical activity, and positive role models, with many returning across multiple holiday periods. Parents report improvement in confidence, behaviour, wellbeing, and daily structure. As well as this, through the Up The Path: No Shortcuts Programme, we work closely with schools and families to reinforce attendance, effort, and positive behaviour. Young people bring school reports or feedback as part of earning opportunities such as scholarships and activities, strengthening relationships between families and schools and encouraging sustained engagement with education. The Boot Bin initiative extends this impact by creating a community-led system to collect, refurbish, and redistribute outgrown football boots, reducing cost barriers, preventing waste, and enabling more children to participate safely in sport. Looking ahead, we plan to install additional Boot Bins with improved safety features and expand delivery into more schools and community spaces across London. We will also increase scholarships to partner clubs and develop clearer progression routes through volunteering, Cadets, and youth leadership opportunities, supporting long-term participation, wellbeing, and community connection.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
Up The Path is innovative because it tackles multiple barriers to participation simultaneously this including lack of equipment, food insecurity, cost, safe spaces, and sustained support, rather than offering a single intervention. While many programmes run sports sessions, few create lasting, community-driven systems that remove these barriers. The Boot Bin initiative is an example, so instead of one-off donations, it creates permanent, visible infrastructure allowing families to recycle outgrown football boots locally. Boots are refurbished and redistributed to children who need them, reducing waste and removing a key cost barrier, transforming unused equipment into a sustainable community resource. We also reimagine how spaces are used, schools, community venues, and underused facilities are activated during holidays when young people most need safe, structured activity and meals. By combining sport, mentoring, nutrition, and structured engagement, these spaces become opportunity for development rather than single-purpose facilities. Up The Path provides long-term pathways beyond camps. Through scholarships to partner football clubs, the No Shortcuts Programme, volunteering, Cadets participation, and leadership roles, young people progress into sustained activity, education engagement, and community contribution. Finally, the initiative is rooted in lived experience. It began from seeing children missing out on sport due to poverty and continues to be shaped by feedback from young people and parents, ensuring delivery is relevant, trusted, and responsive. Together, these elements create a comprehensive, sustainable, and scalable model that increases access to sport, strengthens community connection, reduces inequality, and builds long-term resilience.
Viability and Scalability: How are you setting your initiative up for success, and what is your plan to ensure operational sustainability of your solution and its impact? What are your ideas for scaling your initiative to the next level?
Up The Path is set up for long-term success through structured operations, strong partnerships, and community engagement. Our holiday camps, No Shortcuts Programme, and youth-led activities are delivered by trained staff and volunteers under clear safeguarding, health, and logistical procedures, ensuring quality and consistency. The Boot Bin initiative will create a sustainable, community-led system for refurbishing and redistributing football boots, reducing cost barriers and maintaining participation. Currently, we are building relationships with schools, local venues, parents, and sports clubs to secure space, encourage referrals, and align with educational priorities. We are also diversifying funding streams through grants, donations, and in-kind support, while developing clear monitoring and reporting systems to track impact and demonstrate value to partners. Looking ahead, we aim to scale in three key ways: expanding the Boot Bin network to multiple locations with improved safety and accessibility; delivering more camps across different boroughs to reach underserved communities; and growing scholarship opportunities to partner football clubs, creating structured pathways into sport and education. To achieve this, we plan to strengthen partnerships with schools, local authorities, and community organisations, and seek support from corporate sponsors, funders, and volunteers. By developing a replicable model, providing guidance for new sites, and maintaining strong community engagement, Up The Path can sustain and grow its impact, unlocking safe spaces for sport, improving participation, and creating long-term wellbeing and resilience for young people across London.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Roles and Responsibilities The success of Up The Path relies on a collaborative approach with clearly defined roles across PSK, partners, and volunteers. PSK Leadership Team – Oversees the overall programme, including strategic planning, budgeting, safeguarding compliance, and partnership management. Co-founders, lead programme delivery, monitoring, and evaluation. Programme Coordinators – Manage day-to-day camp operations, scheduling, and logistics, including venue setup, meals, equipment distribution, and activity planning. They liaise with schools, families, and local authorities to ensure smooth delivery. Coaches and Mentors - Deliver football sessions, mentoring, and Cadets activities. They support participants’ development, provide guidance, and maintain safe and inclusive environments. Volunteers - Support camp delivery, Boot Bin collection and refurbishment, meal provision, and event logistics. Volunteers also assist with engagement activities such as the youth-led podcast. Schools and Community Venues - Provide safe spaces for delivery at low or no cost, coordinate referrals, and support monitoring and feedback. School staff assist with the No Shortcuts Programme by reviewing school reports and facilitating communication with parents. Partner Football Clubs - Work with us to enable scholarships, additional training opportunities, and guidance for progression pathways for young people who show commitment and achievement. This shared structure ensures accountability, leverages expertise, and distributes responsibilities efficiently, enabling Up The Path to operate sustainably, deliver high-quality activities, and scale effectively across London.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
Upcoming Milestones 1. Boot Bin Launch (Month 1–2) Finalise locations and permissions with schools and community venues. Procure and install bins with clear signage and safety measures. Launch community awareness campaign to encourage donations of outgrown boots. 2. Holiday Camps (Ongoing throughout the year) Scale up the deliverance of our free, structured camps during all school holidays. Provide meals, coaching, equipment, and mentoring to children from low-income households, across multiple locations. Gather ongoing feedback from participants, parents, and school staff to inform continuous improvement. 3. No Shortcuts Programme Integration (Ongoing) Review school attendance, effort, and behaviour reports to link progress to scholarships and activities. Engage young people in Cadets sessions, volunteering, and leadership opportunities. 4. Youth-Led Podcast (Ongoing) Capture participant stories, showcase community engagement, and promote the Boot Bin initiative. Involve young people in production, giving them ownership of content and a platform to reflect on their experiences. 5. Scaling and Partnerships (Ongoing from Month 1) Expand Boot Bin network to additional locations with enhanced safety and accessibility. Grow camps into more schools and community spaces across London. Increase scholarships and pathways through partner football clubs. Strengthen partnerships with local authorities, landowners, and community organisations to unlock more spaces, resources, and long-term sustainability. These milestones show a parallel, integrated approach where delivery, community engagement, and scaling happen together, ensuring continuous impact, sustainability, and growth.
Capacity-Building Participation and Support Funding: If you were to make it as a finalist, you will be required to participate in an 8-week capacity building programme. If funding/ cost is a barrier to your participation, we may be able to offer up to 10,000 GBP of grant money available to support you. Please break down below, if it is the case, what costs you would incur and you would need covered. (Please note that there are restrictions on how the grant money may be used; please refer to the T&Cs for further details.
Capacity-Building Participation and Support Funding If selected as a finalist, participation in the 8-week capacity-building programme would incur estimated costs related to staff time, travel, and additional support to ensure uninterrupted delivery of Up The Path activities. 1. Staff Time / Backfill: Two PSK staff attending workshops, mentoring sessions, and planning activities. Partial backfill to cover ongoing programme delivery. Estimated cost: £2,500–£3,000. 2. Travel and Subsistence: Transport across London to attend in-person sessions, networking, and site visits. Estimated cost: £500–£700. 3. Materials and Communication: Printing, learning materials, and minor equipment required for workshops, training, and reporting obligations. Estimated cost: £400–£600. 4. Volunteer or Temporary Support: Additional support to maintain camps, Boot Bin collection/refurbishment, and youth activities while staff attend the programme. Estimated cost: £1,200–£1,500. Total Estimated Costs: £4,600–£5,800 These are estimated costs and may be adjusted depending on final participation needs. Funding support would ensure our staff can fully engage in the programme while maintaining high-quality delivery of Up The Path activities, ensuring sustained impact for young people and the wider community.
If you selected “Other”, please specify below.
currently an SSE Trade up participant, so was sent the information on this opportunity and felt it fit perfect with what we do.
