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), 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
1
First Name
Last Name
Pronouns
I would like to receive notifications and updates about Go London!, Ashoka, Ashoka Changemakers, and other Ashoka opportunities.
Are you an Ashoka Fellow?
Are you applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow?
If you are applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow, please specify the name and organisation of the fellow below.
Initiative Title
Architects of the Future: Greener Pathways
Lead Organization Name
Pledgeball
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2021
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://pledgeball.org/ @pledge_ball
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?
Environment & Sustainability
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
We use the power of football to transform climate vulnerability into agency for disadvantaged London youth, building equitable pathways into the green economy through co-designed workshops and direct employer engagement.
Challenge Focus: What topic does your initiative most directly relate to?
Climate action through awareness and engagement
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?
Young people in London's most disadvantaged communities face a dual crisis: they experience hyperlocal climate vulnerability yet remain systematically excluded from climate action and green careers. CDP research confirms low-income households and youth face the greatest risk. In London, deprived boroughs suffer disproportionate exposure to air pollution and urban heat. A 2023 Trust for London report found 37% of London's children live in poverty, bearing climate precarity daily. Despite 272,178 new green jobs emerging in three years, the sector remains 98% white and middle-class. Young Londoners are excluded by absent networks and a lack of tailored pathways—widening the environmental justice gap. Climate education fails this cohort when it is abstract and disconnected from their experience, rarely creating pathways into the green economy or policy change. Football Beyond Borders (FBB) has worked with 3,000+ young people since 2013, achieving 93% exclusion prevention. Pledgeball has mobilised sports communities for climate action since 2021. Collaborating since 2023, we use football to transform climate precarity into agency. Using football, we will unlock their potential as climate leaders and open pathways into the sector that currently excludes them, ensuring those bearing the greatest burden are the ones also given opportunity to shape the solutions.
Your approach: How are you addressing the problem outlined above? How are you using the power of sport and physical activity to build awareness, shift behavior, and enable sustainable participation for all in response to the climate crisis? We'd love to know about the origin of your idea, and what was your "aha" moment" that led you to take action?
Our "aha" moment occurred in 2025 when Yr 8 students reimagined football kits through sustainable design. Watching them interview peers, create with upcycled materials, and present to designers, we witnessed their passion ignited. They experienced their own "aha" moments and natural shock at the environmental impact of kit production. The workshop proved three things: football unlocks engagement where classrooms fail; climate becomes real when connected to something students love; and these young people don't lack capacity-they lack access. Pledgeball founder Katie Cross, a biology teacher who witnessed the disconnect between youth climate anxiety & their agency to act. Having worked with vulnerable youth at Kids Company, she recognised that traditional environmental education failed those facing socioeconomic pressures. FBB supports young people at risk of exclusion using football to build relationships. Combined, we build an equitable foundation for the UK's green transition via 3 means: Workshops: Integrating sustainability into FBB's "Architects of the Future" Yr 9 module. Football is woven through the pedagogy. Exemplar sessions include Kit & Fashion (connecting circular economy careers to kit lifecycles), Food & Travel (linking match-day nutrition to sustainable agriculture), and Green Spaces (mapping heat islands to placemaking careers). Green Jobs Fair: Exposing 40 Yr 9 students to relatable role models, building transparent pathways into green careers. Industry Events: Students attend summits like Sport Positive as advocates, bringing lived experience to green business. Subject to funding, we will convert employer relationships from the Fair into hands-on placements and internships for students in Yr10—providing access where none currently exists.
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?
Young people begin as co-creators, developing into decision-makers and advocates. Students (Year 9s) shape programme design through focus groups exploring their interests, neighbourhoods, and careers. Any chosen theme must connect to: (a) tangible behaviour change, (b) green sector careers, and (c) community impact. Within that framework, choices are theirs. Active Participation Workshop Co-Development: An 8-10 student Co-Design Working Group co-develops workshop themes. Green Jobs Fair Co-Design: Students identify employers and develop questions for the event. Industry Events: Students interview professionals and challenge who dominates sport-sustainability spaces. Community-Embedded Approach Workshops happen within FBB's existing infrastructure in underserved boroughs. We partner with hyperlocal organisations like Grow to Know, ensuring facilitators reflect students' backgrounds. Workshops anchor climate in their immediate reality. Student-Led Advocacy The April 2025 workshop proved this: students presented to industry professionals and articulated "protecting the planet means protecting our ability to play." They become climate advocates influencing families, schools, and communities. Feedback Loops Students shape what comes next after every session through recorded feedback which will be integrated throughout the programme. Subject to additional funding: work experience and internships with 4-6 green partners, providing hands-on experience for young people who lack any equivalent access through current networks.
Potential for/Evidence of Impact: How do you imagine your initiative will make a difference in raising climate awareness, shifting behaviors, or reducing environmental impact or harm? 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?
Our initiative builds a credible pathway from climate engagement to green career access for systematically excluded young people. Theory of change draws on two proven models: FBB Programme results: 93% of at-risk students avoid exclusion; 43% pass English and Maths GCSEs - up to 9x higher than peers. Participation delivers wellbeing improvements equivalent to moving from unemployment to employment. Pledgeball: In a Premier League-supported workshop, 81% reported a positive mindset shift, 91% would join circular economy initiatives, and 100% found the theme engaging. Immediate Impact (Sept 2026-Mar 2027): 40 students complete 3 hands-on workshops delivering actionable next steps. Young people carry these conversations home and into their communities. Medium-term (June 2027): 40 students engage with 10-15 green employers at the Jobs Fair. Baseline and endline surveys measure green career literacy, co-designed with our evaluation partner. Expanding Reach: Up to 40 students attend industry events, building confidence and diversifying spaces where they are underrepresented. Long-Term Indicators (3 years): climate self-efficacy; community climate action; green career progression post-16; 2+ ongoing employer partnerships. Scale: Year 2 target 60-90 students; Years 3-5 reach 100-150 annually. Success Metrics: 40 students complete all 3 workshops (85%+ attendance) 25%+ improvement in green career literacy 40 students at Green Jobs Fair; 5-10 at industry events 2-3 trained FBB deliverers; 2-3 ongoing employer partnerships Open-source replicable model published Subject to additional funding: 10-15 young people completing green sector work experience or internships in Yr10 following workshop programme.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
Most youth climate programmes end at education. We create employment infrastructure so young people's voices shape the green transition. Tackling the Root Problem Working-class young people face intersecting barriers: absent networks, no relatable role models, opaque pathways, and programmes assuming cultural capital they don't have. We create an access pipeline combining FBB's proven track record with Pledgeball's evidence-based climate engagement. Three Key Innovations Co-Design, Not Consultation: Students vote on workshop themes, select Jobs Fair employers, and shape facilitation - shifting power dynamics. Football as Climate Gateway: Climate education is typically abstract, reinforcing belief it isn't relevant under immediate pressures. Football is woven through our pedagogy - kit lifecycles, match-day food systems, pitch-based urban ecology - not simply the setting. Employment Infrastructure: Employers access diverse talent; students gain pathways. Subject to additional funding, work experience begins in Year 1. For these young people, a green sector placement is often the first time anyone in their network has worked there - transformative in a way it isn't for peers whose parents make that call. Evidence of Impact FBB: 93% exclusion prevention; GCSE pass rates up to 9x higher than peers; significant wellbeing improvements. Pledgeball: 91% would join circular initiatives; 81% reported positive mindset change. Shifting Norms Only 2% of environmental sector staff come from working-class backgrounds. When FBB students gain professional platforms, they bring lived experience the sector desperately needs. This is the structural transformation of who holds power in environmental decision-making. Every student we support shifts that pipeline.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Pledgeball (Lead Organisation) Brings climate engagement expertise, teaching expertise, and green sector networks, with clearly defined roles: CEO (Katie Cross): Programme leadership, workshop delivery, and strategic direction. Monitoring & Evaluation Management. Project Manager: Day-to-day logistics, workshop coordination, timeline management, and student liaison. Head of Commercial Operations: Funder accountability and partnership governance. Head of Communications: Marketing, social assets, impact documentation, and storytelling to amplify student voices. Pledgeball designs and delivers all three workshops (with industry lead, student co-developers and FBB co-facilitators), organises the Green Jobs Fair, and curates industry event opportunities. Football Beyond Borders (Delivery Partner) FBB brings unparalleled expertise working with disengaged young people and established school relationships: Programme Leads: Identify and recruit 40 students across London cohorts, manage pastoral support throughout Youth Engagement Team: Facilitate student co-design sessions, ensure workshops are age-appropriate and culturally relevant, co-deliver sessions, provide ongoing check-ins Safeguarding & Compliance: Oversee all legal requirements, insurance, parental consent, duty of care, and DBS checks for all adults School Liaison Officers: Coordinate with partner schools across London boroughs for scheduling, attendance tracking, and follow-up support FBB holds the existing Architects of the Future Year 10 module framework - a structured programme that uses football as a pedagogical tool to explore identity, aspiration, and community leadership with young people at risk of disengagement. Our climate integration adds sustainability content and green career exposure to this proven methodology, with 2-3 FBB programme deliverers receiving climate literacy training so the integration extends beyond this pilot. Shared Governance Monthly steering meetings between Pledgeball CEO and FBB Programme Lead. Shared project tracker with transparent timelines and accountability. When disagreements arise: student safeguarding and wellbeing take precedence, followed by FBB's pedagogical judgement on what serves young people, followed by Pledgeball's funder accountability obligations. Joint impact evaluation framework measuring quantitative outcomes and qualitative student experience, co-designed with an independent evaluator. Industry Workshop Contributors We will work with three industry leaders who specialise in green solutions for a specific sector. With each leader we will co-design a workshop and support on the day delivery. There is potential for workshop contributors to provide work experience pathways subject to additional funding and resources. M&E Lead: Establish a measurement framework to assess impact of workshops and programme. WEX Coordinator (Subject to additional funding) Acts as a liaison between educational institutions and employers to source, manage, support and monitor high-quality work placements for the students.
Viability and Scalability: How are you setting your organization 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?
Building Long-Term Viability Documented Frameworks: We are creating open-source workshop templates, employer resources, and evaluation tools to establish a sector-wide resource for youth organisations. Training FBB Staff: Deliverers receive climate literacy training, embedding sustainability into FBB’s institutional knowledge beyond this pilot. Self-Sustaining Networks: We aim to convert 2-3 employers into ongoing partners. Employers gain diverse talent, while students gain career pathways, creating a pipeline independent of grant funding. Evidence-Based Iteration: This 18-month pilot includes formal evaluations (Months 4, 9, 16) led by an independent M&E Lead to measure cost-per-student and impact, beginning September 2026. Dual Value: We measure student progression (career literacy, agency) and employer diversity benefits to build cases for future corporate sponsorship. Growth Plan & Resources Year 1 (2026-27): London Pilot (40 students, 3 workshops, Green Jobs Fair). Year 2 (2027-28): Expansion to 60-90 students across London boroughs. Years 3-5: Consolidate to 100-150 students annually; potential national scaling. Support Needed: A dedicated Programmes Manager, an impact evaluation partner, and a Work Experience (WEX) coordinator to bridge the gap between raised aspirations and actual sector access.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
*EXACT DATES AND MONTHS ARE SUBJECT TO (I) THE FUNDING PROCESS & (II) FBB/SCHOOL TERM TIMES & AVAILABILITY* Pre-Launch Phase (May - August 2026) May 2026: Finalise partnership agreement and governance structure with FBB Confirm evaluation partner and agree impact measurement framework June 2026: Recruit student Co-Design Working Group through open self-nomination process First Working Group meeting: focus groups on climate interests, football culture, and neighbourhood concerns Begin outreach to 15 potential Green Jobs Fair employers July - August 2026: Second and third Working Group meetings: students vote on three workshop themes Confirm workshop co-facilitators based on chosen themes (e.g. Grow 2 Know, La Gom Chef, Repowering London) Baseline data collection: climate self-efficacy and green career literacy surveys across full 40-student cohort Confirm Green Jobs Fair venue in local community Phase 1: Workshop Delivery (Autumn 2026 - Spring 2027) Autumn Term 2026 (September - December): Workshop 1 (Morning / Afternoon Session) delivered to all 40 students (15 AM / 15 PM) Post-workshop student feedback session First industry event attendance Mid-Point Evaluation Checkpoint (December 2026): Workshop effectiveness assessment against baseline data Engagement and attendance review Student feedback themes analysed Workshop 2 iterated accordingly and shared with funders Spring Term 2027 (January - March): Workshop 2 (Morning / Afternoon Session) delivered to all 40 students (15 AM / 15 PM) Second industry event attendance Workshop 3 (Morning / Afternoon Session) delivered to all 40 students (15 AM / 15 PM) Post-workshop evaluation sessions with full cohort Confirm 10-15 employer participants for Green Jobs Fair Phase 2: Green Jobs Fair (May - June 2027) May 2027: Working Group co-designs Fair format and develops employer questions Students create promotional materials for the Fair June 2027: Green Jobs Fair delivered: 40 programme students plus additional FBB cohort members where capacity allows Post-Fair feedback and reflection session Employer relationship review: which 2-3 to convert to ongoing Year 2 partners Phase 3: Work Experience and Internships - Subject to Additional Funding (June - August 2027) Access to work experience and internships is one of the starkest inequalities facing young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. While their middle-class peers benefit from family networks, informal connections, and parents who can make a phone call to secure a placement, students from low-income communities in London have no equivalent access. This locks young people out of entire career sectors before they have had a fair chance to explore them. The green economy is no exception: without intervention, the 2% working-class representation in environmental organisations will not shift. In addition, experience of the soft skills required within these workplace settings is often lacking in this cohort, and so further student support and relationships with employers are required to ensure success. Subject to securing additional funding beyond this grant, Phase 3 would address this directly by converting the employer relationships built in Phases 1 and 2 into tangible hands-on opportunities: 5-10 Year 10 students complete a one-week work experience placement with a green sector employer, with placements identified and matched through the Green Jobs Fair 2 students take up a 2-4 week paid summer internship with participating employers, providing sustained exposure to green sector working environments All placements are supported throughout by FBB's pastoral team, who provide weekly check-ins, help students navigate professional environments they may be entering for the first time, and address practical barriers including travel costs, appropriate clothing, and managing the cultural adjustment of workplace norms that many of their peers take for granted Placement selection will be open and transparent, with criteria co-designed by the student Working Group to ensure the process does not inadvertently favour students who already hold more cultural capital Students who do not secure a placement will be supported with personalised feedback, ongoing mentorship connections from Fair employers, and priority access to Year 2 opportunities as the programme scales The groundwork for this phase is laid regardless of whether additional funding is secured. Employer relationships built at the Green Jobs Fair, pastoral infrastructure through FBB, and the professional confidence students develop through workshops and industry events all position them to step into placements the moment funding enables it. Phase 4: Consolidation and Future Planning (June - August 2027) Endline data collection: climate self-efficacy, green career literacy, community action taken Employer feedback interviews Student experience documentation: video testimonials, written reflections Cost-per-student analysis Replicable model documentation completed and published as open-source toolkit Year 2 funding applications submitted using pilot evidence Ongoing Throughout 2026-27 Termly impact assessments 2-3 industry event attendances across the year, selected by students Student journalism opportunities: blogging and social content about their experiences Key Success Indicators 40 students recruited, with at least 85% completing all 3 workshops 25%+ measurable improvement in green career literacy from baseline to endpoint 75%+ of students report increased engagement with climate and greater knowledge of its impact on their community 40 students participate in the Green Jobs Fair 5-10 students attend at least one industry event 3 replicable, documented workshop templates completed and published 2-3 FBB programme deliverers trained to deliver climate content independently 2-3 ongoing employer partnerships established for Year 2 progression Full evaluation report completed and shared with sector by October 2027 Transition to Scale (Autumn 2027) Present evaluation findings to funders, FBB leadership, and employer partners Decision point: does evidence support Year 2 expansion at 60-90 students? Identify 3-4 additional London FBB schools for Year 2 recruitment Secure Year 2 funding
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 (LINK).
Capacity Building Budget Role / Item Calculation Cost External PM Consultant 8 weeks × 0.3 FTE × £500/week £1,200 Green Skills Consultant 3 days × £500/day £1,500 Work Experience/Schools Consultant 3 days × £500/day £1,500 Independent Researcher 5 days × £500/day £2,500 Workshop Delivery 1 person × 5 days × £150/day £750 Staff rail travel Bristol→London Return advance fare £150 Staff accommodation London 1 night £100 External PM travel 1 journey × £50 £50 Contingency ~6% of total costs £500 MAXIMUM POTENTIAL TOTAL £8,250
Now that you've explored what it truly means to put young people at the centre, how are you designing your initiative so that young people are genuine co-leaders and co-creators of the initiative?
One of the most significant shifts from the capacity-building programme was recognising the difference between participation and shared power. Our original proposal involved young people shaping workshop content and providing feedback. Through exploring Hart's Ladder of Participation and stakeholder engagement frameworks, we realised that meaningful youth leadership requires influence over decisions, resources, public outputs and future direction, not just simply opportunities to contribute. FBB's curriculum is built on a documented principle: 'How we design is as important as what we design.' Their six-stage Human-Centred Design process explicitly includes young people at the ideation stage, not just as approvers of adult decisions, but as creative contributors to the question of what gets built. Greener Pathways applies that same infrastructure to climate and green careers for the first time. Engineered co-creation structures Co-Design Working Group: binding votes on workshop themes; selects Green Jobs Fair employers; co-develops facilitation approaches. Their decisions are final within three non-negotiable anchors: tangible behaviour change, green career exposure, and community impact. Young people co-deliver workshops: students who demonstrate confidence step into facilitation, as experts on their own borough's climate reality, not helpers. Public products with real audiences: FBB's core pedagogical principle, drawn from project-based learning, is that every project ends with student work reaching an external audience. Each of the three workshops produces a public product i.e. a sustainable kit brief presented to a brand partner; a borough food miles report; a heat island mapping presentation submitted to a local authority. Students see their work matter beyond the classroom. Deliberate methodology: we are commissioning a specialist co-design facilitator (using capacity-building support funding) to train Pledgeball and FBB staff in validated techniques so co-creation is methodologically consistent, not dependent on individual instinct. Youth Board integration: the Co-Design Working Group connects to FBB's standing Youth Board, giving students institutional visibility and a governance role, not just programme involvement. Visible validation: student contributions are credited publicly, in impact reports, at industry events, in open-source materials. Young people can see and share what their involvement produced. We are deliberately designing for progression rather than claiming youth ownership from day one. In Year 1, most participants will engage at Levels 4-5 of stakeholder engagement (involved and collaborating), while members of the Co-Design Working Group will operate at Level 6 (co-creating). As confidence, trust and capacity develop, our intention is to move progressively towards higher levels of shared decision-making and leadership. This approach is not only about improving programme quality. It is also part of the systems change we seek. Young people from climate-vulnerable communities are routinely excluded from the spaces where environmental priorities are discussed and decisions are made. By creating structures where young people influence programme design, public outputs and external engagement, we are practising the kind of power-sharing we hope to see more widely across the sport and sustainability sectors.
What partnerships and collaborations are most critical to delivering and sustaining your initiative and how are you building/ plan to build them?
One of the key lessons from the capacity-building programme was that the challenge we are addressing cannot be solved by any single organisation. Through systems mapping, we identified that young people's exclusion from climate action and green careers is shaped by interconnected education, employment, sport, community and policy systems. As a result, we have become more intentional about designing partnerships that operate across those different levels of the system. Our partnership architecture is structured across three tiers, directly mirroring FBB's own approach to working relationships. Each tier creates a different kind of value and operates at a different level of the system we are trying to change. Tier 1 - Transformational Partners: Designing the Experience Direct service - Design & Delivery partners These partnerships define the quality and depth of young people's experience. They are pedagogical relationships. They co-design module content and provide the 'hook' that makes climate learning resonate. Football Beyond Borders (Lead Partner) FBB is the foundation on which the initiative is built. Their established relationships with young people, schools and communities provide the trust, safeguarding infrastructure and educational framework that make meaningful engagement possible. The programme sits naturally within FBB's "Self-Others-World" curriculum journey, positioning climate action and green careers within a wider process of youth development, identity formation and social awareness. Pledgeball (Co-Lead & Delivery Partner) Brings climate engagement expertise, teaching expertise, and green sector networks, with clearly defined roles: CEO (Katie Cross): Programme leadership, workshop delivery, and strategic direction. Monitoring & Evaluation Management. Project Manager: Day-to-day logistics, workshop coordination, timeline management, and student liaison. Head of Commercial Operations: Funder accountability and partnership governance. Head of Communications: Marketing, social assets, impact documentation, and storytelling to amplify student voices. Pledgeball co-designs and co-delivers all three workshops (with industry lead and student co-developers), co-organises the Green Jobs Fair, and curates industry event opportunities. Green Sector Curriculum Partners Green sector partners i.e. Grow to Know, La Gom Chef and Repowering London will co-design individual workshop modules alongside Pledgeball and participating young people. Their role is not simply to deliver content, but to bring lived expertise, local credibility and practical examples of climate action rooted in communities. Where possible, we prioritise facilitators whose backgrounds and experiences reflect those of participating young people. Tier 2 - Opportunity Partners: Raising Aspirations and Creating Pathways System Change - Opportunity Creation Partners These partnerships help translate learning into future opportunities. Green Sector Employers The Green Jobs Fair will bring together 10-15 employers from across the green economy. These relationships are intentionally reciprocal: employers gain access to talented young people from communities they often struggle to reach, while students gain visibility of career pathways, role models and opportunities that would otherwise remain inaccessible. We are currently mapping potential partners and aim to develop 2-3 into long-term relationships that extend beyond the pilot year. Sport and Sustainability Networks Partnerships with organisations such as the Sport Positive Summit and other sector conveners provide opportunities for young people to enter spaces where decisions about sustainability in sport are being made. We see these relationships as particularly important because these spaces are often dominated by voices that do not reflect the communities most affected by climate inequality. Our ambition is for young people to participate as contributors and advocates, not simply attendees. Tier 3 - Systems Partners: Embedding Lasting Change Mindset Shift - Embedding Lasting Attitudinal Change These partnerships are critical if programme-level success is to translate into wider systems change. National Governing Bodies and Sector Leaders Many sports organisations are developing climate strategies but have limited mechanisms for engaging young people from underserved communities as stakeholders in that transition. Both Pledgeball and FBB have already established relationships with organisations such as FA, Sport England, Womens Super League, Premier League and the Lawn Tennis Association. As part of this project we aim to collaborate with these organisations to integrate young people into their development practices. Over time, we aim to leverage our existing relationships with governing bodies and sector leaders e.g. British Association of Sustainability in Sport (BASIS) and UN Sports for Climate Action, to create opportunities for young people's lived experience to inform policy, strategy and programme design. Local Authorities Young people's experiences of air pollution, heat islands, access to green space and climate resilience are shaped by local policy decisions. We therefore see local authority environment and youth teams as important partners in ensuring that insights generated through the programme can inform broader conversations about community resilience and climate planning. Independent Evaluation Partner Our evaluation partner is not a peripheral delivery contractor but a core systems partner. They will work with Pledgeball, FBB and young people to co-design an evaluation framework that measures not only participation and learning outcomes, but also shifts in relationships, representation and influence across the wider system. Using the Five Levels of Stakeholder Engagement framework, our ambition is to move beyond informing or consulting stakeholders and towards genuine collaboration and co-creation. We are building partnerships around a shared goal: ensuring that young people from climate-vulnerable communities are not only beneficiaries of the green transition, but active contributors to shaping it. Our role is to strengthen connections between young people, employers, community organisations, educators, policymakers and the sport sector so that the voices of those most affected by climate change become more visible, influential and valued within the systems that shape their future. The Five Rs in Practice Rules - Green sector employers and sport and sustainability networks, including spaces like the Sport Positive Summit where sustainability decisions are made, currently establish rules and norms that, often unintentionally, reproduce a sector that is 98% white and middle-class, with only 2% of environmental staff from working-class backgrounds Relationships - Through our Tier 2 partnerships, we build relationships with the young people most excluded by those norms: the 37% of London's children living in poverty, bearing climate precarity daily while locked out of shaping solutions to it Resources - Our Tier 1 partnerships ensure the resources are in place to make that challenge meaningful: FBB's trusted community infrastructure, Pledgeball's evidence-based climate engagement, and facilitators whose backgrounds reflect those of participating students Roles - Young people's roles shift across the programme: from co-designers voting on workshop themes, to advocates interviewing professionals at industry events, to contributors whose lived experience challenges who holds power in environmental decision-making Results - Our Tier 3 systems partners, governing bodies including the FA, Sport England and the Premier League, local authorities shaping air quality and green space policy, and our independent evaluation partner, translate these shifts into lasting results: young people from climate-vulnerable communities embedded in the policy, strategy and programme design of the green transition, not simply as beneficiaries, but as architects of it
What are you measuring, how are you measuring it, and what does the data tell you so far (quantitative and qualitative)?
What the data tells us so far Existing evidence from both organisations suggests strong potential for impact. FBB measures key factors that influence young people's academic outcomes, sense of self and future career pathways. Across FBB programmes, 98% of participants remain in school without being permanently excluded or managed moved, young people are up to nine times more likely to pass English and Maths GCSEs than comparable peers, 60% improve their social-emotional learning skills, 70% report a stronger sense of belonging, 71% improve their behaviour in school, and 91% experience a reduction in suspensions. Importantly, FBB's evaluation data shows that many Year 9 students understand the importance of education but continue to feel anxious about their futures, demonstrate low aspirations and struggle to see meaningful pathways ahead. Greener Pathways is designed to address this gap by connecting young people's growing sense of agency to climate action, green careers and the environmental challenges already affecting their communities. Early evidence from previous climate engagement work is equally encouraging. In a Premier League-supported Pledgeball pilot (April 2025), 81% of participants reported a positive mindset shift, 91% said they would join future circular economy initiatives and 100% found the theme engaging. Together, these findings suggest that FBB's proven developmental model creates the conditions for engagement and aspiration, while Pledgeball's climate education approach can translate that engagement into climate awareness, green career literacy and participation in the green economy. Attitudinal shift: To measure impact, we'd start by identifying the group of young people taking part in the workshop series. We'd likely do this from October 2026 onwards, giving young people time to settle into their new FBB groups first. We'd then measure their knowledge at three points: Before the first session to get a baseline At a midpoint to track progress along the way After the final session to see the overall change We are targeting a 25%+ improvement in green career literacy, and that 75%+ of students report climate as directly relevant to their community. This will be measured via a pre/post validated survey co-designed with our M&E partner. Climate self-efficacy: Improvement from baseline on a validated Likert scale, using a licensed instrument funded via capacity-building grant. Measured at the same three points as above. Co-creation quality: Hart’s Ladder position at each checkpoint, assessed through facilitated self-assessment with the Co-Design Working Group. Aspiration shift: The percentage of students seeing green careers as accessible, and the percentage with a named employer contact. Measured through a post-Fair employer survey and student survey following the Green Jobs Fair in June 2027. Evidence of transformation: Qualitative documentation including student-produced public products, video testimonials, community actions taken, and employer behaviour change. Captured through case studies, filmed reflections, and employer interviews at endline and on an ongoing basis. At the systems level, we will measure: Number of young people involved in programme governance and co-design Number of organisations adopting youth-informed approaches Number of sustained employer partnerships Instances where young people's views influence sector conversations or decision-making spaces
Long-term impact: what lasting systems change are you seeking to create and how will you know when it has happened?
Our long-term systems change goal is: Young people from climate-vulnerable communities are recognised, represented and influential within the sport and sustainability ecosystem, helping shape a just transition rather than being excluded from it. Through the systems-change frameworks explored during the programme, we have become clearer that the issue is not simply a lack of climate awareness. The deeper challenge is that those most affected by climate change are often least represented in the institutions, professions and decision-making structures responding to it. we want to see shifts at multiple levels: What we are trying to shift at each level Direct service: 40 young Londoners per year complete a structured, high-quality programme of climate education and green career exposure that does not currently exist for this cohort in any systematic form. Systems change - sector: Employers who engage with our students begin to diversify their recruitment pipelines, disrupting the informal-network-dependent hiring that locks working-class young people out. Tracked through employer feedback and career progression data over three years. Systems change - governance: FBB students attending Sport Positive Summit and equivalent spaces as advocates begins to shift who is present in the rooms where sport-sustainability decisions are made. We are actively building NGB and local authority relationships so that students’ evidence and voice feed into policy. Just transition: The green economy’s transformation must not replicate the injustices of what came before. Young people from communities on the front line of climate risk must be the designers of the solutions, not their recipients. This programme is one component of that structural shift and we will measure it explicitly over five years. Frame change: The narrative that ‘climate is a middle-class issue’ cracks. Young Londoners from post-industrial, low-income boroughs see themselves as climate leaders and the sector sees them as the experts on environmental justice they are. How we will know it has happened Career progression: Longitudinal contact maintained with a sample cohort. Employer behaviour: have 2+ employers changed recruitment practices as a result of programme engagement? Institutional adoption: have any local authority, NGB, or school structures embedded elements of the programme or cited student recommendations in strategy? Narrative: are sport-sustainability spaces citing environmental justice and working-class inclusion as core commitments — and do they credit young people’s advocacy as a factor? If this programme disappeared tomorrow, three things must remain: employer relationships that now see FBB students as credible candidates; FBB staff with embedded climate literacy; and an open-source toolkit enabling replication without us. Those residuals are our test of systems change.
Is there anything else you'd like to share with us that you were not able to share in previous questions?
Participating in the capacity-building programme has significantly strengthened our thinking. The systems-change frameworks explored throughout the programme, including systems mapping, the Iceberg Model, Hart's Ladder of Participation, stakeholder engagement frameworks and approaches to impact measurement, have challenged us to think beyond programme delivery and focus on the underlying structures that create exclusion. The theoretical architecture underpinning this programme The Iceberg: We are working at all three levels simultaneously, workshops address surface behaviour; employer partnerships and co-design address structural root causes; sustained advocacy and community action work on the mindset that climate is someone else’s issue. The 5R Framework: Resources (funding, venues, facilitator expertise) flow into Roles (youth co-designers, workshop co-facilitators, employer mentors, FBB youth workers) that form the Relationships i.e. peer learning, intergenerational mentorship, cross-sector exposure, operating under new Rules (co-produced agreements, anti-deficit facilitation, transparent employer partnerships) to produce Results: young people with climate self-efficacy, green career literacy, and community action habits. FBB’s Self–Others–World journey: Greener Pathways is not bolted onto FBB’s curriculum. It is the natural destination of a developmental journey that began with self-regulation, moved through relationship skills, and now turns outward to the world. Climate is where that journey should have been pointing all along. Leveraging Polarities: we hold tensions rather than resolve them. Local action and global awareness. Youth autonomy and adult safeguarding. Measurable outputs and relational process. Urgency and reflection. Our governance structure names which pole takes precedence under which circumstances — student wellbeing first, pedagogical judgement second, funder accountability third. On the capacity-building process The facilitation modelled exactly what we are trying to build with young people from a pledgeball perspective: theoretical frameworks tested against lived practice, hierarchies flattened, and those closest to the problem shaping solutions. It also showcased to FBB that the systems and frameworks they have in place are in alignment with the thinking of Ashoka.
