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

Email address

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

Big Bug Dance Project

Lead Organization Name

National Park City Foundation

My initiative is designed for and delivered in London

1

Year that you started/ registered your organisation

2017

Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles

https://www.nationalparkcity.org/ https://nationalparkcity.london instagram/londonnationalparkcity

Initiative Stage

Idea (You have a solid concept and are hoping to get started in the future)

Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?

Health & Fitness

Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence

A city-wide children-led creative dance project based on the close observation of London's insect life, hosted by London's city farms and community gardens.

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?

Our project aims to provide a single solution to help address two extremely pressing problems, the number of London’s young people failing to reach healthy levels of exercise & nature deprivation & disengagement in the city’s young people. 2024 research by The Health Foundation showed that people living in deprived areas are more likely to be in neighbourhoods with less access to green space, as are people from minority ethnic groups & young people. 84% of the UK population lives in an urban environment with restricted access to the natural world. We are lucky to live in a city with green spaces, this project gives children an opportunity to engage with them in a new & exciting way. In December 2025 London Sport reported data that showed that children's activity levels in London showed no year-on-year change. More than half of children & young people in London (53% – 594,600 young people) are still not reaching the recommended daily levels of physical activity, despite the clear evidence that active children experience better physical health, improved mental wellbeing & stronger educational outcomes. Our project focuses on ways to help children who are not drawn to competitive sport engage in physical activity & expression in a sustained way. Girls in particular are less likely to be active than boys but are more likely to engage in dance than other physical activity

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 project is born out of two ‘aha’ moments; - firstly a London Marathon Foundation, Active Spaces project we delivered at Chelsea Theatre at the World’s End Estate. Thinking about exercise for children who were not drawn to sport we designed a street dance project which saw a diverse group of local young children work with a professional street dancer to create and choreograph their own show ‘A Different Drum’. Over the course of four months the children went from zero exercise to over 10 hours a week. They performed the show in the theatre’s 300 seat auditorium to an audience of their family and peers. The second ‘Aha; moment occurred watching preparations for Halloween half term at a central London city farm. The site was draped in Amazon sourced props, the activities were primarily sweet food based. It was a festival of plastic and sugar. The activities ignored the purpose of the site and visitors left with no greater understanding or relationship with the natural world than when they arrived. Formulating activities that could better fulfil the charity’s purpose led to the idea of a “creepy crawly bug” based celebration. Big Bug Dance Project will encourage and enable young people to observe and engage with insects in the city in a positive and fun way. By “sampling” their movements (the waggle dance of the honeybee, the tremble dance of the ant, the aphid’s leaf dance and unique moves of beetles, ants, grasshoppers etc.), children will feel less fearful of ‘creepy crawlies’, and begin to consider their role in our world. Climate change needs young people to be engaged, aware and informed.

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 who do not normally participate in physical exercise or spend much time outdoors with nature will experience a fun and engaging project which is creative, educational, mentally and physically invigorating and importantly, - that feels ‘cool’. It won’t be like any other school class. Utilising the existing networks of inner London Community Gardens and City Farms, this project reaches out to schools and provides a project that combines bespoke nature research and creative and physical exercise sessions for daily and weekly classes. Schools will be encouraged to offer the project to children who are not drawn to sport and competitive exercise. The project will start with a week-long summer camp in late August 2026. Led by ecology/entomology and dance experts the children will be encouraged to observe insects in a natural environment, imagine how they live their lives and understand how they move in the world. Street dance leaders with extensive experience working with young people will encourage the children to use their observations and ideas to develop a unique dance vocabulary based on insect behaviour, devising moves inspired by different kinds of insects to vibrant dance music. This material will be shaped, over the weeks, to create a very special Bug Performance to present to their schools, friends and family. Each group will have their own unique take on ‘the world of bugs’. The point of the project is to create transformation within the young people. To create curiosity and empathy with the natural world and with their dancing class-mates, and to instil the feeling of energy and wellbeing that emerges from the undertaking of regular physical activity, and the self esteem that comes from pride in performance.

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?

Output: 240 primary age children have their relationship to nature enhanced and engage with local places where they can continue to access nature. They are taught how to observe the world to inspire creativity. Outcome :A cohort of innercity children gain an understanding of and an investment in the natural world. Output: 240 children who do not exercise regularly have 78 hours of physical activity over three months, building a lasting habit of physical activity. Outcome: physically/mentally healthier children Output. A new model for a nature, exercise and creativity based activity. Training and teaching materials provided and made available online into the future. Outcome. Affordable groundbreaking project for innercity eco-venues, delivered using existing staff or small grant funding. Outcome: innercity eco-venues can provide a new way to engage with nature that addresses exercise and nature deficits. Output: 24 eco-venue staff trained to deliver activities. Activities repeated annually. The model can be used for working in other areas of nature. Outcome: 240 young people have better engagement with physical activity and relationship with the natural world. A healthy, non- religious, environmentally friendly alternative to Halloween activities is provided. Output: 24+ original performances developed and delivered by primary age children. Outcome. Community cohesion and pride. Output: 3600 audience members (Participant’s friends and family visit the final events during halloween half-term. Outcome: new audiences engage with innercity Eco venues, venues have opportunity to market research and promote future activities. Output: Data collection app. Outcome better quality data collection.

Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?

This combination of dance, performance, ecological research and observation by young people of primary age is innovative and exciting. The project specifically targets children who are not drawn to physical exercise. The project creates a new and sustainable model for engaging with the natural world. The project utilises existing eco-venues and their networks whilst providing them with new high quality programming replacing traditional halloween activities. The children in the cohort learn to recognise movement observation and sampling as an act of creativity and engage with street dance. a community based, accessible and working class artform, a version of which is found in urban communities all over the world. (Humans, like insects, have their performative moves.) The project engages with the natural world on its own terms, observing the behaviour and life cycles of insects as they transition from active summer breeding mode to winter survival mode. The project brings two diverse fields, ecology and dance, into close quarters with a shared goal Professionals in both fields will observe and learn from their partners,

Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.

London National Park City will provide: Financial admin support, comms and marketing, web and social media hosting and future web presence. The Cholmondeleys: Leading on production, creative direction, dance and project management recruitment, project and events management.ecology oversight, reporting. 24 Inner city City Farms and community gardens Venues, Safeguarding, accessibility, participant relations, community comms and marketing, event health, data gathering. Nature observation sessions will be delivered in tandem by eco-venue staff and dance leads.

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?

The project is based on a scaling up of :A Different Drum; our dance project which took place in 2023/4 with the children of the World;s End Estate in Chelsea. The project aims to create a model and materials that can be repeated in future years. Staff from partner venues (City farms and Community Gardens) will be trained to lead the activities in future years with new cohorts. The only additional cost to venues for future iterations is the Dance leads whose cost can be covered by small grant funding and.or a combination of paid and free participation. Whilst this is an inner city wide project across 12 boroughs each individual project is at small scale and has manageable risks. These are the types of risks that the venues are used to dealing with. Staff training and learning materials will remain on the National Park City website going forward as a free resource. Creative lead organisation the Colmondeleys has successfully delivered community-led dance projects previously and has partnered with National Park City which has city wide relationships and capacity,

Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.

Development period Project partners finalised and partnership agreements in place. Create project schedule and time line, consult and finalise with partners Finalise Budget and finalise in-kind contributions. Identity and build partnerships with host organisations, city farms and community gardens. On board 24 host organisations. Design training for host organisations. Arrange intensive training sessions for host org staff and dance leads. Work with host organisations to identify partner schools. Work with schools to identify suitable student participants. Comms plan finalised with partners. Work with dance leads and ecologist/entomology staff to develop the week long summer school, term time weekly events and Halloween half terns performances, Ensure sign up for August summer school. Design and send comms to parents/ guardians about expectations. Music and costume design ready by mid July.

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).

Paul Adlam-Producer- 8 weeks 13 days @ £300 £3,900.00 Lea Anderson-Artistic Director- 8 weeks 13 days @ £300 £3,900.00 Environmentalist: consultation-2 days @ £200 £400.00 Interviews with education and dance leaders: 10 x £100 £1,000.00 Total £9,200.00 In kind hours provided for the 8 week programme by London National Park City.

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