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
Climate Champions Through Sport
Lead Organization Name
BILLY YOUTH ENGAGEMENT PROJECT
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://billyyouthproject.org.uk/
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?
Environment & Sustainability
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
A youth powered climate and sport initiative that helps young people understand how climate change affects their daily lives, co design greener and safer community spaces, and support local clubs to adopt low carbon, climate resilient practices all while empowering underserved youth to lead action, protect the places they love, and build a more sustainable future
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 our community are experiencing the effects of climate change in ways that directly limit their ability to play, move, and feel safe. Extreme heat, poor air quality, waterlogged pitches, and damaged outdoor spaces are reducing opportunities for physical activity, while rising energy and facility costs make participation even harder for families already facing financial pressure. These challenges fall disproportionately on underserved young people, who have the least access to safe outdoor spaces and the fewest opportunities to influence decisions about their environment. At Billy Youth Engagement Project, we work with these young people every day. We see how climate change is not an abstract issue for them it shapes their routines, restricts their freedom, and increases anxiety about the future. Many of our youth mentors grew up in the same neighbourhoods and understand these pressures first hand, which keeps us deeply connected to the realities young people face. The problem we are tackling is twofold: the growing environmental risks affecting young people’s health and wellbeing, and the widening inequality in who gets to stay active, safe, and empowered as the climate crisis intensifies. Our initiative ensures that the young people most affected are also the ones leading 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 approach is built on a simple belief: sport is one of the most powerful tools young people have to understand the world around them and to change it. At Billy Youth Engagement Project, we use sport and physical activity as an accessible, energising entry point to climate awareness, behaviour change, and community led action. We address the problem by combining sport based climate learning, youth leadership, and practical environmental action. Through dynamic sports sessions, young people explore how climate change affects their health, their neighbourhoods, and their ability to stay active. We integrate climate literacy into movement based activities, making learning hands on, relatable, and rooted in lived experience. This builds understanding while also shifting attitudes and behaviours in ways that feel natural, not forced. Our programme also supports clubs and community groups to adopt low carbon practices, reduce waste, and adapt activities to extreme heat, poor air quality, and flooding. This ensures participation remains safe, inclusive, and sustainable as climate impacts intensify. Young people co design improvements to local green spaces and pitches, helping to create climate resilient environments they can take pride in. The idea emerged from what we were witnessing daily: cancelled sessions due to heat, unsafe pitches after heavy rain, and young people expressing frustration about the state of their local spaces. Our “aha” moment came during a youth football session cut short because the pitch was waterlogged. One young person said, “If the adults won’t fix it, why can’t we?” That moment made it clear that young people weren’t just affected by the climate crisis they were ready to lead the response. Our approach empowers them to do exactly that.
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 and community members are at the heart of our initiative. At Billy Youth Engagement Project, our work is shaped directly by those closest to the challenges we aim to address—including underrepresented communities and local groups who have been running sport or activity sessions for at least two years and want to make their operations more stable, sustainable, and impactful. Before designing this programme, we spent several months listening to young people, families, and community organisers through outreach events, informal gatherings, one to one conversations, and focused group discussions. More than 120 community members shared their experiences of delivering grassroots sport, the pressures they face in maintaining safe and accessible sessions, and their desire to grow sustainably while serving underrepresented young people. We also held structured discussions with 72 participants during advice and wellbeing sessions, and a core group of 25 community members helped identify priorities and the most urgent needs. Across all conversations, people consistently asked for support to strengthen their provision, improve local spaces, and ensure their activities remain accessible as climate impacts intensify. These insights directly shaped the design, tone, and accessibility of our climate and sport initiative. Young people co create the programme through design workshops, select activity themes, and lead micro projects as Youth Climate Champions. Their lived experience informs how we adapt sports sessions to be safe, culturally grounded, and climate resilient. Community groups continue to guide delivery through an active advisory group, ensuring the programme evolves with emerging needs and supports long term sustainability.
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 has strong potential to create meaningful, long‑term impact by raising climate awareness, shifting behaviours, and reducing environmental harm through the power of sport. Because young people already trust Billy Youth Engagement Project as a safe and familiar space, we can embed climate learning into activities they enjoy—making awareness accessible, relevant, and action‑focused rather than abstract or overwhelming. We expect to engage more than 250 young people in the first year through sport‑based climate sessions, peer‑led workshops, and community action projects. These activities build practical understanding of how climate change affects their health, local spaces, and opportunities to be active. Early pilots show that when climate learning is delivered through movement and teamwork, young people retain information more effectively and feel more confident taking action. We also anticipate supporting 10–15 local sport and activity groups to adopt low‑carbon practices, reduce waste, and adapt sessions to extreme heat, poor air quality, and flooding. This will directly reduce environmental impact while ensuring participation remains safe and inclusive. Simple changes—such as shade planning, hydration protocols, recycling systems, and greener equipment choices—can influence hundreds of participants each week. Long term, we envision a network of Youth Climate Champions leading micro‑projects that improve local green spaces, strengthen community resilience, and inspire peers to adopt climate‑positive behaviours. Our goal is to shift everyday habits, protect local play spaces, and empower underrepresented young people to shape a more sustainable future for their community.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
Our initiative stands out because it reimagines sport as a vehicle for climate leadership, not just physical activity. Instead of treating climate education and sport as separate worlds, we fuse them into a single, youth‑powered system that transforms how underrepresented communities understand, respond to, and prepare for climate change. Our innovation centres on three shifts. First, sport becomes a climate classroom: we embed climate learning into movement, teamwork, and play—turning warm‑ups into heat‑safety lessons, team drills into air‑quality awareness, and match‑day routines into low‑carbon behaviour practice. This makes climate knowledge felt, not just taught, and reaches young people who rarely engage with traditional environmental messaging. Second, young people lead the change. Through our Youth Climate Champions model, they design activities, lead peer sessions, and run micro‑projects that improve local spaces, shifting the norm from “youth as beneficiaries” to “youth as climate decision makers.” Third, we strengthen the sustainability of community sport providers. We support groups that have been delivering for at least two years to adopt low‑carbon operations, redesign sessions for extreme weather, and build long‑term resilience—creating structural change across the community sport ecosystem. By blending climate resilience, youth leadership, and community sport development, our initiative creates a new model where climate action becomes part of everyday life, not an add‑on, making our approach original, scalable, and capable of shifting behaviours across an entire community.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Our initiative is delivered through a clear, collaborative structure that ensures strong leadership, consistent quality, and meaningful youth and community involvement. Billy Youth Engagement Project Team Programme Lead – Oversees the full initiative, manages delivery timelines, coordinates partnerships, and ensures all activities align with climate resilient sport principles. Responsible for safeguarding, quality assurance, and monitoring progress against outcomes. Youth Engagement Coordinator – Works directly with young people to co design sessions, recruit and support Youth Climate Champions, and facilitate workshops. Ensures youth voice shapes decisions at every stage. Community Sport Development Officer – Supports local sport and activity groups to adopt low carbon practices, adapt sessions for climate resilience, and strengthen operational sustainability. Provides hands on guidance, training, and follow up support. Monitoring & Learning Lead – Tracks participation, behaviour change, and environmental impact. Collects feedback from young people and community groups, ensuring learning informs ongoing improvements. Community Partners Local Sport and Activity Providers – Co deliver sessions, pilot climate resilient practices, and provide real world settings for youth led micro projects. They help identify emerging needs and ensure the programme strengthens long term community provision. • Schools, Faith Groups, and Community Organisations – Support outreach, host workshops, and help engage underrepresented young people who may not access mainstream sport opportunities. Community Advisory Group – A group of young people and local leaders who guide programme direction, review progress, and ensure the initiative remains grounded in lived experience. Young People Youth Climate Champions – Lead peer activities, co design climate and sport sessions, and deliver micro projects that improve local spaces. Their leadership ensures the programme is youth driven, relevant, and impactful.
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?
We are building a model designed not just to work now, but to last. Our approach strengthens young people, stabilises community sport providers, and embeds climate‑resilient practice into everyday activity—creating long‑term impact beyond the life of this grant. Operational sustainability is built in from the start through practical tools, training, and low‑carbon delivery methods that local groups can adopt independently, reducing costs and increasing resilience to extreme weather. By supporting organisations already delivering for at least two years, we invest in providers with proven commitment and deep community roots, ensuring improvements in sustainability, safety, and climate awareness reach hundreds each week. We are also strengthening partnerships with schools, community groups, and local authorities to secure shared spaces, co‑deliver activities, and expand our reach without increasing overheads. Our Youth Climate Champions model creates a pipeline of young leaders who can sustain and grow the initiative from within the community. To scale, we will develop a replicable toolkit, expand coach training, and pilot the model in additional boroughs, building a network of climate‑aware, youth‑led sport hubs that transform how underrepresented communities engage with climate action and physical activity.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
Our initiative follows a structured set of milestones designed to ensure strong delivery, measurable outcomes, and a clear pathway for growth. Months 1–2: Foundation & Co Design Recruit Youth Climate Champions and engage local sport/activity providers. Run co design workshops with young people and community groups to refine session themes, climate learning activities, and micro project priorities. Deliver training for staff, volunteers, and partners on climate resilient sport practices. Milestone: Programme model finalised with youth and community input. Months 3–6: Programme Launch & Early Delivery Begin weekly sport based climate sessions for young people. Support 10–15 local sport providers to adopt low carbon practices and adapt sessions for extreme weather. Launch the first round of youth led micro projects focused on improving local green spaces and community sport environments. Milestone: First cohort of young people actively participating and leading climate action activities. Months 7–9: Deepening Impact & Community Engagement Expand delivery to additional groups and settings (schools, community centres, clubs). Host community climate and sport events to showcase youth leadership and engage families. Strengthen partnerships with local authorities and organisations to support long term sustainability. Milestone: Increased community participation and visible environmental improvements. Months 10–12: Evaluation, Learning & Scaling Preparation Collect data on participation, behaviour change, and environmental impact. Review progress with the Community Advisory Group and refine the model. Begin developing a replicable toolkit and training package for wider rollout. Milestone: Clear evidence of impact and a scalable model ready for expansion
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).
To fully participate in the 8 week capacity building programme and ensure we can implement the learning effectively, we would require support to cover essential costs that would otherwise limit our ability to take part. The following breakdown outlines the areas where funding would be needed: 1. Staff Time & Backfill Support – £4,000 To participate meaningfully, key team members will need protected time for workshops, mentoring, and implementation tasks. Funding would cover partial backfill for programme staff to ensure ongoing delivery to young people is not disrupted. 2. Travel & Local Transport – £1,000 If sessions or events require in person attendance, we would need support for travel within London for staff and youth representatives involved in the programme. 3. Specialist Training & Development Materials – £2,000 Additional resources may be required to adapt learning for our team and community partners, including training materials, digital tools, and facilitation resources that help embed new skills into our climate and sport model. 4. Community Engagement & Youth Participation Costs – £2,000 To ensure young people can participate in relevant elements of the programme, we would need support for refreshments, venue access, and small participation costs that remove barriers for underrepresented groups. 5. Monitoring, Learning & Implementation Support – £1,000 Funding would help us integrate new frameworks, evaluation tools, and sustainability practices gained through the programme into our ongoing delivery.
If you selected “Other”, please specify below.
We selected “Other” because our work sits at the intersection of wellbeing in Changemaking, Building a System Change Strategy, Collaboration for System Change, Impact Storytelling, Innovation and Scalability, Knowledge Sharing and Local Collaboration, Sustainability in Ecosystem Building, Community co-design and participatory planning, and Equity in access to green and recreational spaces. Our initiative does not fit neatly into a single category, as it blends environmental education, youth leadership, community sport development, behavior change, and capacity building for grassroots sport providers in a way that is unique to our model.
