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
Generation Alpha Ealing Cyclists
Lead Organization Name
Ealing Council
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
1965
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://www.instagram.com/ealingcouncil/
Initiative Stage
Growth (You’ve moved past the very first activities; working towards the next level of expansion.)
Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Environment & Sustainability
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
To create a new wave of ‘Generation Alpha young cyclists’ via three Ealing high schools. This is based on local learning and capacity creation from the ‘Let’s Ride Southall’ and ‘Sport England Place Partnership’ work and changed system-working model.
Challenge Focus: What topic does your initiative most directly relate to?
Enabling climate-resilient participation
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?
We are very conscious of our current situation here in Ealing. It is ranked as the 45th most deprived local authority districts (out of 296) in 2025. The data suggests that children in Ealing may have a slightly lower level of activity than the London average. At the same time, air pollution levels in Ealing are lower than the London average but higher than the England average, whilst at the same time Ealing has the 10th lowest rate of sports facilities per 10,000 people out of the 309 local authority districts compared. Our initiative addresses two key challenges within our current constraints: improving young people’s health and wellbeing, and creating more sustainable, low‑carbon, travel options that support progress toward net zero. The primary beneficiaries are 11 to 14 year‑olds who currently face financial, cultural and environmental barriers to cycling, while the wider community gains from cleaner air, reduced car use, and stronger social cohesion. We are closely connected to the communities impacted, having previously worked closely with a number of schools across the borough as part of our innovative Urban Hack programme. We also delivered the Southall free‑bike scheme first‑hand, built around trusted local partnerships and witnessed its transformative effects. We would seek to replicate this success in our other towns within the borough.
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?
We are proposing to both increase participation in active transport and tackle future air pollution by providing young people with free bikes, practical training, and ongoing support that make active travel a realistic and sustainable part of their daily lives. By embedding cycling and basic maintenance skills deeply within three high schools (a different school per academic term) and drawing directly on lessons from the Southall free‑bike scheme, we will use the power of sport and physical activity to shift behaviour away from car dependency and towards long‑term, low‑carbon travel habits. Our approach ensures that our young people are empowered to become cycling champions so they can fix bikes, raise awareness, and grow a cycling community which encourages young people to take part in an active way of travel which also helps tackle the climate crisis. In relation to improving young people’s health and wellbeing, our analysis from the Let’s Ride Southall initiative found that free bikes significantly improved recipients’ quality of life. Wellbeing benefits accounted for 80% of the overall value of the schemes. Because the recipients were often from disadvantaged backgrounds, the bikes were truly life‑changing and led to improved mental health and greater life satisfaction. Our “a-ha” moment was realising that we had a successful, life changing, initiative, which we are now looking to expand upon and propagate further. More about the Let's Ride Southall initiative which we have taken the findings from, can be found here: https://www.local.gov.uk/case-studies/london-borough-ealing-lets-ride-southall-project
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?
Our initiative engages young people and the community by working directly with local schools to co‑create the programme with those closest to the problem. Our proposal is to work with a different school each academic term which provides us with the time and care needed to truly embed a cycling culture with its students. We will work with either Let’s Go Southall or a procured supplier to co-design the training programme with our schools and young people to best understand their needs and challenges to cycling and then run a series of workshops in which students become trained bike-maintenance experts. We will also work with schools and potential partners to source out bikes which we can give to the students for free, either at a free-bike handout or for those that have completed the training programme. Students will not just passively participate; they will become active contributors to the solution. Through hands‑on training in bike repair and maintenance, young people will develop the skills to become their school’s own bike‑maintenance experts, supporting peers, keeping bikes in circulation, and building long‑term confidence and ownership. This mirrors the successful community‑led model established in Southall, where trusted partnerships, local leadership and practical skill‑building formed the backbone of behaviour change. Ealing Council is further developing its model to empower residents in more and better ways of working alongside young people. By empowering young people to lead, maintain and promote active travel within their school communities, we ensure the initiative is rooted in local insight, shaped by those who benefit most, and sustained by the community and our bike-maintenance experts themselves.
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 will raise climate awareness and shift behaviours by making cycling a practical, attractive and long‑term alternative to car travel for young people. The success of the Ealing School Streets scheme comes from Ealing’s Healthy Streets priority that seeks to reduce pollution and increase physical activity rates by providing safe, convenient alternatives to short car journeys. Ealing School Streets have so far seen a reduction in school-related car use of up to 18% and an increase in active travel (walking, scooting, cycling) to school of up to 29%. This highlights that now is the right time to continue to expand on the success of Let’s Ride Southall and expand our free-bikes schemes into our schools. Analysis from the Let’s Ride Southall initiative identifies that one of the biggest barriers to cycling is the cost of the bike. By providing free bikes and equipping students with cycling skills and training them to become in‑school bike‑maintenance experts, we remove the financial and practical barriers that often prevent young people from choosing active, low‑carbon travel. This not only reduces emissions but also increases access to school, green spaces, extracurricular activities and community facilities, places that are often harder or more expensive to reach without a car. The model builds a culture of sustainable travel from within the school community itself, with students helping to repair and maintain bikes, making it easier for their peers to continue cycling confidently and safely. Let’s Ride Southall has continued to see people from the programme ride their bikes across Southall, and it is believed that young people in schools will achieve the same, if not greater, continued uptake in bike usage.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
Despite the success of free-bikes schemes, they tend to be infrequent pilot initiatives which have promise but less follow-up. But while many existing schemes focus on providing bikes or offering discounted access, the innovation of our scheme goes further: we give young people not only a bike but the technical skills, confidence and responsibility to keep bikes roadworthy for themselves and others. By working closely with our partner organisations, schools, our strong existing community groups, and with the young people themselves, we can best create a model that achieves our stated goals. Our innovative Urban Hack programme proved that young people want to be more involved with decisions about how improvements could be made to their local area and wanted to take a more active role in their communities, but they did not know or feel empowered to do so. It is about empowering our young people to be champions in their community across three different schools over the course of the academic year, to best maximise the chances of continued sustainability of cycling moving forwards. We are best placed to act as a facilitator with our internal services and existing networks to ensure that young people are given both the freedom and strong support to create this cycling network themselves. The further innovation comes from the continuation of the success of the Let’s Ride Southall scheme. Free‑bike schemes, including those evaluated in our own research during the wider Southall bike programme, have already shown substantial social, health and environmental benefits. Given the success of our free-bike programme in Let’s Go Southall, it makes sense to continue the lessons learned from the programme in our schools to ensure young people can continue to cycle and ride.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Delivery Manager (Project Lead & Oversight) - Acts as the overall project manager, responsible for end‑to‑end delivery. - Oversees planning, timelines, risks, governance, and reporting. - Coordinates across internal teams (Education, Procurement, Sustainability, Active Travel) and external partners. - Ensures the project aligns with organisational priorities such as climate action, health improvement, and youth engagement. - Leads stakeholder management, including elected members and senior leadership. Education Team (School Engagement & Programme Coordination) - Identifies and recruits participating schools in Northolt or Acton. - Builds and maintains relationships with senior leadership teams, pastoral leads, and faculty within each school. - Supports scheduling of workshops, assemblies, and training sessions. - Works closely with school staff to identify students who will participate in free bike allocation, cycling confidence sessions, bike‑maintenance training (to become in‑school bike-maintenance experts). - Champions the initiative inside the education system to ensure long‑term integration. Delivery Partner (Bike Provision & Technical Training) (either Let's Go Southall or a procured organisation) - Provides free bikes for participating young people in each school. - Delivers cycle‑training sessions, tailored to students’ ability levels. - Runs hands‑on bike‑maintenance workshops, equipping students with practical repair skills. - Supports the creation of a small, school‑based team of student bike‑maintenance champions who can repair peers’ bikes, helping sustain active travel. - Advises on tools, equipment, safety standards and workshop setup where needed. Participating Schools (On‑the‑Ground Delivery & Student Support) - Host training sessions, maintenance workshops and follow‑up activities. - Provide staff support to identify suitable students, manage logistics, and ensure safeguarding. - Support student repair champions to maintain bikes during the school year. - Integrate active travel messaging into assemblies, tutor time or PSHE where appropriate. Students (Participants & Peer Leaders) - Receive free bikes and participate in cycling skills training. - Join maintenance workshops and become in‑school cycle‑maintenance champions. - Support classmates, family members and community members by helping repair and maintain bikes. - Promote active travel and climate‑positive behaviours within their school community.
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 setting our organisation up for success by building on the proven Let’s Ride Southall model, which showed transformational impact and delivered £12.60 in benefits for every £1 invested. Using this evidence base, we are adapting the approach for young people in Northolt or Acton to ensure strong delivery and long‑term impact. Sustainability is built in by training students as bike‑maintenance champions, giving them life skills to repair their own bikes and support peers, keeping bikes on the road and active travel thriving. Working closely with schools embeds the programme into daily life, creates reliable pathways for engagement, and reduces ongoing costs. As the model proves itself in three schools, it can scale across the borough; expanding training, increasing youth leadership, and building a network of young climate‑positive cycling ambassadors who sustain the impact far beyond initial funding. We would also document our findings in a variety of media; booklets, videos, and other ways of sharing information. This is to achieve both promotion and knowledge sharing of our programme and its impact, but also to grow a cycling movement amongst young people within the borough. This media and content would be shared with Ealing's schools and will be made available for Go London's usage.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
More will be determined during the capacity-building participation process but the following initial milestones helpfully create a starting point: - Summer 2026: Procurement/sourcing of a supplier to be our Delivery Partner as part of the scheme. - Summer 2026: Work with potential supplier to source bikes to be donated. - Summer 2026: Confirm first one, two or all of the schools to be taking part in this scheme. - Autumn Term 2026: Completion of first bike-maintenance programme with our first school in one of our towns. - Spring Term 2026: Completion of second bike-maintenance programme with our second school in another one of our towns. - Summer Term 2026: Completion of third bike-maintenance programme with our second school in another one of our towns. Other considerations such as bike shelters within schools and other events with our schools and a Cycling Champions programme are to be considered if possible. This will be considered further during the capacity-building process.
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).
We would seek up to £10,000 in grant funding so that we would be able to work more closely with community groups and partner organisations so that we can best define the issues facing our students wishing to get more into cycling. This would allow us to properly formulate our discovery of the project from which we can build a robust project plan during the capacity-building. Should we not be permitted this grant funding, we would seek to complete this discovery and capacity-work as best as we can using very limited council resources.
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