My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
Yes
I am 18 years of age or above, by the application deadline.
Yes
My organisation is a registered UK entity and has a London-based address.
Yes
My organisation is a non-profit (e.g. school, university, or local authority) — not a for-profit, which can only join as a partner.
Yes
If there is a for-profit organisation as a partner in my initiative, they work on a cost-recovery basis only.
Yes
My solution is implemented at scale, or if not, I have a clear business plan, a minimum viable solution (prototype, pilot, or proof of concept), evidence of access to a lease for the space you are leveraging, and evidence of work or impact in London within your coalition.
Yes
I am aware that, if I am submitting more than one application to a Challenge run by Ashoka and Go! London, only one of them is able to progress through the stages.
Yes
Are you an employee (and their children and grandchildren) of Ashoka or any of its respective affiliates and participating advertising and promotion agencies?
No
I have read and accepted the Challenge Terms & Conditions.
Yes
First Name
Michael
Last Name
Wood
Pronouns
He/Him
I would like to receive notifications and updates about Go London!, Ashoka, Ashoka Changemakers, and other Ashoka opportunities.
1
Are you an Ashoka Fellow?
No
Are you applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow?
No
If you are applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow, please specify the name and organisation of the fellow below.
Lead Organisation Name
Wandsworth Borough Council
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
1965
Initiative Title
George Shearing Active Inclusion Hub
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk , https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/wandsworth-borough-council , https://www.instagram.com/wandsworth_council/ , http://www.facebook.com/wandsworth.council , https://twitter.com/wandbc
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?
Children & Youth
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
We will reimagine a neglected and underutilised council owned building into an Active Inclusion Hub that will be designed, led and managed by young people with a disability, providing inclusive sports and play, life skills, and support for disabled young people and their families.
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?
There are over 3000 children and young people who are on the disability childrens register in Wandsworth and they encounter a complex range of societal and personal barriers that impedes their participation in physical activity, social engagement, and skill development. Many public and community sport, leisure and physical activity spaces in Wandsworth remain inappropriate and inaccessible to the needs of the disability community. This exclusion is compounded by environments that are not designed with disability, neurodiversity or sensory processing needs in mind, resulting in a lack of truly inclusive spaces for sport and play. There is a lack of representation in the borough in leadership positions with the expertise and lived experience to create genuinely inclusive, responsive programming. Generic provision often fails to address the particular needs, aspirations, and cultural barriers experienced by young people with a disability, leading to disengagement and underrepresentation in activities. We have also identified a lack of specialist, lived-experience-led coaching. Young people with a disability in Wandsworth are at increased risk of social isolation, reduced physical activity, heightened anxiety, and limited opportunities for the development of life skills and independence. This project is committed to providing a safe, welcoming and inclusive space in the borough that is led by people with a disability. This will ensure we can take a proactive approach to providing purpose built facilities, spaces and services that improve the physical, mental and social wellbeing of children and young people with a disability in Wandsworth. I want to put the future and ownership of the facility into their hands so they can make it into whatever they want and need it to be.
Your approach: How are you/ will you addressing the problem outlined above? How does your solution unlock or reimagine access to spaces for sport and physical activity? What role do landowners, local authorities, or other decision-making stakeholders play in your approach? We'd love to know about the origin of your idea, and what was your "aha" moment" that led you to take action?
We propose a partnership with the George Shearing Centre, upgrading it from a dated, not fit for purpose community centre, into a co produced Active Inclusion Hub, prioritising young people with a disability in the design of the environment, programmes, and governance. The centre will be refurbished to become Wandsworth’s first disabled designed, disabled led sport and wellbeing hub, shifting power to those historically excluded, by transforming an unsuitable building into an accessible, sensory adapted, disability designed wellbeing hub. The space will be designed to provide physical activity programmes, sensory integrated movement and play opportunities, life skills programmes to support independent living, respite spaces to support mental wellbeing, sustainable garden to promote healthier living and a café to enable social bonding and bridging. Wandsworth Council will provide the building via an agreed SLA, enabling the community and partners to lead service delivery; while remaining a partner in compliance, maintenance standards, and strategic alignment. Partner Agencies will use space for disability specific services, inclusive coaching clinics, and community development. The “aha moment” emerged from recognising that current leisure and youth spaces in Wandsworth do not meet the sensory, emotional, cultural, or physical needs of disabled young people, and that disabled residents themselves hold the expertise to fix this. If disabled people designed and governed the space, the barriers would finally come down and a space that had previously been undervalued and underused will be unlocked into a vibrant, inclusive hub of activity that meets the needs of the community. This shift from passive care recipients to active creators became the foundation of the 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 is built with children and young people with a disability and their families, placing those closest to the problem at the heart of shaping, delivering and governing the solution. Young people are actively involved from the outset through Youth Design Sprints and Accessibility Hackathons, where they assess the George Shearing Centre, identify barriers, and co-design accessible and sensory adapted spaces based on lived experience. Their insights directly inform how the building is retrofitted and how activities are delivered. Young people also co-create the programmes and offer within the Hub, shaping adapted activity programmes, sensory integrated movement sessions and social spaces so provision reflects what genuinely works for them. Through a Leadership Committee Programme, young people gain experiences and qualifications in sports leadership, independent living and facility management, enabling them to move from participants to leaders and role models. Power and ownership is shared through disabled-led governance, with a management committee made up of at least 51% with lived experience of disability, we have now recruited 12 committee members (75%). Independent Living Training will provide mentoring to members of the committee as well as additional training to all young people, learning important skills for independent living and future employment. This ensures young people and families influence strategic decisions, priorities and long term sustainability. Families and carers are embedded through surveys, coffee mornings and co-design sessions, shaping respite, peer support and family services around real community needs. Schools, SEND settings and local partners support referrals, co-develop programmes and use the Hub as a shared community asset.
Potential for/Evidence of Impact: How do you imagine your initiative will make a difference in unlocking spaces for and access to physical activity and sport so far? If you have already implemented it, what difference have you made so far? What is the impact your initiative has had , and or what impact do you envision having in the future?
The Active Inclusion Hub will unlock access by transforming the centre into Wandsworth’s first disabled led, disability designed sport and wellbeing hub. In the short term, the project will retrofit the building into an accessible, sensory adapted environment co designed with disabled young people. We have already engaged over 200 young people in this process (full report available). Additionally, with the formation and initial meetings of our disability led management committee we have already discovered the power and impact their voices and experiences can bring to lead this project and represent the views of their peers. A mobile to hub delivery phase enables early engagement, testing and evidence gathering, allowing impact to begin before full capital works are complete and accelerating speed of delivery. Once operational, the Hub is expected to: Engage 300+ disabled children and young people each year in adapted sport, movement and play. Support 100+ families annually through respite, peer support and community connection. Enable 50+ young people to gain sports leadership and life skills qualifications. Impact will be evidenced through attendance data, progression tracking, qualifications achieved and family feedback, demonstrating both scale and depth over time. At an individual level, participation will increase physical activity, improve emotional regulation and reduce anxiety through sensory integrated movement. Social connection, confidence and independence will grow as young people move from participants to leaders. Families benefit from reduced isolation and stronger peer networks. By empowering local people with disabilities to lead and impact theirs and their peers futures, it will improve their long-term engagement and ownership for sustainable impact.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
The Active Inclusion Hub is innovative because it does not adapt mainstream PA/Play spaces to fit disabled people, it redesigns the system itself, putting young people in control of space, power and decision making. Unlike most “inclusive” provision, which is often added onto existing leisure centres or delivered as short term programmes, this project reimagines a physical asset from the ground up. The George Shearing Centre becomes Wandsworth’s first disabled designed and disabled led sport and wellbeing hub, where accessibility, sensory design and emotional safety are embedded from the start. The initiative is structurally innovative in how it shifts power. Governance sits with a management committee that is at 75% people with lived experience of disability, moving from service users to decision makers. This challenges traditional top down delivery models and creates long term accountability to the community most affected by exclusion. Our approach applies co production in new ways. Through Youth Design Sprints and Accessibility Hackathons, disabled young people directly assess the building, redesign spaces and shape programmes. The Hub operates as a “living lab” for inclusive design, generating learning that can be replicated across other council assets. The project tackles the root causes of inactivity levels of children and young people with a disability; inaccessible spaces, unsuitable environments and lack of representation, rather than simply increasing activity sessions. By combining imaginative reuse of space, disability led governance and leadership pathways for young people, the Hub shifts standard models around who physical activity spaces are for, and who gets to lead them. There is currently no other example of this model existing.
Viability and Scalability: How are you setting your initiative up for success, and what is your plan to ensure operational sustainability of your solution and its impact? What are your ideas for scaling your initiative to the next level?
The Active Inclusion Hub is designed for long term sustainability by combining strong governance, diversified income and phased delivery. Operationally, the Hub will be managed through a disability led management committee who, along with partners, are supported by clearly defined roles covering safeguarding, facilities, finance and delivery. This ensures regulatory compliance, strong financial oversight and consistent service quality, while keeping accountability rooted in lived experience. Financial viability is built on a mixed income model. A peppercorn, full repairing and insuring SLA with Wandsworth Council allows maximum reinvestment into services, while revenue is generated through a combination of grant funding, commissioned services, partnerships with local agencies, and room hire for aligned activity. The project is delivered in phases to reduce risk. A mobile to hub approach allows early delivery, learning and evidence gathering before full capital works are complete, ensuring demand is proven and programmes are refined prior to scale up. The Hub is designed as a replicable model rather than a one off facility. Learning from co design, delivery and evaluation will be captured, enabling the approach to be applied to other underused council assets across Wandsworth and beyond. Future growth opportunities include developing partnerships with local disability service providers, commissioned delivery through health and social care, social prescribing partnerships, and expansion of leadership pathways for young people with a disability. By combining community ownership, diversified funding and a test and learn approach, the Active Inclusion Hub is positioned to sustain impact locally while scaling influence borough wide and beyond.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
The disability led management committee provides governance, strategic direction and accountability, ensuring the hub remains shaped by lived experience. Impact is shown through lived experience representation in decision making and delivery aligned to community priorities. We want the facility to be led by expertise through lived experience. We have recruited 12 people with a disability to the committee that accounts for 75% of its members. They will undertake roles that will require learning and skills in representing their views, organising/running meetings, budgeting, programming services, administration, facility management, IT, marketing/promotion, peer engagement and a host of others to build life and employability skills for their futures. Other Committee Members/ Stakeholders - Other roles on the committee filled by partner organisations will not only provide additional expertise but also mentoring support and training to the members of the committee, activities to the users of the centre and access to a network of wider support services. Through their involvement on the committee as supporting partners they have demonstrated a commitment to not only the other committee members and current users of the centre and their services, but also to building a a cross sector ecosystem designed to address structural barriers through a coordinated, cohesive and collaborative approach. Wandsworth Council Childrens Services provides the George Shearing Centre and strategic oversight, ensuring safeguarding, compliance and alignment with the SEND Local Offer and Wandsworth Moves Together. Ruils is a user-led charity supporting disabled children and adults and people with long term health and mental health conditions to live independently, be part of their community and to live life to the full. They will provide training on committee roles and skills, independent living learning, training and activities, information and advice on wider supporting services, advocacy, and befriending . Generate have worked alongside people with a Learning Disability and Neurodivergent people to break down the barriers to meaningful community involvement for over 50 years. They will provide youth services through a club network they will deliver 4 sessions per week in the centre. This will also include support to campaign for positive change. accessing employment, becoming changemakers in their community, building friendships, keeping active, accessing healthcare, and being part of the community. Disability Sports Coach delivers inclusive coaching and workforce development. They provide high-quality, person-centred sporting experiences for people of all ages with Learning Disabilities, Autism and complex disabilities. Through their CIMSPA-accredited courses, they lead the way in educating individuals and organisations with the skills, expertise and confidence to deliver inclusive sport for all. They will deliver sports leadership programmes and awards to young people from the centre to increase the workforce with lived experience. Their contribution increases participation and local coaching capacity, measured through session attendance, repeat engagement and coaches supported. Baked Bean Charity provide outstanding services for people with learning disabilities, empowering people through creative, educational, and community-focused programs. They will provide projects and groups based around theatre, drama and the arts to promote social inclusion, greater independence, build confidence and gain new skills, helping to integrate into society. They will also support the creative engagement and collaboration with local communities through workshops, performances, and films to challenge stereotypes and promote inclusion. Other Partner organisations AFC Wimbledon Foundation delivers inclusive sport sessions and community engagement, increasing physical activity and progression into regular participation. Fulham FC Foundation provides inclusive coaching expertise and mentoring, improving delivery quality. Enable Leisure & Culture supports inclusive physical activity delivery and access expertise. Places Leisure Inclusive Activity Coordinators will provide delivery of specialist health and wellbeing services, supporting increased activity, wellbeing and social connection. The Accessibility & Inclusion Working Group brings together council officers and delivery partners to coordinate services and reduce barriers.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
The Active Inclusion Hub will be delivered through a phased, test and learn approach that builds momentum early, reduces risk and ensures outcomes are achieved and sustained. Phase 1: Set up and Co Design (Months 1–3) The project begins with establishing governance and delivery foundations. A disabled led management committee has been initiated with 12 people with a disability recruited, supported by 4 other main partner organisations, providing a 75% representation on the committee. They have begun to explore the options in formalising their roles, and developing their theory of change to shape their aim and objectives. Delivery partners have been confirmed, and safeguarding and operational processes are currently being drafted. Young people and families have taken part in co design activity, including youth design sessions and accessibility reviews, to shape the physical space, programme offer and priorities. We have delivered 24 sessions and workshops to over 200 young disabled people and their families. This ensures the Hub is designed around real needs from the outset. Phase 2: Early Delivery – Mobile to Hub (Months 3–6) While capital improvements are progressed, partners begin delivering adapted sport, movement and play sessions through a mobile and pop up model. This allows early engagement with children, young people and families, tests programme formats, and builds an evidence base of demand and impact. Learning from this phase directly informs final space design and delivery models. Phase 3: Hub Launch and Full Delivery (Months 6–12) Following accessibility upgrades, the George Shearing Centre opens as a fully operational Active Inclusion Hub. Regular weekly sessions are delivered by specialist partners, alongside leadership pathways, respite opportunities and family support. Referral pathways with schools, SEND services and community partners are embedded, increasing reach and consistency. Phase 4: Review, Embed and Scale (Year 2 onwards) Impact data, participation levels and user feedback are reviewed to refine delivery and strengthen sustainability. Learning from co design and delivery is captured in an Inclusive Play Toolkit, enabling replication across other Wandsworth sites. Partnerships with health, education and voluntary sector organisations are strengthened to support long term growth and commissioning opportunities. Together, these activities and milestones provide a clear, realistic pathway to achieving improved access, increased participation, stronger wellbeing outcomes and lasting systemic change for residents with a disability in Wandsworth.
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.
Participation in the 8 week capacity building programme would be extremely valuable for the development of the Active Inclusion Hub. As the project is led by a newly established Hub management committee, staff time and associated costs for creating, training and mentoring members will be necessary. If eligible, we would request support to cover the following: Staff Costs (£4,000–£4,500) Covering staff time for partner organisations to support creating, training and mentoring members. Deliver/attend weekly workshops, 1:1 sessions and create appropriate governance documentation. Specialist SEND and Inclusion Support (£1,500–£2,000) Contribution towards specialist input to strengthen the project’s theory of change, impact framework and inclusive design approach, ensuring learning from the programme is embedded into a robust delivery model. Community and Youth Engagement Costs (£2,000–£2,500) Costs associated with running accessible co design sessions with disabled young people and families during the capacity building phase, including accessibility building design, materials and participation support. Operational and Participation Costs (£500–£1,000) Essential costs linked to participation in the programme, including travel to in person sessions, materials, safeguarding checks and administration required to implement learning. Total estimated support requested: £8,000–£10,000. This support would enable full and meaningful participation in the capacity building programme, strengthen the project’s sustainability, and ensure that learning directly benefits children and young people and families in Wandsworth.
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?
The George Shearing Active Inclusion Hub is being intentionally redesigned from a delivery model to a systems intervention that redistributes power to young people with lived experience. We are moving beyond consultation towards genuine co-creation by embedding young people in governance, design and delivery. A disabled led governance structure (minimum 51% lived experience representation but currently at 75%) will hold decision making authority, ensuring priorities, investment and programming reflect real needs. Young people with lived experience of disability are leading the redesign of the George Shearing Centre, identifying systemic barriers across environment, services, and access, and co-creating solutions that respond directly to these challenges. We have recruited 12 young people who are forming the management committee, supported by our project partners, they will be the leaders, role models and decision makers for the changes to the centre in creating an active inclusion hub, that will focus on the health and wellbeing of the young people who visit the hub. Through a Young Leaders pathway, participants will be mentored through qualifications, learning and experiences, they will shape space design, influence service models, and lead engagement with peers. This will shift power and align with deeper levels of impact, moving from participation to structural change. This transition requires a cultural shift within our team, from leading programmes to enabling young people into positions of power, creating a sustainable pipeline of system changemakers who will impact everyone who uses the hub.
What partnerships and collaborations are most critical to delivering and sustaining your initiative and how are you building/ plan to build them?
Our project operates as a coordinated and cohesive system response, recognising that structural barriers cannot be addressed by a single organisation. We are building a cross-sector consortium including Wandsworth Council, Generate, Ruils, Baked Bean Charity, Disability Sports Coach and SEND networks, who will contribute complementary roles across policy, delivery, engagement, and workforce development. This partnership functions as a system rather than a set of organisations, aligned around a shared systems change goal: transforming how inclusive physical activity spaces are designed, governed, and accessed by people with a disability. Each partner contributes distinct expertise that will support young people to become leaders and decision makers in their community, aligned through a shared vision and outcomes framework developed by the management committee. Through the capacity-building programme, we have strengthened collaboration using stakeholder mapping and the 5 levels of engagement, ensuring partners move beyond consultation towards co-creation and shared ownership. Young people and families are central actors within this system, not recipients. This approach strengthens reach, legitimacy and sustainability, while enabling coordinated change across environments, behaviours and relationships rather than isolated programme delivery.
What are you measuring, how are you measuring it, and what does the data tell you so far (quantitative and qualitative)?
Through the capacity building process, we have reframed this initiative from a facility-based project to a systems change intervention targeting key leverage points. Firstly, power: decision making is being redistributed to young people with lived experience. Secondly, relationships: we are building a connected ecosystem across public, voluntary and community sectors, replacing fragmented delivery with coordinated action. Thirdly, norms: we are shifting expectations so that inclusive design and co-production become standard practice rather than exception. By working across these interconnected levels, we address root causes of exclusion rather than symptoms. This aligns with the ‘iceberg model’ explored in the programme, targeting underlying structures and mindsets as well as visible participation barriers, enabling lasting and scalable impact beyond the hub itself. We have delivered 24 different sessions and workshops to gather opinions, guidance and suggestions for the Active Inclusion Hub. We gathered feedback from approx 200 people with lived experience. We are measuring participation, leadership progression, behaviour change, and environmental transformation, while also capturing shifts in confidence, independence, and social connectedness. Data is collected through attendance tracking, structured feedback, co-design workshops, and ongoing input from the youth-led governance group. We are also using qualitative methods (experience interviews, workshop insights) to understand how and why change is happening, not just whether it is. Early learning already demonstrates unmet demand for inclusive, sensory-friendly and flexible spaces, and highlights how lived experience insight reshapes priorities and delivery models.
Long-term impact: what lasting systems change are you seeking to create and how will you know when it has happened?
Our long-term ambition is to initiate a shift in how community spaces are designed, governed, and accessed across Wandsworth and beyond. We are working to change system conditions by embedding co-production, redistributing decision making power, and creating sustainable pathways for participation and leadership among disabled young people. Success will be demonstrated through sustained user led governance, replication of the model across other sites, and adoption of inclusive design and co production practices. The project aims to leave behind enduring system assets, an accessible physical space, a network of trained and empowered leaders, strengthened partnerships, and a validated model that can influence policy and practice. This reflects a systems change where shifts in relationships, power, norms, and behaviours continue beyond the life of the initial intervention. We are developing a mixed method evaluation framework that reflects both systems change and participant outcomes. We will continuously test, learn and adapt, embedding reflection loops with young people, partners and staff. We will also track wider system indicators such as changes in partner practice, increased accessibility of local provision and demand for inclusive environments. Learning will be actively shared across the Go! London network, contributing to a wider movement for inclusive sport and ensuring the model can be replicated and scaled.
Is there anything else you'd like to share with us that you were not able to share in previous questions?
We ran workshop sessions from 21st April - 29th May. These provided the space for our young people to have the opportunity to share what they like about the building and, in an ideal scenario, how the building would develop. We used these discussions to advertise the newly formed George Shearing committee showing how these conversations may look and encourage people to come forward to be a part of this. These sessions allowed a diverse pool of young people with lived experience that use the building to feedback about what they like about the space and areas of improvement. The sessions were delivered in a person centred way to ensure all students could give feedback meaningfully - this included visual aids, and green/ red vote cards so all students can share their opinions for each point raised, posing in depth and insightful conversations and a flair of creativity. The key points discussed by participants are outlined below: ● Accessibility and ease of movement ● Calm and sensory-friendly environments ● Comfortable and inclusive furniture ● Creative and social spaces ● Improved outdoor facilities ● Better organisation and storage ● Clear signage and navigation ● Improved toilet and kitchen facilities ● Opportunities for relaxation, recreation, and physical activity Overall, participants described an ideal George Shearing space as one that is inclusive, calming, creative, accessible, and enjoyable to use. Participants want environments that support both wellbeing and independence while also encouraging creativity, social interaction, recreation, and learning. These suggestions provide valuable insight into how the environment could be developed to better meet the needs, interests, and wellbeing of participants. One of our groups shared their ideas in the form of a poem: Our dream George Shearing would be, More space for us to feel free. In the kitchen we can cook and bake, An art room for creations to make. Toilets more squeaky clean and basins fresh, Security around the building with safety mesh. Bright colours and posters on the walls, Theatre stage for magic in the halls. A sound system with bass and a disco light, Enjoy the events to dance all night!
