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
Eartha
Last Name
Pond
Pronouns
She/Her
Email address
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
ESP Foundation
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2020
Initiative Title
Girls Allowed
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
@ESP_FDN
Initiative Stage
Scaling (You’re expanding impact to many new places or in many new ways)
Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Children & Youth
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
Girls Allowed - EndZones will create active play streets that will empower young girls across London's underserved communities. Transforming underused spaces into vibrant, safe hubs for active, culturally competent play. Championing Clean Air zones and directly tackling childhood obesity, reduced life expectancy and violence through collaborative community engagement and expanded sports access.
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?
Queens Park sits in the top percentile of UK poverty, facing a 12-year life expectancy gap and high childhood obesity. Serious violence often overshadows the right to play; our consultations with Queens Park Primary and Avenues Youth Project reveal a desperate desire for safe, active spaces. Nationally, 1M+ girls drop out of sport by their teens, being twice as likely as boys to miss activity targets due to body image and lack of female role models. Crucially, girls identified physiological barriers, breast bounce and menstrual preparation as confidence killers. We address this directly through education and culturally appropriate apparel. Beyond health, the reality of fatalities in Queens Park underscores the urgent need for safe havens from violence against women and girls (VAWG). Our "Girls Allowed" blueprint creates secure, supervised hubs that build kinship and lifelong movement habits. As chair of Westminster’s Serious Violence Taskforce, we know safe play is a community priority. With a high global majority population, our approach is culturally competent; we employ trauma-informed coaches with lived experience to break stigmas, particularly within Muslim communities where female sports participation may be less traditional. We are deeply rooted in West London through programs like Mums Allowed and "Being Poor is Expensive." By employing residents who reflect London’s diversity, we ensure our ambassadors are trusted figures. Our established partnerships with schools, faith groups and political figures across Westminster, Brent, and RBKC uniquely position us to transform these challenges into sustainable opportunities for young girls to thrive without fear.
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?
Our approach reimagines access by transforming public streets into safe, inclusive hubs for active play. The "aha" moment came from our Young Ambassadors; when our indoor facility reached capacity, they refused to exclude anyone, suggesting we "take it outside." This led to a youth-led consultation where bike riding emerged as a top priority, prompting us to unlock street space for learning with partners like Bikeability. By creatively transforming underused roads into "Play Streets," we remove the structural barriers of limited, unaffordable or intimidating indoor spaces. Collaboration is central to our model. We work closely with Westminster Council’s Highways team to authorise street closures and notify residents, while Ward Councillors and Police Ward Officers volunteer to build community cohesion and trust. Our partnership with Everyone Active is a game-changer: they provide pro-bono equipment and schedule female-only staff and instructors to ensure a culturally safe environment. This "fully female" space is vital for engaging girls from the Muslim community and others who face cultural barriers to traditional sports, including body confidence. These connections do more than just unlock space; they create a pathway. By signposting participants to regular low-cost/free sessions at Everyone Active facilities, we bridge the gap between temporary street play and long-term physical activity. Our solution is rooted in lived experience, co-designed with young people and supported by key decision-makers to ensure that every girl participant has a safe, welcoming and relevant place to play. This model of shared resources and collective action turns systemic restrictions into community-led opportunities for belonging and resilience.
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 moves beyond consultation to true youth-led governance. While the "aha" moment of taking play to the streets was sparked by our Young Ambassadors to prevent exclusion, their ongoing role is as architects of the program’s evolution. They curated a specific curriculum of new-age and traditional play, including pickleball, 4-square and hopscotch to ensure the street environment felt distinct from the high-pressure atmosphere of school PE. By partnering with organisations such as Cycle Confidence, they will transform the pavements into learning zones, proving that young people can redefine urban infrastructure when given the mandate. Community members are the heartbeat of our delivery through a model of community guardianship. Local residents, alongside Ward Councillors and Police Ward Officers, don’t just supervise; they participate, breaking down the "us vs. them" dynamic in high-poverty areas. This kinship is vital for families who previously viewed the streets as zones of risk. By seeing neighbours and local officers engaged in active play, parents feel a renewed sense of trust in these reimagined spaces. Impact is further deepened through our Young Ambassador pathway, where older girl’s mentor younger peers. This peer-to-peer model addresses the fall-out rate by providing relatable role models who have navigated the same cultural and physiological barriers. By employing trauma-informed coaches with lived experience, we ensure every session builds emotional resilience alongside physical activity. This collaborative ecosystem where youth design the play, residents guard the space and mentors inspire the next generation, ensures our initiative is a living part of the community’s social fabric, unlocking spaces that truly serve young people.
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?
Our Girls Allowed blueprint has demonstrated a credible path to deep-rooted change, engaging over 1,000 girls in a single summer and attracting participants from 20+ London boroughs. By winning the Change4Life Active Westminster Award, we’ve proven our ability to deliver high-quality, culturally responsive physical activity. Our impact is measured not just in numbers, but in the removal of structural barriers; we’ve successfully engaged girls from underserved groups who previously felt excluded from traditional sports. The concrete outputs are transformative. We’ve moved beyond simple play to providing education on physiological barriers like breast bounce and menstrual health, which our consultations identified as key disengagement factors. By partnering with brands such as Nike, Sweaty Betty Foundation, Nixi Body and Maaree to provide culturally appropriate apparel and equipment, we’ve seen a direct increase in confidence and sustained participation. Our use of innovative tools, such as Virtual Reality to spark movement, has further boosted engagement, proving that our model can scale and adapt to modern youth interests while maintaining its core mission of safety and inclusion. By transforming underused streets into Play Streets, we can rapidly increase cross-borough safe spaces without costly infrastructure. We envision impacting thousands more girls, creating a network of community guardians and Young Ambassadors who mentor the next generation. This peer-to-peer model ensures the speed and depth of our impact, turning temporary street closures into permanent shifts in community trust. Our goal is to embed the importance of movement from childhood into adulthood, ensuring every girl in London has a safe, welcoming space to thrive.
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 tackles the root of inactivity through a bold, multi-layered collaborative model that shifts community norms. We’ve pioneered a detached outreach approach, collaborating with the NHS to integrate social prescribing into our street-based sessions. This joined-up work allows us to engage young people with statutory services they previously avoided, addressing holistic wellbeing alongside physical activity. Furthermore, we leverage the unique governance of Queens Park, London’s only parish council to drive systems change. By working with both Ward and Community Councillors, we bridge the gap between grassroots needs and local policy, ensuring street-play is recognised as a vital public health intervention. Innovation also lies in our strategy to shift cultural structures by targeting the mother-daughter role model effect. Research from the University of Southampton confirms that children’s activity levels directly reflect their mothers’; for every minute of activity a mother engages in, her child is likely to be 10% more active. In a community where cultural barriers often limit female participation, we are changing the narrative. By providing a clear pathway for mothers through Mums Allowed, we encourage a new norm where physical activity is a shared family value. This approach is original because it reimagines the street not just as a space for play, but as a site for intergenerational health transformation. We aren't just providing a sports session; we are building a supportive ecosystem that addresses specific cultural and structural barriers. By empowering mothers to be active role models, we ensure that the impact on their daughters is deep-rooted and sustainable, shifting the long-term health trajectory of the entire community.
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?
Our initiative is strategically designed for long-term viability and scalable impact. Operational sustainability is rooted in deep community partnerships, ensuring continuous engagement and resource leveraging. We actively collaborate with councils, volunteers and brands, minimising overheads while maximising reach and trust. This multi-stakeholder approach is key to our sustained success. Our scaling plan is ambitious yet grounded. We aim to expand our Girls Allowed EndZones model, initially targeting South London, then progressively moving into North and East London. This phased expansion leverages our proven blueprint and established relationships, ensuring successful replication. Our current collaboration with the Lambeth Schools Partnership, piloting Girls Allowed in primary schools and linking with feeder secondary schools, directly supports this. This not only aids school transition but also builds a sustainable pipeline for continued engagement in enrichment activities. To further grow and scale, we actively seek high-level partnerships with national NGOs like Sport England, Department for Education (DfE) and the Greater London Authority (GLA) to support youth sport aspirations. We’ve already met with Deputy Mayor Debbie Weekes-Bernard and her team to explore collaboration opportunities, aiming to influence the broader London Plan. Our goal is to see EndZones become a recognised feature of key city-wide events like Car-Free Day and School Sports Week, shifting norms around public space utilisation. By demonstrating tangible impact and fostering strong community cohesion, we are building a compelling case for systemic change, ensuring our solution is a lasting legacy for active, empowered young girls across London.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Our initiative thrives on a robust network of committed partners. The overall ESP Foundation leads project management, governance, logistics, monitoring and evaluation. The Programme Director drives recruitment, marketing and detached outreach to schools and communities. Local Police Ward Officers ensure safety and community engagement. NHS volunteers support social prescribing, signposting residents to statutory services. Our dedicated Coaches deliver sessions, leveraging their expertise and mentoring qualifications. Youth Ambassadors are integral to co-creation, leading consultations, informing practice and gaining leadership experience by supporting session delivery. Westminster Council organises road closures and provides support staff. Everyone Active secures facilities and promotes sessions to residents. Active Westminster amplifies our reach through community and school initiatives and supports staff/volunteer CPD with safeguarding and first aid training. Strategic brand partnerships are vital. Nike provides culturally appropriate apparel and staff volunteers (e.g., EKINS) lead specialised bra fitting sessions. Code Red delivers expert educational sessions and resources on menstrual cycle preparation and female health. This integrated approach ensures comprehensive support, from safe spaces and expert coaching to essential resources and holistic wellbeing, demonstrating a shared commitment to empowering young girls.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
Our initiative is underpinned by a clear, actionable timeline for successful fruition and growth. Key milestones include: *Spring/Summer Term Recruitment: Active participant recruitment leverages established school, detached outreach and community partnerships for maximum engagement, ensuring a robust cohort for summer delivery. *Strategic Logistics & Approvals: By end-May, all road closure requests will be submitted to the Highways team for July/August delivery. Venue hire bookings will align with approved closures, creating our EndZones. *Programme & Personnel Scheduling: A comprehensive schedule of diverse sports and coaches will be finalised, with planning for all bookings. This ensures a varied, engaging program tailored to participant feedback. *Ambassador & Influencer Engagement: Youth Ambassador recruitment will finalise, empowering them to co-lead sessions. We’ve secured interest already from influential Lionesses (e.g., Fara Williams, Lucy Bronze, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Rachel Yankey), Sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, England Boxer Aya Hijazi and Weight lifter Emily Campbell, whose attendance will inspire and elevate sessions. *Apparel & Resources Procurement: To address physiological barriers, all culturally appropriate apparel orders will be placed by end-May, allowing ample time for delivery and custom printing. This ensures every girl has the resources to participate confidently. These milestones demonstrate meticulous planning, strong stakeholder collaboration and a commitment to delivering a high-quality, impactful program, charting a credible path to deep-rooted community change.
