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 legal entity
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
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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
Green Gyms
Lead Organization Name
Southall Community Alliance
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2000
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
www.southallcommunityalliance.com
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
Our innovative ‘Green Gyms’ pilot project will work with disadvantaged children from schools in Southall to create four Community Sports Gardens, transforming unused land into eco-friendly sports space.
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?
Southall is a town with extraordinarily diverse communities and over 80% of residents from migrant backgrounds. The town suffers from lack of safe and accessible green spaces for children and this has created a generation of inactive young people in a poor and overwhelmingly urban area. This is a particular challenge for girls from BAME communities, who lack the confidence and facilities to enjoy safe outdoor sport. Ealing Council’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment has confirmed the very high levels of childhood obesity, increasing child diabetes rates and serious child oral health conditions which all indicate poor physical health amongst school children. Our 200+ direct beneficiaries will be school children aged 6-16 from four different Southall schools. 90% will be from migrant backgrounds ie Indian, Somali, Tamil, Afghan etc. We will work with children who are very inactive and have little experience of working in green spaces and even less understanding of climate change. Southall Community Alliance (SCA) is strongly embedded in our communities and has worked in Southall for over 30 years. Over 90% of our users come from the communities which will provide our young beneficiaries and We work closely with many Southall schools on educational and poverty relief initiatives and acutely understand why we need to act now.
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 will address these problems by involving children in an initiative to transform green spaces into areas of exercise and for sport. We will work with over 200+ children from two high schools and two primary schools to create accessible green spaces run by young trained Eco-Champ’s. The children will help co-produce, plan and design the Community Sports Gardens and transform unused space into sites for exercise, play and environmental learning. The children will be supported to identify land that can be transformed into safe and accessible exercise space, with special equipment, trees and drought resistant hedging plants that will combine environmental awareness with sports participation. We will train young people as eco-champions to create and maintain our sports gardens and to develop climate action packs for other children so that they can share information with their peers into the future. Our ‘Green Gyms’ project will allow children to play and exercise in warm conditions because of the trees and plants they will have provided that will provide shade and water features.
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 pilot proposal relies hugely on collaboration with school children and community partners in order to create the Green Gyms in a sustainable manner. We will target a high school and primary school in both north and south Southall. In each school we will work with the staff to recruit and engage young people in school action committees, who will be responsible for designing the community sports gardens, developing future maintenance plans and sharing information about project success This is a unique initiative because we will shift the power and control to the children and they will actively create the solution in designing the green space, making decisions, allocating resources and demonstrating success. We will help develop a sense of civic responsibility amongst children of all ages and develop agreements with them regarding co-design and creation of the Green Gyms that they will maintain and use.
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 Green Gyms project will have a clear and visible impact upon raising youth awareness of climate change and how they can deal with it. In the process of creating and maintaining their Community Sport Gardens, the children will learn about seasonal planting and growing, as well as building a small plant nursery. Other project outputs: - project launch event - Making a film with the children about the process of creating our sports gardens - creating a web portal to promote the youth environmental work - establishing school action committees - Developing design designs and plans for the Sports Gardens -Creating an environmental maintenance plan with the children - Training a cohort of young Eco-Champs - Providing training for the children through Cultivate London and Chiswick House community garden We will monitor and evaluate our impact through: - 10 case studies of young beneficiaries - Picture diaries kept by the children as they work - Community film - Testimonials from young users of the community sport gardens - End Project and report evaluating success and impact The two long-term impacts that we seek to achieve: • Inspire young people to transform a space into a green physical activity site • Build the confidence and skill of disadvantaged young people to be civic players
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
Our approach is unique in Southall as no-one is seeking to empower young people so that they can develop eco-friendly solutions to the climate crisis. The creation of Community Sports Gardens as a pilot will build on local assets and the capacity of young people. Use and future maintenance of these facilities will encourage a reflective approach amongst the young people so that building climate awareness is maintained year after year. As a pilot, we want to demonstrate how children can take charge of leading the climate change agenda at a neighbourhood level. The design creation and sustainability of the Community Sports Garden concept will start to tackle the very low awareness about how important green spaces are to the health and well-being of our communities. The traditional approach to youth well-being has always involved ‘expert’ adults coming and arranging activities for young people. But, our innovative approach overturns that power dynamic and makes the young people in charge of the process of deciding how best to use local resources and improve their health and our local green environment.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
The main partners in the project are Southall Community Alliance (SCA), as the project lead, supported by four local schools and also by Cultivate London and Chiswick House. EACH partner will have very specific roles and responsibilities with the SCA trustees retaining overall legal responsibility for delivery, whilst operational delivery resides with the SCA Director and Office Manager. Cultivate London and Chiswick House will provide training for the children in growing and maintaining their Sports Garden. Within the four schools we will recruit we will help establish school action committees consisting of teachers and children and they will be responsible for the final design and appearance of their Sports Garden but also learn about buying, procurement and budget management. In this way we will help design a project that is run and managed by young people and leaves a legacy which will show other children and young people how to successfully manage a community based project. The children will also be responsible for designing communication and publicity materials that can be shared in different community languages.
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 scalability of our project will be achieved by : • Arranging skills and volunteering training four our young beneficiaries • deploying a young person led approach so that we move towards a model of ‘doing with’ our young people instead of ‘always doing for’ them • building inter-organisational collaboration between schools, voluntary sector and local business • ultimately, build coalitions involving local schools who can adopt the model we are piloting • have a communication and engagement plan that uses both face to face interaction and social media led messaging to promote environmental awareness The future sustainability of our work will be based upon: • Training cohorts of young eco-champs who can be powerful advocates for environmental change • Developing funding applications to sustain elements of our work that have been particularly successful • Seeking business or commercial sponsorship • Using our community film and digital online resources to create a legacy of information that can help enthuse and inspire others to deploy a similar approach • Work with our local NHS and Ealing Council to make a case for a wider investment in the Community Sports Garden concept
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
Milestones Q1 - project launch event - creating a web portal to promote the youth environmental work - establishing school action committees - Developing design designs and plans for the Sports Gardens - Q2 - Training a cohort of young Eco-Champs - Providing training for the children through Cultivate London and Chiswick House community garden Q3 - Making a film with the children about the process of creating our sports gardens - Finalise creation of 4 Community Sports Gardens - Create online resources that can provide educational value about climate reducing impacts of our project Q4 -Creating an environmental maintenance plan with the children - End Project and report evaluating success and impact
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).
Funding would not be barrier to our participation.
