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
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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
The Green Pitch Project
Lead Organization Name
SHADE
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2011
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
WWW.SHADE-COMMUNITY.ORG
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
Our initiative empowers young people in underserved London communities to lead climate action through sport. We are transforming existing football and boxing programmes into platforms for climate awareness, practical environmental action and sustainable community change. Many of the young people we work with are already experiencing the impact of climate change through unsafe outdoor spaces, damaged pitches, extreme heat and limited access to green areas. However, they are rarely included in conversations about solutions. Through this initiative, we will embed climate literacy, environmental leadership and sustainable practice into weekly sport sessions. Young people will explore how climate change affects their local community, develop practical skills to reduce environmental impact, and lead small scale projects such as improving green spaces, reducing waste in sports settings and promoting low carbon behaviours among peers and families. Alongside awareness, we will adapt how we deliver sport to make participation more climate resilient, including sustainable equipment use, responsible energy practices and safer planning during extreme weather. By combining physical activity with meaningful environmental leadership, we aim to build confidence, resilience and long term engagement while creating greener, healthier neighbourhoods shaped by young people themselves.
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 already experiencing the impact of climate change, yet they are rarely involved in shaping solutions. In Newham and surrounding parts of East London, extreme heat, poor air quality, flooding and damaged outdoor spaces directly affect where and how young people can safely take part in sport and play. Pitches become unusable, green spaces feel unsafe or neglected, and high energy costs place pressure on community organisations delivering activities. At the same time, many young people from low income and racially minoritised backgrounds are disconnected from climate conversations. Climate action is often presented in spaces that feel distant from their daily realities. As a result, there is both a participation gap and a leadership gap. Young people most affected by environmental challenges are not being supported to lead change. We are close to this problem because we work weekly with young people who rely on community sport as their main structured activity. We see first hand how weather conditions disrupt sessions and how limited access to safe green spaces affects participation. Our solution aims to bridge the gap by using sport as a trusted platform to build climate awareness, practical action and youth led engagement where it is needed most.
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 to use sport as the gateway into climate awareness and action. Young people already trust and engage with our football and boxing programmes, so rather than creating a separate environmental project, we are embedding climate learning directly into those spaces. Each week, sessions will include short, practical discussions linking climate issues to their lived experience, such as unsafe pitches, littered parks, extreme heat or poor air quality. We then move quickly from awareness to action, supporting young people to design small but visible local responses. Our idea came from a simple observation. During periods of heavy rain and extreme heat, we repeatedly had to cancel or adjust sessions. Young people would ask why the weather felt different or why pitches were damaged more often. That was the moment we realised climate change was not abstract for them. It was already disrupting their ability to play, move and connect. The aha moment was recognising that sport is both impacted by climate change and powerful enough to respond to it. We will support young people to lead practical initiatives such as waste reduction in sport settings, equipment reuse schemes, improving local green spaces and promoting responsible behaviours within their teams and families. At the same time, we will adapt our delivery to be more climate resilient by planning safer sessions during extreme weather and encouraging sustainable practices within our programmes. By linking movement, leadership and action, we aim to build lasting awareness and behaviour change rooted in community sport.
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 young people, not delivered to them. The starting point is listening. We will begin by running structured listening sessions within our football and boxing programmes to understand how young people experience climate issues in their daily lives. These conversations will shape the focus of the initiative, whether that is unsafe parks, waste around pitches, lack of green space or extreme weather disrupting activity. We will establish a small Youth Climate Leadership Group made up of participants aged between 13 and 21. This group will co design the actions we take, help plan workshops, and lead peer discussions within sessions. They will not simply attend activities but take responsibility for shaping priorities, planning community action days and speaking publicly about the issues that matter to them. Young people will also take part in practical roles such as auditing waste during sessions, identifying areas for improvement in local green spaces, and engaging teammates and families in sustainable behaviour. For example, they may lead a campaign to reduce single use plastics at sessions or organise a community clean up linked to a football tournament. We will also involve parents and local residents through open sessions and community action days, ensuring that climate awareness extends beyond participants. By giving young people visible leadership roles and decision making power, we aim to build ownership, confidence and long term engagement rooted in their own neighbourhood.
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 create impact at three levels: awareness, behaviour change and practical environmental improvement. In the short term, we expect to directly engage at least 150 young people through our weekly football and boxing programmes. Each participant will take part in structured climate awareness discussions and at least one practical action, such as a waste reduction campaign, equipment reuse scheme or community clean up linked to sport. We will track participation numbers, attendance at climate sessions and the number of youth led actions delivered. In terms of behaviour change, we aim to see measurable shifts in simple practices such as reducing single use plastics at sessions, increasing recycling, encouraging walking or cycling to activities where possible, and promoting responsible energy use within community spaces. We will gather feedback through short surveys and reflection sessions to assess changes in understanding and personal commitment to climate action. Longer term, the impact we envision is deeper. We want young people who previously felt disconnected from climate conversations to see themselves as leaders. If even a core group of 20 young people continue to advocate for greener practices within their schools, families and peer networks, the ripple effect could reach hundreds more. We will document learning, participation rates and case studies to demonstrate credible progress. By embedding climate action into sport, we believe we can create a scalable model that builds awareness quickly while developing sustained community ownership over time.
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 is different because it does not treat climate action as a separate environmental project. Instead, we embed it directly into community sport, using football and boxing as the entry point for leadership, behaviour change and local action. Many climate programmes target schools or formal youth groups, but fewer operate within grassroots sport spaces where young people already gather voluntarily and consistently. The innovation lies in shifting the culture of local sport itself. Rather than simply delivering awareness workshops, we are redesigning how sessions are run so that sustainability becomes part of everyday practice. This includes youth led audits of waste and energy use, equipment reuse systems, peer led discussions during training, and linking tournaments with visible environmental action. Climate literacy becomes normalised within sport settings, not an add on. We are also tackling a root issue, which is the disconnect between climate conversations and young people from underserved communities. By placing climate leadership inside trusted, culturally relevant spaces, we are changing who feels entitled to participate in environmental action. The model moves beyond awareness towards ownership, where young people shape solutions in their own neighbourhoods. This approach has the potential to shift norms. If community sport clubs become hubs for climate leadership, sustainability becomes part of team identity and local culture. That cultural shift is what makes this initiative innovative and capable of long term change.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Our initiative will be led by our organisation, with clear roles across staff, young leaders and local partners to ensure strong delivery and shared ownership. The Programme Lead will oversee the overall coordination of the initiative, manage timelines, partnerships and reporting, and ensure that climate learning is meaningfully integrated into sport delivery. They will also lead on safeguarding and quality assurance. Our Coaches and Youth Workers will deliver weekly football and boxing sessions while embedding climate awareness discussions and supporting young people to plan and implement local actions. They will act as facilitators rather than lecturers, creating space for youth voice and leadership. We will establish a Youth Climate Leadership Group made up of 10 to 15 young people. This group will co design activities, lead peer engagement, help organise community action days and contribute to reflection and evaluation. They will play a central role in shaping direction and representing the initiative within the wider community. If working with partners, a local environmental organisation or sustainability advisor will support with climate literacy content, training for staff and young leaders, and guidance on responsible practice. Community partners such as local venues or residents groups will support action days and shared use of spaces. Responsibilities will be clearly agreed at the outset, with regular coordination meetings to ensure collaboration remains active and accountable.
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?
Our initiative is built on existing weekly sport programmes that already engage over 150 young people, which gives us a strong and stable foundation. Rather than creating a standalone project, we are embedding climate action into delivery that is already trusted and consistent. This reduces risk and increases sustainability because climate leadership becomes part of our core model rather than dependent on short term funding. To ensure operational sustainability, we will train coaches and youth leaders to confidently deliver climate awareness and action elements as part of their regular sessions. We will also develop a simple toolkit that documents activities, discussion guides and practical steps, allowing the model to continue beyond the initial funding period. In terms of scaling, our next step would be to pilot the approach in additional community venues and partner clubs across London. We would seek partnerships with local authorities, schools and grassroots sports organisations to replicate the model in new neighbourhoods. The long term vision is to create a network of community sport clubs acting as youth led climate hubs. To grow sustainably, we will pursue blended funding, build strategic partnerships and share evidence of impact to attract wider support.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
Months 1 to 2 We will begin with planning and co design. This includes recruiting the Youth Climate Leadership Group, running listening sessions within football and boxing programmes, and finalising the climate learning framework with input from young people and any specialist partners. Staff and volunteers will receive basic climate literacy and facilitation training. Months 3 to 6 We will embed climate awareness discussions into weekly sport sessions and launch the first youth led action projects. This may include waste reduction campaigns, equipment reuse schemes or improvements to local green spaces. We will collect baseline data on awareness and behaviours to track change over time. Months 6 to 9 We will review progress through structured reflection sessions with young people and staff. Based on learning, we will adapt the format if needed and expand youth leadership responsibilities. We aim to host at least one community action day linked to sport. Months 9 to 12 We will document impact, gather case studies and refine a simple toolkit to support replication. We will begin exploring partnerships with additional clubs or venues to scale the model and secure follow on funding to sustain and grow the initiative.
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).
Participation in the 8 week capacity building programme would require staff time, coordination and temporary backfill to ensure our core youth provision continues uninterrupted. The main costs we would incur are: Staff backfill and session cover Our Programme Lead and one Youth Worker would need to dedicate time each week to workshops, peer learning and development sessions. To maintain delivery of football and boxing programmes, we would require sessional cover. Estimated cost: £4,000 to £5,000. Youth participation support We would like at least two members of our Youth Climate Leadership Group to participate in selected elements of the programme. Costs would include travel, meals and safeguarding supervision. Estimated cost: £1,000 to £1,500. Facilitation and documentation support To ensure we can apply learning effectively, we may require light external facilitation or documentation support to capture insights and translate them into practical changes within our programmes. Estimated cost: £1,500 to £2,000. Operational costs linked to adaptation Small costs related to piloting improvements during the programme, such as materials, sustainable equipment trials or venue adjustments. Estimated cost: £1,500 to £2,000 GBP. Total potential support required would be up to £10,000 GBP to ensure full participation without reducing frontline youth engagement.
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