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
Ellie
Last Name
Morley
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
Brentford FC Community Sports Trust
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2005
Initiative Title
Gymnastics and Cheer In Hounslow
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://www.brentfordfccst.com/
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
A community cheerleading and gymnastics programme open to all, that offers opportunities for participation, performance and competition, based in communities with few accessible spaces.
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 limited opportunities for young people in Hounslow to take part in gymnastics lessons across the borough. The existing clubs are over-subscribed with long wait lists and high prices thanks to high demand. According to various UK local council sports facility reports, the Freshminds Latent Demand Research (2017) estimated that 1 million people were on waiting lists for gymnastics in the UK and this number remains a challenge facing the sport. This adversely impacts people from deprived backgrounds, as the opportunity is either not affordable, or the long wait times impact on long-term success participants may have, as skills have less opportunity to develop and early interest may be lost. For competitive cheerleading, the opportunities in the local area are even more limited in Hounslow and surrounding areas, with the closest venues being Royals Cobham (20 miles) and Beas Staines (9.5 miles). At Brentford FC Community Sports Trust, our mission is to bring our expertise in sports, education and health to improve people's lives. Our community features some of the most deprived areas in the country and inactivity levels are high, with Hounslow ranking 26 out of 32 London boroughs for physical activity in the latest Sport England’s Active Lives survey. An initiative like an expanded gymnastics and cheerleading programme would help make the sport more accessible and help improve activity levels in young people across the community. We have dedicated and experienced gymnastics coaches on staff, from the local Hounslow and Ealing areas, who are passionate about bringing the sport to a wider audience and making it accessible for all.
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?
The driver of the idea was a combination of venue availability and a group of participants seeking a new space. We currently operate a limited SEN programme in Oaklands School, otherwise the venue sits empty, so this opportunity would also benefit the local school and give them additional income that would not be coming in. We have a group of athletes who are looking for a new gymnastics base, as their previous venue is no longer available. Led by a passionate coach, there is an awareness that if the team cannot find a new space, they may stop taking part in the sport, so this spurred our thinking in scoping out opportunities. Key to our approach is offering affordable classes at an accessible location. We pride ourselves in keeping prices fair and offering discounts for participants from families on Universal Credit and would commit to providing free/heavily subsidised SEN classes. We would also ensure low fees for additional add-ons like kit and tickets for displays. Our class prices range from £10-£14 per lesson for a variety of levels including competition classes whereas local competitor prices are £16-21 per lesson plus additional fees. We have a strong relationship with the school and initial funding would enable us to secure the venue and purchase equipment. The school is close to Osterley tube station, serving many parts of Hounslow and Ealing connected via the piccadilly line, as well as good links with local buses and trains. The venue also provides free parking for those coming by car, meaning that it will be easy to reach for participants from a wider range of the local boroughs we operate in. We have wide reach from our network of schools and local community organisations across our other programmes, enabling us to advertise and drive awareness.
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?
We work with over 100 local schools across Hounslow, Ealing, Richmond, Slough and Hillingdon to support in the provision of PE, clubs and weekend activities. Children in our current program want to take part in more cheerleading and gymnastics and have opportunities to perform and compete, and we would use this funding to get young people qualified in gymnastics and cheerleading and into part time employment with the Trust, targeting local schools. One of the key drivers of this proposal is to find space for local athletes seeking a new venue to continue their gymnastics development, and we are keen to collaborate with this group to ensure the space is fit for business, meets their needs, and to engage with them to market the new local provision across local schools.
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?
We capture participant data across all our sessions in relation to gender, age, ethnicity and disability. Key for our work across the Trust is to assess how inclusive our programmes are, so we would ensure reporting is in place to measure participant demographics. We would be keen to review the performance of how many participants are from a South Asian background in particular, as Hounslow has one of the largest South Asian populations across London. As we would be utilising a SEN specialist school, we would also look to ensure we provide SEN specialist sports and activities. We would run our SEN class free of charge for 25 students, and subsidised for additional participants. We also have a keen focus on employment opportunities at the Trust, and would measure the number of young people who gain qualifications. Tackling the issues facing the growing number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) is a Trust priority, so being able to provide qualifications and employment to participants is something we pride ourselves in. We are also committed to supporting people from diverse background into employment, as they become role models for their communities. Another key measure of impact is seeking regular feedback from our participants or parents/guardians. We track satisfaction levels, to ensure our high standards are met and to understand areas for development or improvement. Finally, we would conduct case studies on individuals from each branch of the offer, including SEN, recreational, performance and competitive, as well as with parents to better understand the impact the new space and offering provides.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
At Brentford FC Community Sports Trust, we have a long history over our 40 years of operations of creating innovative solutions to address local need. We were the first Football Club Charity to have a gymnastics department, and we are always looking at ways to innovate and engage in our local community, to deliver better health outcomes using the power of sport and the reach of the Brentford FC badge to help us achieve this. Our core organisational values are to include, innovate and inspire, and we keep these front and centre when planning and designing our programmes. There are limited opportunities for lower income families in the Hounslow borough with gymnastics and cheerleading, so our solution provides a cost-effective offer that is easily accessible by public transport and car. We believe the offer is innovative because it utilises a space that would otherwise be empty, providing income to one of our key partner schools, and takes a sport that can be perceived as elitist and expensive, making it accessible, affordable and fun. It provides another much-needed programme to people who are not always catered to, so those from a lower income background, global majority ethnicities and people with disabilities.
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?
We would use funding to help us purchase specialist equipment, which is hugely expensive as an initial cost. This early funding would help us run large scale campaigns to ensure participant numbers are high, and we would then be able to ensure sustainability of the future programme from session fees moving forward. We would be able to generate a healthy participant pipeline from our connections to local schools, councils and our general reach in the local area. We have a proven track record of engaging and developing our programmes, with our gymnastics hub at Gunnersbury Park growing from nothing to over 150 gymnasts in 4 years with a 75% retention rate. In terms of scaling, the initial investment would enable us to get the programme running at this venue, and we would deliver sessions based on demand.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
This project would be led by Ellie Morley, our Community Development Manager, an experienced gymnastics coach and our key school lead. Ellie would be supported by Shiquerra Mckie, Cheer lead coach, delivering sessions and supporting with administration duties to ensure data is effectively captured. Amy MacKenzie is our Gymnastics Coordinator and would be responsible for delivering sessions and ensuring participant experience is of the highest standard. Craig Peters form our Disability department will assist with the development and delivery of our SEN programme. New jobs would be created for 15-25 hours a week, to support with additional coaching to ensure we meet our high standards of safeguarding. The team would be supported by the Core staff at the Trust, including Finance, Marketing and Communications and Insight. We would also work with our Young Leaders participants, supporting any who wish to achieve a dedicated gymnastics or cheerleading coaching qualification.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
We would plan to launch the programme by September 2026 and hope to break even on capacity by October 2026 with 80% of spaces filled by the time our winter display runs. We are aiming to have 2-3 young people signed onto coaching courses at latest Jan 2027 and upskill 3 of our current staff with gymnastics or cheerleading qualification. A key milestone in place in our calendar is the Winter Display in December 2026. We run this event each year with our gymnastics and cheer participants, so participants from the new programme would be an essential part of this event. Here is a link to our session from last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivU_DU7rqK0 There are also competitions taking place between March and June 2027 and the Gymstarz Display in June 2027 that we would aim to be part of, including the new cohort from the programme.
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.
Our key initial costs are around equipment and venue hire. We would need to invest £4-5k for specialist flooring to ensure maximum capacity and safe space usage. Additionally, a further £2-3k would be required for dedicated gymnastics equipment. Additional costs we would include: - Hall rental cost based on 12 weeks term is £6,600 - Covering Cheer Bows for all participants is estimated at £3,000 - Coaching Costs per term is £4,000 - Staff training and Coach education would cost £2,000 - 2 specialist SEN add-on modules at £80 - Competition Kit for roughly 135 students estimated at £9,000 We would use funding for the SEN provision for up to 25 students for a year, the other paid provision would help to subsidise this after funding has finished. We have a proven track record of success with community projects this money would help us to start up in a new area and build a sustainable community club.
