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
Bethany
Last Name
Cornish
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
Enable Leisure and Culture
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2015
Initiative Title
HerSpace Active
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://enablelc.org/
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?
Health & Fitness
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
Enable's HerSpace Active is a community-driven initiative for Muslim girls in Tooting where we will transform the local Tooting Bec Athletics Track into a private, women-focused space that combines capital improvements, free fitness programmes, and funded PT qualifications to create lasting, inclusive 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?
Muslim Women are often excluded from sports and leisure spaces. The Muslimah Sports Association reports that 97% of British Muslim women want to engage more in sports/leisure activities, but are held back by negative experiences in youth, like cultural barriers, discrimination, and lack of infrastructure accommodating modesty requirements. Consequently, 37% of Muslim women do not consider sport at all due to lack of inclusive facilities and environments, reflecting a significant systemic failure in sports equity in the UK. The consequences are substantial; unequal access to sport means unequal access to health and fitness, community and socialisation, and education and employment opportunities in the industry. As a result, Muslim women are not only sidelined in sport but disadvantaged more broadly in wellbeing and overall quality of life. Enable has witnessed this inequity firsthand through our work in Tooting. Through strong local connections, including the Mushkil Aassan mosque, we know young women are not accessing local sports facilities because they are not accessible or inclusive. This results in many young women not participating in sports at all, or relying on oversubscribed programmes at religious centres which, as they are not designed for sports, limits what is available to women, as well as the quality of teaching. Enable runs Tooting Bec Athletics Track (TBAT), a site currently underused by these groups, so we want to utilise our space to combat this disparity. Through our programme, HerSpace Active, we will reimagine the site to engage young Muslim women, creating a safe and inclusive space for sports participation, community, and personal development. This programme is in pre-pilot phase, with the design finalised but not yet implemented.
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?
Enable has long sought to improve sports access for young Muslim women (16-18) in Tooting. Rather than emerging from a single ‘aha moment’, HerSpace is the result of thorough research and collaboration with the community which highlighted how non-inclusive local sporting infrastructure really is. In response, HerSpace has been carefully and intentionally designed to reimagine TBAT, and what it can offer young Muslim women. Through a three-layered approach, we want to completely reactivate TBAT to not only bring Muslim girls to the site temporarily but really foster a sense of belonging longer term: i)Capital Works: Enable will make essential capital improvements to TBAT’s studio to create a completely private space for women. Currently, the studio has no private changing facilities attached, meaning women are forced to access other public-facing facilities. Due to privacy needs, this makes the studio unusable for many Muslim girls. To combat this, we will rework the existing space connected to the studio, inputting new toilets and private changing facilities so Muslim girls will have total privacy throughout their visits. As the landowners, this work will be conducted in collaboration with Wandsworth Council. ii)Sports Programmes: Bi-weekly, we will run free women’s-only yoga and aerobics classes in the studio, targeting our outreach to Muslim girls specifically. These will be run by local, female PTs, with preference given to Muslim teachers to act as role models. iii)PT qualifications: We will provide opportunities for four young girls to gain PT qualifications in yoga/aerobics each year. With access to onsite learning during classes, as well as training courses, young Muslim girls interested in a career in PT can gain their Level 2 and 3 fitness qualifications.
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?
Collaboration with the community has been, and will remain, central to HerSpace. Consulting local faith organisations and young women will ensure the programme reflects their needs and addresses barriers that have kept them out of TBAT, rather than relying on our assumptions. This is key because Enable, as an outsider organisation, doesn’t share the lived experience of these young women; therefore, community co-collaboration will ensure we are guided by those closest to the problem, keeping our approach responsive and appropriate. Local Muslim women played an active role in shaping the programme through their feedback. In workshops with women from Mushkil Aassan, we identified three key barriers to accessing TBAT: ineffective infrastructure for privacy requirements, a lack of women’s-only provisions, and limited inclusivity. Addressing these barriers is now central to HerSpace. These discussions also highlighted sports programmes of interest, including yoga, aerobics, women’s-only gym time, and badminton. This guidance has directly shaped delivery plans, as we will be offering yoga and aerobics classes first. We will continue this co-collaborative approach through quarterly Youth Ambassador Groups held at TBAT. These will bring together young women from local schools, faith groups, and sports organisations, like Mushkil Aassan, Al Risalah School, and Herne Hill Harriers, to continually improve the programme to better fit their needs. For example, if interest spikes in a different sport, we can update the programme schedule to include this. Running this group will not only ensures we remain responsive in our approach but helps build a strong local community for young Muslim girls, a key component in maintaining engagement in sports and fitness in the longer term.
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?
By not relying on a single solution, but combining infrastructural change, sports programmes, and employability pathways, HerSpace tackles the intersectional barriers that have excluded Muslim girls from sport for so long. For example: upgrading facilities to provide better privacy makes the space physically more accessible; delivering dedicated sports programmes creates a positive community for sustained engagement in sports, reducing fear of discrimination; and offering PT qualifications compounds that sports can be a serious pursuit for Muslim girls, breaking down social/cultural exclusions. Through these approaches, the immediate impact will be clear: more Muslim girls will be able to access the site, engage in sports and fitness, and benefit from the physical, social, and mental rewards of regular activity. But HerSpace’s impact will extend further, tackling deep-rooted barriers to participation long term. Belonging/inclusion in sport during formative years encourages lifelong engagement which not only supports healthier lifestyles in later life, but opens pathways to sports careers, essential for young Muslim women who are hugely unrepresented. In turn, greater individual participation then benefits whole communities: as more young Muslim women take part, visible role models emerge, inspiring others to join and shifting community attitudes. To track these intended outcomes, Enable will create and monitor KPIs to ensure meaningful impact. These will include both quantitative outputs, like attendee rate, number of new attendees, and number of PT qualifications achieved, alongside qualitative outcomes, like increased sense of belonging and confidence participating in sports. These complementary metrics will allow us to assess the full picture of our programme.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
There is a clear lack of programmes in Tooting that centre accessibility and create sporting opportunities for Muslim girls. Whilst women’s-only classes do exist in the area, these fail to tackle the barriers specifically experienced by Muslim women. For example, many women’s-only classes have male instructors, studios which aren’t private, or open plan changing spaces. As a result, HerSpace is heavily needed in the area to meaningfully improve sporting equity. Moreover, HerSpace is unique in utilising innovative approaches that not only respond to the challenges faced, but address them at a deeper, structural level: i) Muslim girls are our focus. Rather than expecting their needs to fit existing spaces, we are reimagining the space to fit them, including capital improvements to the site. Combined with a unique, purpose-built programme, TBAT will be fully reimagined to support the long-term engagement of Muslim girls. ii) Our approach is multifaceted, incorporating elements such as PT training and quarterly Youth Ambassador Groups offering more than just a fitness class. This deeper engagement fosters a stronger personal connection to the site, supporting sustained participation among Muslim women and helping to shift wider community attitudes iii) We are reimagining the role of sports facilities by making TBAT more than a site for physical activity, positioning it as a space for personal development, socialisation, and community cohesion. For young Muslim women who may feel intimidated or excluded from traditional sports environments, this shift helps change perceptions of who these spaces are for and who can access them. For an already underrepresented group, this is crucial to ensuring they feel welcomed and confident using the space longer-term.
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?
Enable have longstanding experience delivering and growing sports programmes through our in-house Leisure and Sports team, and we will apply all we’ve learned to HerSpace to ensure its long-term viability, scalability, and ultimately, success through: Social Sustainability: As the programme’s viability relies on Muslim women returning each week, bringing friends etc, it is essential that they feel a strong sense of belonging at TBAT. Enable will therefore embed HerSpace within Tooting’s social infrastructure by building strong local partnerships with girls sporting organisations, and continually co-designing with local women. In doing so, HerSpace will foster a sense of ownership among local young women, ensuring the programme is internally valued and socially sustainable. Financial sustainability: Enable will ensure HerSpace’s financial viability by diversifying its income and support streams. This will include securing external grants, drawing on relationships with local statutory bodies for both financial and in-kind support, and utilising our gym funding model to introduce tiered pricing (at highly subsidised rates) for community partners like Mushkil Aasaan. This approach will increase site membership while generating sustainable income to grow and strengthen the programme. Operational sustainability: We have factored in simple, operational choices like basing the programme out of our own site and using our own staff/resources to run the programmes to ensure the programme can run smoothly and without barriers. Enable will scale up HerSpace via a health needs assessment model, moving into new areas based on community interest and need. With a large Muslim population and limited sports infrastructure, our goal is to replicate this offer in Roehampton next.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Enable will draw on our extensive in-house expertise and experience to successfully deliver HerSpace. Spanning all aspects of the programme's development, including operational planning, developmental strategy, and community-focused insight, our teams are well suited to ensure HerSpace's long term success. Specific roles within Enable include: • Leisure Development Manager: Providing full programme management and oversight at top level. • Leisure Community Manager: Working with local communities throughout the programme's design, mobilisation, implementation and aftercare to ensure our approach remains collaborative and responsive. • Leisure Growth Manager: Managing the growth and sustainability of the programme in the longer term. • Leisure Quality Manager: Ensuring all aspects of our programme delivery is of fantastic quality. • TBAT Operational Manager: Daily managing of the site. • Community Manager: Connecting us with local faith groups and women’s organisations for local integration. • Community and Social Value Development Officers: Collecting data and feedback for monitoring and evaluation and constructing of the quarterly impact reports. • Marketing and Communications: Circulating the programme on large platforms to access wide audiences and garner wide-reaching support. • Fundraising: Finding alternative income sources to ensure the programmes longevity and sustainability. In addition to our internal experience, we will also utilise connections with local partners. So far, our biggest partner has been Mushkil Aassan (offering their community feedback and programme co-design), and we will look to build on this portfolio as the programme is mobilised.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
There are several milestones we will set to achieve to ensure HerSpace comes to fruition and achieves the intended outcomes, as well as has long term sustainability and growth. We have broken these down via monthly timeline: Month 1: Community Awareness Campaign • Informing the local community of the programmes implementation • Informing TBAT’s users and surrounding community that there will be capital works at the site • Preparation work completed so the site is ready for capital changes Month 2: Mobilisation • Outreach work with local faith groups to gather interest in the programme/PT courses • Service Level Agreement (SLA) with local PTs agreed • Capital works to commence with partial site closure Month 3: Preparation • Complete the capital works and secure final sign-off confirming the site is ready for use • Select four local Muslim girls for PT qualifications and prepare them for the commitment involved • Launch a marketing campaign to generate community-wide interest through social media, local marketing channels, and a community open day at TBAT • Engage local organisations to establish the first Youth Ambassador Group Month 4: Programme begins • Yoga/Aerobics delivered at TBAT twice a week • PT courses to commence • Feedback/data collected to start analysing social impact Month 6: Midway programme evaluation and review • First Youth Ambassador Group held, offering essential insight and feedback from our target group • First quarterly report completed by Community and Social Value Team and shared with Go!London • Necessary changes to be made to the programme based off this report and user feedback • Mini marketing campaign to sustain local engagement and interest Month 12: Full year programme evaluation and review • Full programme report to be completed and shared with Go!London • Longer term analysis and evaluation to be conducted Month 13 and onwards: Programme continuation, growth and legacy • After reviewing the data, develop and implement a long-term plan to continue delivering the programme, incorporating any agreed changes • Engage with the community to explore opportunities for growth or diversification based on local needs and interests, ensuring a lasting legacy and strong integration within Tooting’s community • Identify additional sponsorship and in-kind support to ensure the programme’s long-term sustainability This project plan is not set in stone. We have given ourselves buffer room should some stages take longer than we anticipate, and contingency plans to mobilise more quickly if stages require less time than we’ve committed.
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.
If we progress to the capacity-building stage of Go!London, we would seek support for HerSpace’s community design through a community consultant (or two, for well-rounded guidance). While we are already community-integrated, additional expertise would help ensure our approach is deeply rooted, culturally nuanced, and not surface-level.
