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
Nina
Last Name
von der Werth
Pronouns
She/Her
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
Sands End Arts & Community Centre (SEACC)
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2020
Initiative Title
The Hive
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
www.seacc.uk
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?
Health & Fitness
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
The Sands End Arts & Community Centre Hive uses beautiful, playful spaces and joyful shared experiences to make learning-disabled young people more visible as contributors to community life; we’ll use SEACC’s proven cross-subsidy funding model and new council partnerships to unlock long-term, shared community access to underutilised spaces for sport.
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?
In London, there are physical spaces that could support young people’s sport, movement & play, yet they remain locked, underused & inaccessible. At the same time, autistic & learning-disabled young people face significant barriers to participating in physical activity – not because they lack interest, but because many existing spaces/ programmes do not reflect their needs or experiences. Through our existing SEND clubs we regularly hear from young people & families that mainstream sport feels inaccessible: competitive, noisy, inflexible or socially exposing. They tell us they have tried activities but stopped attending because they struggled to understand how to participate, felt overwhelmed by the environment, or worried about getting things wrong. We also know that some autistic & learning-disabled young people miss opportunities to build confidence in sport from an early age because specialist support sessions often take place during PE, reducing access to movement & physical activity from the outset. The problem is therefore not simply a lack of provision. Spaces & programmes are designed around non-disabled expectations meaning young people who could benefit most from movement for confidence, self-regulation & social connection are often those least able to access it. The Hive will focus initially on autistic and learning-disabled young people aged 14–20, with a small group becoming co-designers of the space - this group will be known as the Hive Mind. Together we will create playful, flexible indoor & outdoor spaces for exercise & sport. By involving young people as experts in shaping the environment, activities & culture, we aim to increase participation while challenging assumptions about who community spaces are for & how they should be designed.
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 "aha" moment was realising that autistic & learning-disabled young people aren't disengaged from sport – they're disengaged from environments that were not designed with them in mind. Our solution addresses 2 connected challenges: underused public assets & the exclusion of autistic & learning-disabled young people from sport, movement & community life. While these young people struggle to find spaces where they feel at ease, public buildings & outdoor facilities stand empty. We will create a beautiful, playful & inclusive space co-designed by the young people who will use it. We'll remove barriers in 4 ways. 1-We unlock physical access by repurposing underused buildings & adapting them to be sensory-considerate, flexible & welcoming. 2-We remove design barriers by placing end users at the centre of the process. Through co-design workshops, autistic & learning-disabled young people will shape a new indoor studio in phase 1, with ambitions for a SEND-adapted padel court in phase 2. They will also influence equipment, session structure & the overall vibe. 3-A sustainable financial model: private hires subsidise free & low-cost sport sessions, creating a viable shared-use model not reliant on grant funding. 4-We remove social barriers by creating visible opportunities for disabled & non-disabled young people to volunteer, facilitate & participate together. Volunteer roles could be: coaching support, travel support, consultation delivery, recruitment & content creation. As co-creators & peer facilitators, they will help inclusive participation become the norm. Joy, visibility & play sit at the heart of the project. We believe that when learning-disabled young people are seen as designers & contributors rather than recipients of support, community expectations shift.
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?
At SEACC, young people & learning-disabled people are not just participants in projects we design for them; they are partners in creating the spaces & experiences they want. We champion LBHF’s co-production framework of ‘nothing about us without us’, and apply to this to both our work with young people & our work with disabled & learning-disabled people. Our co-design panel for The Hive will be the Hive Mind: 15 autistic & learning-disabled young people who already attend our existing clubs, and 5 learning disabled young people who use H&F Mencap’s services but currently aren’t SEACC attendees - ensuring the people closest to the problem are at the heart of the solution, whilst also offering ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ perspectives. Co-design workshops that use play, making & imagination, will explore questions such as:what makes a space feel welcoming; what makes movement enjoyable; what's their dream space/session. These sessions will shape the layout, equipment, environment, session structure & vibe of The Hive. Recognising that autistic & learning-disabled young people are part of wider support networks, we will also engage siblings & families. Siblings can provide valuable, alternative youth insight - ensuring the space is inclusive to all. They'll participate in facilitated conversations & creative activities to provide additional insight into barriers, aspirations & opportunities for inclusion. Parents & carers will contribute their unique perspective on their children's interests, participation patterns & support needs, helping us understand what enables sustained engagement. The wider community will be involved through consultation at SEACC & LBHF festivals/events & through volunteering opportunities. The Hive Mind group will remain involved from start to end.
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?
The Hive will unlock both physical space & practical access to sport and exercise for autistic & learning-disabled young people who are excluded from much mainstream provision. In Year 1, we will deliver free & low-cost sessions for 30–50 young people per week, growing to 80–100 weekly participants by Year 3 as the programme & income-generating activities expand. The project will also increase community use of the site through inclusive family events & volunteering opportunities. Our existing SEND clubs demonstrate that when young people help shape provision, participation stabilises, confidence grows & social connections strengthen. Our Tuesday Club now has an almost 100% retention rate, compared to the set-up model that was designed by a non-disabled staff member. Young people who initially observed from the margins now contribute ideas, support peers & take active roles in shaping activities. The Hive will build on this success by creating a purpose-designed space where movement, play & belonging are embedded into the environment itself. We expect to see: improved confidence; reduced social isolation; increased participation in physical activity. However, we are also seeking wider systems change. We want learning-disabled young people to be visible contributors to community life and to influence how spaces are designed & used. Success will be measured through attendance/retention, but also through evidence of young people shaping decisions, families feeling more connected & new relationships forming between disabled & non-disabled community members. The Hive also creates a replicable model: by demonstrating how inclusive, youth-shaped spaces can benefit the wider we aim to influence how future community facilities are designed, managed & programmed.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
The Hive challenges a common assumption within sport & community provision: that autistic & learning-disabled young people should adapt to spaces that already exist. Instead, we start from the belief that the people who face the greatest barriers to participation should help design the spaces, activities & culture themselves and that these spaces are inherently then more attractive to everyone. Many initiatives focus on making existing provision more accessible. The Hive goes further by using co-design, play & shared ownership to rethink how community spaces are created & who gets to shape them. Through creative workshops, testing ideas in practice & ongoing decision-making, autistic & learning-disabled young people will influence everything from the physical environment & activity offer to the behavioural norms of the space. Their lived experience becomes a source of expertise rather than something to be accommodated. It's also innovative in how it combines inclusion with long-term sustainability. By transforming underused public buildings & outdoor space into a shared community asset & combining free community provision with income generated through private hire, we create a model that can thrive beyond initial grant funding. Most importantly, The Hive seeks to change relationships as well as spaces. Using beauty, joy, visibility & play as tools for social change and creating opportunities for disabled & non-disabled young people, families, volunteers & community members to participate alongside one another, rather that separate specialist provision. We believe this visibility is critical to shifting assumptions about who spaces are for, who has the right to shape them & attitudes towards disabled and learning-disabled people more generally.
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?
The Hive is designed for long-term sustainability. Operational viability is underpinned by SEACC's established cross-subsidy model, where earned income supports free community provision. Financial modelling demonstrates that private hire of the studio can cover running costs using SEACC’s existing booking & management systems, reducing reliance on future grant funding. Our partnership with LBHF provides a pathway to bring underused public assets into active community use, while SEACC contributes delivery expertise, trusted community relationships & a proven track record of engaging young people through co-designed provision. Together, this partnership creates a strong foundation for long-term success. SEACC can innovate whilst the adoption of wider LBHF frameworks, including the Defend Council Homes approach & Inclusive Design Review Panel, help embed co-production & inclusive design into the project from the outset. We'll ensure sustainability through phased development. Year 1 will focus on co-design, capital improvements & pilot delivery. Years 2–3 will expand participation, strengthen community ownership and diversify income streams, including fundraising for an adapted padel court that provides accessible outdoor activity space & additional revenue. Beyond Year 3, The Hive will operate as a stable, community-embedded facility, with autistic & learning-disabled young people continuing to shape provision. The model is intentionally replicable. We have already identified additional underused sites within & beyond the borough where the approach could be adapted. By demonstrating how public assets can be activated through co-design, shared stewardship & sustainable funding, The Hive will create a practical blueprint for others across London and further afield.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Delivery of The Hive will be a partnership between SEACC, the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, autistic and learning-disabled young people (the Hive Mind), their families and the wider community. SEACC will lead project delivery, including appointing the team, delivery of capital works, co-design facilitation, programme development, operational management, safeguarding, staffing and community engagement. We will implement our established cross-subsidy model, managing bookings and income generation while ensuring inclusive practice is embedded throughout the project. SEACC will also lead monitoring, evaluation, learning and sharing of learning. The council, as landowner and strategic partner, will provide access to the site, support the process of bringing buildings back into active use and collaborate on long-term stewardship arrangements. Their support creates a pathway not only for this site, but for the future activation of other underused public assets across the borough. The Hive Mind are not just beneficiaries of the project, they are co-designers and decision-makers. Through creative workshops and ongoing involvement, they will influence the layout, equipment, activities, environment and future development of the space. Siblings, parents and carers will contribute their own expertise and insights, helping ensure the project remains responsive to young people's needs and aspirations. The wider community will play an active role through volunteering, participation and shared use of the space. By creating opportunities for disabled and non-disabled people to contribute alongside one another, The Hive will build understanding, visibility and community ownership. Together, this partnership combines public asset stewardship, community expertise and lived experience leadership to create a sustainable model for inclusive sport, play and community participation.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
Summer 2026 (pre-grant announcement) Establish the Hive Mind and conduct early co-design research with them, their parents/carers and their siblings with a focus on understanding barriers to participation. Use the LBHF Wellbeing Festival to consult and update wider community on ambitions for the space. Formalise partnership with LBHF and agree terms for bringing the site under SEACC's stewardship. Autumn 2026 (post-grant announcement) Complete feasibility, safety and accessibility assessments. Recruit project manager & co-creation practitioner. Analyse research findings and develop a detailed design brief with Hive Mind and designers. Co-design the layout, environment, equipment and activity offer with young people and families of the new studio.Recruit non-disabled volunteers to champion new space and support programme delivery. Launch pilot sessions to test activities, layouts and delivery approaches. January–August 2027: Programme Launch & Evaluation Begin regular free and low-cost sessions from new studio space. Implement SEACC's cross-subsidy model, adding new studio to our existing private hire offer. Monitor participation & gather feedback from Hive Mind to refine provision. Increase community engagement through events, volunteering and partnerships with organisations such as H&F Mencap, This New Ground and Action on Disability. Year 2 (September 2027–September 2028): Growth & Consolidation Increase participation and expand the activity offer. Fundraising and planning for development of inclusive/adaptive outdoor space. Embed young people's leadership and peer-support roles. Strengthen financial sustainability through diversified income streams. Share learning with partners and local stakeholders and begin documenting the model for replication. Year 3 and Beyond: Replication & Systems Change Establish The Hive as a stable, community-owned asset with bookable indoor and outdoor sensory considerate spaces. Develop a replicable framework for activating underused public spaces through co-design, shared stewardship and sustainable funding. Work with the council and other partners to identify and explore additional sites across the borough and beyond.
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.
As provided in refinement phase.
Now that you've explored what it truly means to put young people at the centre, how are you designing your initiative so that young people are genuine co-leaders and co-creators of the initiative?
The biggest shift in our thinking has been recognising that co-creation is not just about involving young people in shaping activities, but about involving them in defining the problem itself. At SEACC, autistic and learning-disabled young people already have real ownership over the content of our sessions. What we have not consistently done is involve them in designing the spaces those sessions happen in, or in fully articulating why activities/spaces/situations do not work for them. For The Hive, this means starting with genuine curiosity about why the autistic and learning-disabled young people we work with are not accessing mainstream sport and physical activity locally. We define sport here as physical activity done with others, and we want to understand barriers in their own words, not only through parent or professional interpretation, which is what we've used as our starting point to date. Is it competition, sensory overwhelm, social pressure, past experiences, or something else entirely? It also seems likely that “sport” itself may need to be reimagined as play, exploration and shared movement. Over the course of the capacity building programme, we have worked directly with autistic and learning-disabled young people aged 14–20 through playful, creative workshops to explore what helps or prevents participation, and what an ideal space feels like. Between now and the presentation in July, we will deliver more workshops to explore these concepts in greater detail. Alongside this, we will work with siblings to bring a neurotypical perspective on inclusion, belonging and social use of space; including an alternative young person perspective will ensure the space is inclusive for all. We will then continue to work with parents and carers to understand aspirations, concerns and patterns of participation, as we have done with our existing sessions. This is not a one-off consultation, and the phasing within the context of this grant feels important to articulate: work to date includes consolidating the group of 20 young autistic and learning-disabled people that will be our co-production team - the Hive Mind. We have started by asking them, and their families and siblings, to articulate the current barriers to participating in sport in their own words/way. The shortlisting grant money has allowed us to reach more young autistic and learning-disabled young people and their families than currently access our programme. We have also undertaken more traditional consultation with local, expert organisations that work regularly with disabled and learning-disabled people. In order that we maintain an iterative process that considers design, testing and delivery, shaping the physical space, the programme and the overall culture or “vibe” of The Hive - we will conduct much more research should we be successful in the full grant. To ensure this work happens well, we will appoint a specialist child co-creation practitioner to support the design process and ensure young people are genuine partners in shaping the project. This person will work alongside our learning disability lead and their role will be to develop accessible, creative engagement methods, support meaningful participation from autistic and learning-disabled young people, and challenge us to avoid traditional consultation approaches where adults define the questions, interpret the answers and make the decisions. This investment will help embed co-creation throughout the project, ensuring lived experience remains central to both the design process and the final outcome. We will build a space for young people in a way that reflects their lived experience and imagination.
What partnerships and collaborations are most critical to delivering and sustaining your initiative and how are you building/ plan to build them?
The Hive is delivered through a network of partnerships that together hold different parts of the system we are trying to change: who designs spaces, who controls access, who has long term responsibility, and whose expertise is recognised in shaping community life. At the centre of this system are autistic and learning-disabled young people and their families: their lived experience sets the direction for all other partnerships. The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham is a critical enabling partner as landowner and strategic convenor. Their role makes it possible to unlock underused public buildings and scale the model beyond a single site. We are also building on the borough’s leadership in co-production and inclusive design, including the work of Tara Flood and the Inclusive Design Panels, which embed lived experience into planning processes. In addition, LBHF connects the project across youth services, family hubs, schools and SEND provision, helping ensure alignment across the wider support system around young people, and identifies gaps in the borough that we can work with them to mitigate – their latest Active Wellbeing strategy identified disabled and learning disabled residents as being underserved by existing sport provision. This gives us confidence we are a useful part of a wider offer, and not just replicating work happening elsewhere. We are working with local, specialist organisations including Action on Disability, Mencap, This New Ground and No Limits, who bring trusted relationships with autistic and learning-disabled young people and families, alongside expertise in advocacy, inclusion and youth support. These partners extend reach and ensure the project can reach a greater number of young people beyond our existing participants once the project is established. We are also engaging inclusive sport and wellbeing partners such as Fulham FC Foundation and Active Communities to connect The Hive to mainstream sport infrastructure and practice, ensuring it is not a parallel offer but part of a broader shift in how sport and movement are delivered. Designers, architects, sports leads, physiotherapists and therapists will support the translation of lived experience into spatial, equipment and activity design, responding to information from young people rather than working in advance of them. Finally, the wider local community is a key partner in systems change. People living near the site will be essential in shaping acceptance, participation and shared ownership of the space. Through volunteering, participation and regular use of the facilities, they help ensure The Hive becomes a genuinely shared community asset rather than a specialist provision. While many of these partnerships are familiar within the sector, our intention is not to reinvent the components, but to reassemble them. We aren’t reinventing the wheel, but we are trying to build a new wagon. The shift we are making is in sequencing and power: placing lived experience at the start of the design process, rather than at the end, and using that to reorient how all other partners contribute. In that sense, we are not building a new set of tools, but a new way of assembling them into something more effective, inclusive and sustainable. The result should be a space that is designed through neurodiverse perspectives, but that is intended as a visible, shared community asset for use by the whole community that reshapes how communities understand inclusion, participation and public space.
What are you measuring, how are you measuring it, and what does the data tell you so far (quantitative and qualitative)?
We are currently using our Tuesday and Friday sessions as a baseline for understanding how autistic and learning-disabled young people engage with activity when they are actively involved in shaping it. This gives us both quantitative and qualitative starting points before The Hive is developed. At present, of the existing SEACC provision we measure: -Weekly attendance (currently consistent cohorts of autistic and learning-disabled young people attending Tuesday and Friday sessions) -Retention and return rates over time -Session participation patterns (who leads activities, who observes, who joins in partially) -Qualitative feedback gathered through informal conversations, group reflection and creative activities From this, we already see early indicators that participation increases when young people have control over structure, choice and environment. We also see that “drop-out” is often linked not to lack of interest in movement, but to sensory overload, social pressure or lack of clarity in how to participate. Short-term indicators (Year 1 – The Hive launch phase) We will measure: - Turnover of Hive Mind participants -Number of weekly participants (target 30–50 autistic and learning-disabled young people, increasing over time to 80–100 total participants) -Attendance consistency and repeat participation rates -Engagement across different types of activity (structured sport vs play-based movement vs observation) -Number of co-design sessions delivered and level of participation (young people, siblings, parents/carers) - Number of private hires and income generation against modelling -Immediate feedback on space design (layout, equipment, lighting, sound, “feel” of the environment) Methods will include attendance tracking, simple visual feedback tools, structured group reflection sessions and observation of how young people use the space. Medium-term indicators (Year 2–3 – consolidation and shift in behaviour/system) We will measure: -Evidence of young people independently choosing and shaping activities without facilitation prompts -Increased cross-participation between autistic/learning-disabled and neurotypical young people in shared sessions -Number of volunteers and non-disabled young people taking active delivery roles -Changes made to the space and programme in response to young people’s feedback over time -Uptake of private hire alongside continued free/low-cost provision (as a measure of mainstream desirability of the space) -Interest from other organisations or sites in adopting elements of the model Methods will include longitudinal tracking of participation, structured evaluation cycles each term, partner feedback and documented changes to delivery and design. We will look for early indicators that go beyond participation numbers, including: -Young people moving from participating to initiating activities -Siblings and neurotypical peers actively engaging alongside autistic and learning-disabled young people in shared spaces -Non-disabled volunteers and community members adapting their behaviour and expectations within the space -External organisations asking to replicate or adapt elements of the model -Evidence that the space is being used and valued as a mainstream community asset, not a specialist provision Taken together, this tells us whether we are shifting from “access to a programme” towards a deeper change: a community space where autistic and learning-disabled young people are not only present, but shaping how the space works and how it is understood.
Long-term impact: what lasting systems change are you seeking to create and how will you know when it has happened?
Our targeted systems change goal is to shift societal attitudes towards autistic and learning-disabled people in sport, play and community life by increasing their visibility, influence and participation within shared community spaces. We believe many barriers faced by autistic and learning-disabled young people are not created by a lack of interest in sport or movement, but by social norms that shape who community spaces are designed for and who is expected to participate in them. Too often, disabled people are considered when spaces are adapted rather than when they are created. The long-term change we are seeking is therefore not simply the creation of a specialist sports space. It is a shift in how communities think about disability, participation and belonging. We want to demonstrate that spaces designed through neurodiverse perspectives are valued community assets for everyone. Our theory of change is that greater visibility leads to greater understanding. When non-disabled people regularly encounter autistic and learning-disabled young people as designers, contributors, leaders and participants, stigma reduces and expectations begin to change – we know this to be true as we already see this happen at SEACC. As understanding grows, communities become more confident creating environments that work for a wider range of people. Over time, this leads to more accessible spaces, stronger relationships and greater participation across the whole community. In five to ten years, success would look like community spaces routinely involving disabled people in shaping design and programming from the outset. It would look like autistic and learning-disabled young people being visible and influential within community life rather than receiving separate provision on the margins. It would also look like public assets being activated through co-design and shared ownership, creating spaces that are welcoming, beautiful and usable for everyone – accessible does not have to mean purely functional. We will know this change is happening when organisations begin adopting elements of the model, when community members see inclusive design as good design, and when the question is no longer “how do we adapt this space for disabled people?” but “how do we design this space well for everyone from the beginning?” If The Hive were to be designed, built and developed over the next 5 years and then suddenly disappeared (it won’t), we would hope what remains would be a changed expectation: that autistic and learning-disabled young people are visible contributors to community life, and that their presence and expertise makes community spaces better for everyone.
Is there anything else you'd like to share with us that you were not able to share in previous questions?
The Hive began as an idea to create a better sport space for autistic and learning-disabled young people. Through the capacity-building programme, our thinking has evolved. We now see an opportunity to create something broader: a community asset designed through neurodiverse perspectives that improves the experience of everyone who uses it. To summarise our approach: Direct Action: Create a new sport, movement and play space for autistic and learning-disabled young people. Scalability: Develop a replicable model for activating underused public assets through co-design, supported by partners who are keen to see it adopted elsewhere. Systems Change: Shift expectations about who community spaces are designed for, who participates in them and who gets to shape them. Four principles underpin the project: beauty, joy, visibility and play. They have emerged directly from our conversations with young people, families and partners, and increasingly feel like the foundations of both the project and the systems change we are seeking. Beauty challenges the assumption that accessible spaces must be purely functional. We are interested in how high-quality materials, integrated equipment, calm lighting and uncluttered design can create spaces that are simultaneously sensory-considerate and highly desirable; a space that autistic and learning-disabled young people are proud of and that the wider community wants to spend time in. We believe good design is not an add-on to inclusion but a key part of it. Joy recognises that participation is driven by positive experiences, not simply provision. Too often conversations about disability focus on barriers and deficits. We want young people to associate movement, community and physical activity with enjoyment, confidence and connection. Visibility is central to our systems change goal. We believe attitudes change when people regularly encounter autistic and learning-disabled young people as participants, creators, leaders and decision-makers within shared community spaces. Visibility helps challenge stigma, build understanding and shift expectations about who community spaces are for. Play is both a design tool and a programme principle. Early conversations suggest that many young people respond more positively to play than traditional sport. By starting with curiosity, exploration, creativity and choice, we can better understand what makes movement enjoyable and accessible. We are interested in what happens when both the space and the activities are designed through the lens of play first, and sport second. The Hive builds on foundations SEACC has already established. We have developed a successful model of using commercial income to subsidise community activity and have experience delivering co-designed provision with autistic and learning-disabled young people. Since being shortlisted, we have invested in design development, consultation with specialist organisations and the creation of our Hive Mind group: a paid group of young people and their families helping us investigate barriers, challenge assumptions and shape solutions. If successful, funding will allow us to move from exploration into delivery. We will continue working with the Hive Mind, appoint a specialist co-creation practitioner and work alongside designers, therapists and architects to translate young people's ideas into a beautiful, joyful and accessible space. We recognise there are larger organisations in this competition. Our strength as a small charity is our ability to move quickly, respond to local need, build trusted relationships, test ideas, adapt in real time and work closely alongside the young people and families we serve. We are close enough to the problem to understand its nuances and flexible enough to respond to what we learn. Lasting systems change, however, requires scale as well as innovation. It requires partners with the reach, influence and assets to embed successful approaches more widely. This is why our partnership with the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham is so important. The council brings land ownership, strategic influence and the ability to replicate successful models across multiple sites. Support in writing from the Chief Executive of the Council, Sharon Lea, and our local MP, Ben Coleman, reflects a shared belief that this work has relevance beyond a single building. In many ways, The Hive represents the ideal partnership between community innovation and institutional scale: SEACC can develop and test a new model; our partners can help it travel. We believe the strongest route to systems change is not asking large institutions to innovate alone, nor expecting small organisations to scale alone, but creating partnerships where each contributes what they do best. Finally, we are not trying to reinvent every component of the system. Co-design, inclusive sport, community partnerships and public asset activation already exist. Our ambition is to assemble these elements differently: placing lived experience at the start of the process, creating meaningful relationships between disabled and non-disabled communities, and building a beautiful space and inclusive programme supported by a sustainable model that local authorities and community organisations can replicate elsewhere. We're not just building a specialist SEND sport facility. We're building a community asset designed through neurodiverse perspectives that will change how autistic and learning-disabled young people interact with their community, and creating a model others will want to replicate.
If you selected “Other”, please specify below.
Grants Online newsletter
