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
Mark
Last Name
Swift
Pronouns
He/Him
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?
Yes
Are you applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow?
Yes
If you are applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow, please specify the name and organisation of the fellow below.
Wellbeing Enterprises CIC
Lead Organisation Name
Wellbeing Enterprises CIC
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2005
Initiative Title
My Place: A Community-Led Digital Platform for Reimagining Spaces for Sport and Play
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://www.wellbeingenterprises.org.uk
Initiative Stage
Established (You’ve successfully passed early phases and have a plan for the future. Your venture has been in existence for 6 years and above)
Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Health & Fitness
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
My Place is a community-led digital platform that empowers Londoners to identify, map and unlock local spaces for sport, play and physical activity, combining lived experience, evidence-based wellbeing principles and real-time data to improve access and inclusion.
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?
Across London, many neighbourhood spaces that could support sport, play and everyday physical activity remain underused, overlooked or perceived as inaccessible, particularly in areas experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. While facilities exist, residents – especially young people and underserved communities – often lack awareness, confidence or influence over how these spaces are shaped and activated, contributing to lower participation and widening health inequalities. This reflects national evidence: Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey (2023–24) shows that only 47.8% of children meet the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity, with participation falling to 45% among children from the least affluent families and just 40% among those with two or more characteristics of inequality. The same report demonstrates a clear positive association between physical activity and mental wellbeing. Physical inactivity is estimated to cost the UK economy £7.4 billion annually, including significant NHS costs (UK Government, All Our Health). Those who will benefit most are communities experiencing reduced access to inclusive, welcoming neighbourhood spaces for physical activity and play, particularly in areas where inactivity and inequality are most pronounced. We are close to this issue through two decades of place-based wellbeing work and through the prior development of a digital asset-mapping platform designed to surface and activate local spaces. This project represents the next phase of refinement and relaunch in partnership with London communities, embedding lived experience at the heart of neighbourhood activation and ensuring local insight directly informs decision-making.
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?
My Place addresses this challenge by combining digital innovation with community-led research and broad public engagement. We will refine and relaunch our location-based platform and recruit local community researchers - particularly young people and residents from underserved neighbourhoods - to identify, map and assess spaces that could support sport and play. Using the app, participants will upload, tag and review spaces, generating real-time insight into perceived barriers such as visibility, safety, access and awareness. Alongside this structured research, the app will be freely available to all Londoners, supported by a targeted local marketing and outreach campaign to raise awareness and encourage widespread participation. This ensures the platform functions both as a research tool and a public activation mechanism, helping residents discover nearby opportunities to be active. We will share neighbourhood-level insight with landowners, local authorities, schools and housing providers, convening conversations to explore practical improvements - such as access arrangements, programming or co-design - that make spaces more inclusive and welcoming. Our “aha” moment came through years of community wellbeing work, where we saw that the issue was often not a lack of facilities, but a lack of connection, ownership and visibility; My Place creates the bridge between communities and decision-makers to unlock local spaces for sport and physical activity.
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?
Young people and community members are not passive beneficiaries of My Place; they are central to shaping and delivering it. We will recruit and support local young people and residents as community researchers, equipping them with digital and research skills to map and document neighbourhood spaces that could support sport and play. Using the platform, they will upload and tag spaces through the Five Ways to Wellbeing framework, add descriptions and reflect on how these spaces support connection and participation. Young people will take part in structured co-design sessions to refine how the platform feels and functions - shaping how places are described, what information is most useful to peers, and how the tool reflects the realities of navigating their neighbourhoods. Community researchers will review aggregated data to identify patterns - such as areas with limited informal play provision, valued but underused spaces, or gaps for specific age groups - and present these insights in facilitated roundtables with councils, housing providers and schools. They will help frame discussions, share lived examples and propose practical solutions such as clearer communication, partnership programming or community-led activation events. Alongside this structured work, the wider community will be invited to download and contribute to the platform through targeted local outreach, ensuring My Place functions both as a research tool and as a participatory borough-level asset map shaped by those closest to the issue. This approach moves beyond consultation towards shared influence, positioning communities as authors of local solutions while building confidence, digital literacy and civic leadership.
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?
My Place will generate both immediate and longer-term impact by increasing visibility, access and activation of local spaces for sport and physical activity. In the first 12 months, we anticipate recruiting and training 30-40 community researchers and engaging at least 500 residents through downloads, mapping activity and outreach. Together, they will co-produce a citizen-led asset map of places for sport, physical activity and play across target neighbourhoods in Croydon, documenting 200–300 spaces and generating publicly accessible, community-owned insight into local provision and gaps. The platform embeds the validated Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS), enabling us to collect pre- and post-engagement wellbeing data and demonstrate measurable changes associated with increased use of local spaces. We will track participation rates, repeat engagement and qualitative feedback to evidence behavioural shifts over time. Beyond individual outcomes, the initiative will generate neighbourhood-level data that can influence decision-making. We anticipate convening 6-8 stakeholder roundtables to translate community insight into practical changes such as improved access arrangements, clearer communication, partnership programming or community-led activation events. By combining a citizen-led asset map with validated wellbeing measurement and lived-experience insight, My Place provides a scalable, low-cost mechanism to unlock underused spaces and support sustained increases in physical activity where inequality is most pronounced.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
My Place is innovative not because it maps spaces, but because it shifts who defines and activates them. Many existing solutions focus either on listing facilities or delivering programmes within them. My Place combines a citizen-led asset map of places for sport, physical activity and play with validated wellbeing measurement (SWEMWBS), creating a feedback loop between lived experience, behaviour change and local decision-making. Unlike traditional mapping tools, the platform is community-generated and asset-based: residents identify and document spaces that support connection, movement and participation, reframing neighbourhoods through possibility rather than deficit. The data is not static; it is aggregated and brought into structured conversations with landowners, schools and local authorities, translating citizen insight into practical changes in access, programming and activation. The innovation lies in integrating digital engagement, wellbeing measurement and civic influence into a single mechanism. By embedding a validated wellbeing tool within a participatory mapping platform, we can demonstrate measurable change while strengthening local voice. Rather than building new infrastructure, My Place unlocks what already exists - shifting norms from top-down provision to community-informed activation and creating a scalable model for place-based physical activity that can be adapted for other London boroughs and, over time, other cities.
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?
My Place is being set up for success by building on a strong technical and organisational foundation. The core digital platform has already been developed and independently assessed by ORCHA, a recognised evaluator of health and care technologies and partner in this application. As part of this initiative, we will refine and update the platform to meet current technical standards, safeguarding requirements and user expectations, and undertake an updated review with ORCHA to ensure continued compliance and quality assurance. Because the underlying infrastructure exists, we are enhancing rather than building from scratch, enabling cost-efficient implementation. We will adopt a phased rollout, beginning with targeted neighbourhood pilots to test functionality and refine user experience before broader rollout within Croydon. Continuous monitoring through digital analytics and embedded SWEMWBS wellbeing data will inform improvement and demonstrate measurable impact. Operational sustainability will be secured through partnerships with local authorities, housing providers, schools and voluntary organisations, positioning My Place as a tool that supports existing physical activity and health strategies. This creates opportunities for co-commissioning and integration into established programmes rather than reliance on short-term grant funding. To scale, we will develop a replicable implementation toolkit, training resources and evaluation framework for adoption by additional London boroughs and, over time, other urban areas. The low-cost, digital-first structure - combined with citizen-led asset mapping and validated wellbeing measurement - provides a scalable model for unlocking underused spaces and sustaining long-term impact.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Wellbeing Enterprises will lead the initiative and hold overall accountability for delivery, governance, budget management and reporting. A named Project Lead will oversee implementation, stakeholder coordination, safeguarding, data governance and evaluation, ensuring alignment with physical activity and neighbourhood objectives. Our team will manage community engagement, recruitment and training of community researchers, and partnership coordination within Croydon and future expansion areas. Technical refinement and platform development will be delivered through a commissioned digital partner selected from our established network of trusted technology agencies. Wellbeing Enterprises will retain oversight of technical specifications, user experience and data protection, working closely with ORCHA to ensure quality assurance. ORCHA, as a partner in this application, will support platform refinement and undertake updated technical review to ensure compliance with current digital health, data protection and safety standards. Their role strengthens independent quality assurance and platform credibility. Community researchers will co-deliver the initiative on the ground. They will identify and map local spaces for sport, play and physical activity, gather resident insight, and contribute to neighbourhood activation conversations with local stakeholders. Local authorities, housing providers, schools and voluntary sector partners will co-deliver engagement activity, support recruitment and venue access, and align the initiative with borough-level strategies to embed the asset map within existing programmes. A clear governance structure, defined responsibilities and regular partner meetings will ensure shared ownership, accountability and coordinated delivery throughout.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
The initiative will be delivered over 18 months, beginning with focused implementation in the London Borough of Croydon, targeting neighbourhoods experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage and lower participation in physical activity. Phase 1 (Months 1–5): Technical refinement and mobilisation. We will appoint a digital development partner from our existing network of trusted technology agencies to update and refine the platform. An updated technical review will be undertaken in partnership with ORCHA to ensure compliance with current digital health, safeguarding and data protection standards. Borough partnerships will be formalised, governance frameworks confirmed, and community researchers recruited and trained. Milestone: By Month 5, the updated platform will be relaunched, publicly available for download, and ready for both community researcher activity and wider public use. Phase 2 (Months 6–12): Pilot deployment in Croydon. Community researchers will begin mapping spaces for sport, physical activity and play, while the platform will be promoted locally to encourage wider public downloads and contributions. The app will present nearby opportunities for activity and record pre- and post-engagement SWEMWBS wellbeing data to inform iterative improvement. Milestone: By Month 12, a live citizen-led asset map will be established in Croydon, combining structured community research with wider resident participation and early wellbeing and engagement data. Phase 3 (Months 13–18): Consolidation and embedding. The asset map will expand through continued community contributions, with insights shared through structured cross-sector conversations involving the local authority, housing providers, schools, voluntary organisations, NHS Primary Care Networks and local clinicians with whom we have existing relationships. These discussions will support practical improvements in access, programming and activation of identified spaces. Milestone: By Month 18, an evaluation report and implementation toolkit will be produced, demonstrating mapped assets, engagement reach and wellbeing impact. The Croydon pilot will establish a robust, scalable model that can be adapted for other London boroughs beyond the funded period, subject to new partnerships and commissioning opportunities.
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.
Participation in the 8-week capacity-building programme will require dedicated senior leadership and project development time to engage fully in workshops, mentoring and follow-up activities. As a small, delivery-focused organisation, this represents an opportunity cost against ongoing place-based work. We would request £6,000 to support participation, covering: • Senior leadership time and staff backfill to enable full engagement across the programme without disrupting existing delivery commitments • Project development and preparation time linked directly to programme activities (refinement planning, financial modelling and partnership readiness) • Travel and related participation expenses, should in-person sessions be required This support would be used solely to remove barriers to participating fully in the capacity-building programme.
