My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
Yes
I am 18 years of age or above, by the application deadline.
Yes
My organisation is a registered UK entity and has a London-based address.
Yes
My organisation is a non-profit (e.g. school, university, or local authority) — not a for-profit, which can only join as a partner.
Yes
If there is a for-profit organisation as a partner in my initiative, they work on a cost-recovery basis only.
Yes
My solution is implemented at scale, or if not, I have a clear business plan, a minimum viable solution (prototype, pilot, or proof of concept), and evidence of work or impact in London within your coalition.
Yes
I am aware that, if I am submitting more than one application to a Challenge run by Ashoka and Go! London, only one of them is able to progress through the stages.
Yes
Are you an employee (and their children and grandchildren) of Ashoka or any of its respective affiliates and participating advertising and promotion agencies?
No
I have read and accepted the Challenge Terms & Conditions
1
First Name
Last Name
Pronouns
Email address
I would like to receive notifications and updates about Go London!, Ashoka, Ashoka Changemakers, and other Ashoka opportunities.
Are you an Ashoka Fellow?
Are you applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow?
If you are applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow, please specify the name and organisation of the fellow below.
Initiative Title
Next Gen Riders
Lead Organization Name
upCYCLE LDN
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2020
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
www.upcycleldn.co.uk / @upcycleldn_
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 youth-led programme that uses cycling and refurbished bikes to help young people build lifelong active travel habits, learn about climate and mobility, and become ambassadors for low-carbon transport in their communities.
Challenge Focus: What topic does your initiative most directly relate to?
Climate action through awareness and engagement
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve and who will benefit the most from your solution? How close are you to the problem and/or community impacted?
Young people in the communities we work with face multiple barriers that limit their mobility, opportunities and ability to respond to climate change. In Angell Town and wider North Lambeth, many families experience financial pressure, limited access to green space and high exposure to air pollution. Cycling rates remain low due to cost, lack of confidence, safety concerns, limited secure storage and the perception that cycling is not for people like them. These communities are also disproportionately affected by environmental inequality. Black and lower-income residents are more likely to experience poorer air quality and fewer green spaces, while climate messaging often feels distant from the day-to-day pressures young people face. Our work is rooted locally. What began during lockdown as a grassroots effort repairing and distributing bikes has grown into five years of trusted relationships through repair sessions, school programmes, family support, partnerships and recently a new permanent community hub in Angell Town, Brixton. Solving this matters because mobility is access. Independent travel opens pathways to education, training and work, while building lifelong active travel habits that support healthier people, cleaner air and more resilient communities.
Your approach: How are you addressing the problem outlined above? How are you using the power of sport and physical activity to build awareness, shift behavior, and enable sustainable participation for all in response to the climate crisis? We'd love to know about the origin of your idea, and what was your "aha" moment" that led you to take action?
Our approach uses cycling as a practical tool to build long-term behaviour change, climate awareness and independent mobility for young people. Participants take part in structured cycling sessions linked to real-life journeys such as travelling to school, college, work experience and local activities. The focus is on practical independence, including route planning, road confidence, safe riding and basic maintenance. By embedding cycling into everyday life rather than treating it as recreation, the programme helps young people develop active travel habits that reduce reliance on cars and lower transport costs. Alongside riding, young people explore the links between transport, climate change, air pollution, health and inequality. Sessions are local and practical, helping them understand how travel choices affect their community and how active travel can improve both personal wellbeing and environmental outcomes. Participants are supported to become youth climate ambassadors, encouraging active travel among peers and family members, leading group rides and promoting low-carbon travel within their schools and communities. This creates wider, intergenerational behaviour change. The idea grew from a moment during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, which prompted me to think about what practical action I could take locally. What started as a short-term response quickly grew as demand increased and relationships developed. Through working directly with young people and families, it became clear that simply giving someone a bike was not enough. The approach shifted from one-off donations to a longer-term model focused on access, confidence and opportunity.
Collaboration with young people and the community: In what ways does your initiative engage young people and community members closest to the problem? What role do they play in building the solution you deliver?
Our initiative is built around young people as active participants, not just beneficiaries. We work closely with them to shape activities based on their experiences, barriers and ideas, and support them to take on leadership roles within the programme and their community. Young people who progress through our sessions are trained as Ride Leaders, supporting the delivery of group rides, cycle training and community activities alongside our staff. This builds confidence, leadership skills and creates visible role models who reflect the communities we work with. Climate awareness is also delivered through peer learning. Young people take part in practical sessions at the hub exploring air quality, transport emissions and sustainable travel, then return to their schools to co-deliver workshops and assemblies with our team. Hearing these messages from their peers helps make climate action more relevant and relatable. Participants are actively involved in community events such as car-free days, local rides and awareness campaigns, helping to promote active travel within their neighbourhoods and encouraging friends and family to get involved. We also work with families through parent and child cycling sessions, building confidence together and supporting parents to replace short car journeys with walking or cycling. This creates intergenerational change, with young people influencing household travel habits. Feedback from young people and residents is gathered through surveys and focus groups, and this directly informs how our programmes develop. By building leadership, peer influence and family engagement, the initiative is rooted in the community and shaped by the people closest to the challenges we are addressing.
Potential for/Evidence of Impact: How do you imagine your initiative will make a difference in raising climate awareness, shifting behaviors, or reducing environmental impact or harm? If you have already implemented it, what difference have you made so far? What is the impact your initiative has had¡, and/or what impact do you envision having in the future?
Our approach focuses on long-term behaviour change rather than one-off activity. By building confidence, skills and access together, we support young people to replace short car, bus or taxi journeys with cycling for everyday travel. Our impact model is designed to deliver measurable behaviour change, with outputs scaled according to the level of funding available. Based on current delivery, we estimate that each £32,500–£40,000 of funding enables us to engage approximately 150–200 young people and residents through cycle training, bike refurbishment, maintenance skills and climate-focused mobility education. The programme supports long-term impact by helping participants replace short car or bus journeys with cycling for everyday travel, reducing transport costs and increasing independence. Each refurbished bike also diverts waste from landfill and enables years of low-carbon travel. Through family sessions and peer leadership, behaviour change often extends beyond the individual to influence household travel habits. Impact will be measured and reported by our Impact & Operations Manager through a structured monitoring framework, including participation data, demographics, progression outcomes and feedback. We also track indicators such as increased cycling frequency, journeys made by bike, skills gained, confidence levels and progression into training, employment or volunteering. Our long-term strategy is to scale this approach through partnerships with schools, youth organisations and local authorities, enabling delivery in additional boroughs throughout South London and eventually the rest of London.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
Our approach is different because it treats cycling as a long-term social infrastructure for behaviour change, rather than a short-term activity or awareness campaign. Many programmes focus on one element, such as cycle training, bike distribution or environmental education. We integrate access, skills, confidence, climate understanding and real-world use into a single pathway that supports sustained change. The innovation lies in focusing on everyday mobility. Instead of promoting cycling as sport or leisure, which also has value, we work with young people to use bikes for real journeys, school, training, work experience and local activities. This shifts cycling from an occasional activity to a practical alternative to motorised travel, embedding low-carbon habits early in life. Our model also tackles the structural barriers that often limit impact. Participants receive ongoing access to bikes, maintenance support, safe storage solutions where possible, route planning and peer-led rides. By removing practical and confidence barriers together, we enable participation from young people who would not typically engage with cycling. A further innovation is the youth-led element. Our climate ambassadors will support sessions, lead group rides and promote active travel within their schools, families and peer networks. This creates peer influence and intergenerational change, helping new behaviours spread organically through the community. The initiative is delivered through a hub embedded within the neighbourhood. This provides consistent access, trusted relationships and a platform for repair, reuse and community activity, supporting a circular, low-carbon model rather than one-off interventions.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Phil Dobson (Founder & Director) provides overall strategic leadership, partnership development and income generation. Phil leads relationships with funders, schools, community organisations and local stakeholders, ensuring the programme is aligned with local needs and positioned for long-term sustainability and growth. Tinashe Mandimika (Impact & Operations Manager and Designated Safeguarding Lead – Level 3) oversees day-to-day delivery, safeguarding, programme coordination and quality assurance. Tinashe is responsible for monitoring and evaluation, tracking outcomes, managing data and reporting impact to funders and partners. Mike Horgan (Head Mechanic) leads all bike maintenance training and workshop activity. This includes delivering practical skills sessions, maintaining the fleet of bikes, ensuring health and safety, and supporting young people to progress towards accredited mechanics pathways and volunteering roles. Silvi Vargas (Head Instructor) leads cycle training, route planning and group rides. Silvi ensures safe, inclusive delivery and supports participants to build confidence riding independently for everyday journeys. The core team is supported by qualified freelance cycle instructors and mechanics who are brought in to scale delivery during peak periods and specialist sessions. Local volunteers, including past participants, support community events, group rides and peer engagement.
Viability and Scalability: How are you setting your organization up for success, and what is your plan to ensure operational sustainability of your solution and its impact? What are your ideas for scaling your initiative to the next level?
We want to grow our model into a sustainable, locally rooted approach that helps more young people build lifelong active travel habits and climate awareness across Lambeth and neighbouring boroughs. Our priority over the next 2–3 years is to strengthen the Angell Town hub as a stable delivery base, expand school partnerships and develop a network of Youth Climate Ambassadors who can influence travel behaviour within their schools, families and communities. In the longer term, we aim to replicate this hub-plus-schools model in other areas with similar needs. To scale our impact, we need two key areas of support; long-term funding to provide staff stability and allow us to plan beyond short project cycles and partnerships with schools, local authorities and public health organisations to embed programmes within local systems. We are already building the foundations for this growth. We have secured and opened a permanent community hub, are increasing earned income through bike servicing and repairs and venue hire, and are developing relationships with local councillors, our local MP Helen Hayes and networks such as Lambeth Climate Partnership and Impact on Urban Health. We are also working with organisations including Mums for Lungs to connect our work to wider air quality and health priorities.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
Spring–Summer 2026 - Formalise partnerships with 4–6 Lambeth secondary schools, prioritising those serving high-need communities - Deliver in-school workshops combining active travel skills, climate awareness and local journey planning - Launch the Youth Climate Ambassador pathway (first cohort of 20–30 young people) with leadership training, ride leader development and mentoring - Establish a weekly programme of community rides, bike maintenance sessions and “real journey” practice (school, college, work experience routes) - Begin baseline data collection on travel behaviour, confidence and climate awareness Autumn 2026 - Support ambassadors to lead peer activity, including ride-to-school groups, assemblies, workshops and community events - Deliver family cycling programmes to influence household travel choices and reduce short car journeys - Introduce school and neighbourhood challenges linked to active travel, air quality and independent mobility - Strengthen partnerships with local organisations, public health and climate networks - Review participation data, behaviour change indicators and learning to refine delivery Winter 2026 – Spring 2027 - Expand delivery to additional schools and community partners based on demand and capacity - Train a second cohort of Youth Climate Ambassadors - Share learning and impact through partner briefings, case studies and local networks - Develop a scalable delivery toolkit, including session plans, monitoring framework and partnership model By mid-2027 - Engaged 300–400 young people in structured programmes - Trained 40–60 youth leaders supporting peer and community activity - Evidence increased cycling confidence, independent journeys and reduced reliance on short car trips - Establish a tested, evidence-based model ready for replication across Lambeth and partner boroughs.
Capacity-Building Participation and Support Funding: If you were to make it as a finalist, you will be required to participate in an 8-week capacity building programme. If funding/ cost is a barrier to your participation, we may be able to offer up to 10,000 GBP of grant money available to support you. Please break down below, if it is the case, what costs you would incur and you would need covered. (Please note that there are restrictions on how the grant money may be used; please refer to the T&Cs for further details (LINK).
Direct project development and testing costs Pilot delivery of the Youth Climate Ambassador model to test content, engagement and behaviour change approaches (materials, equipment maintenance, safety resources) – £2,500 Prototype development of climate and active travel learning resources, including route-planning tools and workshop materials – £1,500 Community testing sessions and participant engagement activities to refine the model based on feedback – £1,000 Subtotal: £5,000 Research and external expertise Independent monitoring and evaluation support to design a framework for measuring behaviour change, climate awareness and travel patterns – £2,500 Specialist consultancy to strengthen the climate education and active travel curriculum and ensure alignment with best practice – £1,500 Research and partnership development support to explore scaling the model with schools and community partners in other boroughs – £1,000 Subtotal: £5,000 Total requested: £10,000
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