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
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Last Name
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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
Paddlers for the Planet Protecting: protecting access to safe sport through youth-led climate action
Lead Organization Name
Leaside
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
1993
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
www.leaside.org.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?
Children & Youth
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
A youth-led paddlesport and climate programme that empowers young people through Leaside’s youth club and schools programme, in partnership with ecoACTIVE, to take meaningful climate and river action creating cleaner, safer and more climate-resilient access to sport.
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 East London are already experiencing the climate crisis in their daily lives, affecting mental wellbeing and access to safe outdoor sport. Research from Save the Children shows 70% of children worry about the world they will inherit, while the Royal College of Psychiatrists reports 57% of psychiatrists see children distressed about the climate crisis. Young people tell us they feel frustrated and powerless about environmental issues affecting their lives and futures. For the young paddlers we support, these impacts are visible on the River Lea. Extreme heat reduces oxygen, causing fish die-offs; intense storms trigger flooding and toxic road runoff; sewage overflows, invasive species, and plastic pollution make sections of the river unsafe. These tangible ecological harms distress young people and motivate them to take action. Climate change deepens unequal access to green and blue spaces and marginalised communities lack opportunities lack opportunities to take climate action and shape solutions. Hackney has high child deprivation—64% of children live in income-deprived households, up to 99% in some areas—limiting schools’ ability to afford outdoor climate learning. Our subsidised bursary scheme gives all young people the chance for hands-on environmental action and climate leadership securing the next generation's equal access to paddlesports.
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?
Paddlers for the Planet is a two-strand, youth-led programme that embeds climate awareness and practical action across Leaside’s youth club and schools paddlesports programmes, so that protecting the river is part of keeping sport safe, accessible and enjoyable. Leaside’s ‘aha’ moment came when young people were unable to paddle due to a mass fish die-off caused by pollution after a storm. Crying, they tried to save dying fish and critically endangered eels. We realised that climate leadership is now crucial to protecting our sport and tackling young people's feelings of helplessness. So we developed the River Classroom programme with ecoACTIVE, implemented a transformational Net Zero strategy and established Leaside as a regional hub for river action. Our approach harnesses Leaside’s year-round youth paddle club to raise climate awareness and support practical green and blue actions to improve waterway safety, sustainability, and resilience. Activities include citizen science water quality testing, plastic removal, biodiversity restoration, and invasive species management. Selected youth will train as River Lea Climate Leaders through ecoACTIVE’s ISEP Environmental Sustainability Skills for the Workforce course. Participants will also showcase their learning through a creative public event, amplifying young voices and inspiring wider community action. Funding will expand our River Classroom Environmental Learning model, a hybrid programme combining classroom-based sustainability education with practical action led by Leaside. Students gain carbon literacy, environmental qualifications, and hands-on experience improving the River Lea and local green spaces through water quality monitoring, habitat improvements, invasive species removal, and pollution reduction.
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 are not just participants, they are co-designers and decision-makers. This builds long-term ownership and ensures solutions are shaped by those closest to the challenges. Leaside youth club members already shape programmes through feedback, a youth leadership forum and established leadership pathways. Within this project, young people will identify priority environmental issues on the River Lea, choose action projects and co-create campaigns that reflect their concerns. Climate Leaders will receive additional training and help shape how Leaside develops its environmental work as a club. Our previous Festival of Light showed how young people can successfully design and deliver creative public projects that communicate their concerns and solutions to the wider community. The initiative is rooted in strong local partnerships. Schools such as Harrington Hill have already been consulted in developing the 6-week River Classroom programme, ensuring it reflects the needs of local pupils and teachers. ecoACTIVE brings extensive experience gathering youth feedback through sustainability education and accredited courses. And 95% of ISEP course graduates felt equipped for future careers in the sector - one said: “it made me feel more hopeful as my perspective shifted from whats wrong with the world to what I can do.”. Participant feedback shows young people want more practical environmental action, which this programme directly delivers. Leaside’s public events programme also brings residents, families and paddlers into river action days, strengthening shared stewardship of the Lea. We prioritise young people from communities who face unequal access to nature and outdoor sport, ensuring those most affected by environmental change are core to shaping solutions.
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 initiative delivers both environmental and social impact by linking sport participation directly to climate action. Both Leaside’s and ecoACTIVE’s work already has huge impact, but we are ready to harness the projects potential to scale up impact. The Youth Club strand will engage approximately 200 young people through youth club sessions and holiday provision. Individuals have improved physical activity while gaining sustainability knowledge, carbon literacy and practical environmental skills. We expect at least 30 young people to complete the internationally recognised ISEP Environmental Sustainability Skills for the Workforce Certificate with many progressing into volunteering, peer mentoring or community campaigning roles in the community. This drives behaviour change and leadership development, building on Leaside's strong track record supporting members into leadership and paid roles. The River Classroom strand can deliver approximately four classes to complete a 6 weeks or 1.5 hour sessions and 10 one day 5 hour sessions. This will support 420 local school kids access subsidised sessions. This project will produce measurable environmental outputs. We anticipate delivering around 15 river action days annually removing plastics and pennywort, conducting 45 citizen science water quality tests, running 15 biodiversity or habitat projects, and removing the equivalent of 5 tonnes of litter from the River Lea each year. These activities generate citizen science data, improve local habitats and enhance waterways safety and climate resilience for sport. We will track impact through participation data, progression pathways, environmental monitoring results, school feedback and youth surveys measuring confidence, climate understanding and stewardship behaviours.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
Our initiative is innovative because it integrates sport, environmental education, and youth-led climate action into a single, practical programme. Instead of treating paddlesport and sustainability separately, we use sport as a platform for leadership, behaviour change, and community action, enabling young people to apply classroom learning outdoors on the River Lea and local green spaces through activities such as citizen science, habitat restoration, invasive species removal, and climate adaptation projects. Our original partnership with ecoACTIVE, who are based at Leaside, enables us to embed environmental learning alongside regular sports participation with both the youth club and schools, translating continuous learning into action rather than one-off workshops. The programme positions young people as climate leaders and decision-makers, co-designing projects and shaping their sport spaces, which directly links climate resilience to safe and inclusive participation in sport. Leaside’s centre also functions as a living lab showcasing our innovative net zero journey and climate action programming providing a unique opportunity through workshops and training for young people and partners to see first hand solutions to the climate crisis. This includes 90 solar PV panels, battery storage systems, air source heat pumps, low-carbon water heating, electric vehicle charging, a small wind turbine, and hydroelectric generation. The initiative also includes a youth-led creative climate festival, amplifying participants’ voices through public art and storytelling, engaging the wider community, and demonstrating a replicable model of climate-aware sport and youth leadership that can be adopted by other clubs and schools.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
The initiative draws on young people’s passion, the environmental education expertise of ecoActive, and the sport and river-based delivery experience of Leaside. Leaside will lead the programme as the accountable delivery partner, building on its long history as a paddlesports club delivering youth and school programmes since the 1960s. A dedicated Leaside staff member will oversee programme delivery, youth engagement, safeguarding, and partnerships, while our highly qualified paddlesport coaching team will deliver all outdoor sport and river-based environmental action. ecoACTIVE will lead the classroom-based environmental learning, deliver sustainability qualifications, and support curriculum development ensuring that theoretical learning aligns with evidence based practical outdoor action. Together, Leaside and ecoACTIVE have already developed the hybrid environmental learning model that underpins this project, and both organisations are committed to its long-term growth and replication. To support sustainability beyond the grant period, we will jointly develop a high-quality pack of session plans and educational materials that can be shared with other organisations. This work will be supported by Michael Shilling, who provides marketing and communications support across both organisations and will help shape accessible, transferable resources. Young people will hold meaningful responsibility within the programme. Through the youth leadership forum they will help decide spending on action projects, co-design the annual festival theme, and support delivery of community events, ensuring the programme remains youth-led in practice as well as in principle. Programme administration will be shared between Leaside and ecoACTIVE, with clear coordination to ensure efficient delivery and communication across partners.
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?
Paddlers for the Planet is immediately operationally viable, building on Leaside’s existing youth club infrastructure, school partnerships, accredited staff and volunteer networks, and delivery experience alongside ecoACTIVE. Funding will support programme development, subsidised access, youth engagement, and the creation of practical resources. Scalability is a key strength, plans include: Sustainable bursary model: River Classroom programme has strong feedback, but more deprived schools lack equal access. Establishing a sustainable bursary scheme with mixed funding model of grants, corporate partnerships, and subsidised school payments. ecoACTIVE strengthens credibility that attracts schools and future funding. Sharing learning with clubs: Most paddlesport clubs run youth clubs and schools sessions. We will develop and deliver science-based training and downloadable resources (session plans, citizen science guides, youth toolkits, and creative approaches) so sports and youth clubs have the knowledge and resources to embed climate action. Inspiring other clubs: Leaside will be an ambassador providing a blueprint for youth and paddle clubs. With ecoACTIVE, we will run workshops on practical climate solutions, renewable energy and climate-informed programming. ecoACTIVE can also offer staff training and guidance to develop Climate Action Plans.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
We are eager to progress to the finalist stage, as this will give us dedicated time to refine our plans, strengthen partnerships, and ensure that all elements of the programme are structured for youth engagement, climate impact, and community participation. Being finalists would allow us to put together detailed delivery plans, co-design with young people, and prepare resources for broader sharing and scaling. One key element we need to keep in mind is deliverability. As an ambitous organisation we often want to deliver alot but need to make a plan with our partners ecoACTIVE to ensure we are working within our capacity. Milestones: Months 1–3: Co-design programme with young people; recruit River Lea Climate Leaders; train staff and volunteers in environmental delivery. Create session plans and resources. Month 4: Launch youth club climate strand and River Classroom programme. Months 5–10: Deliver school sessions; run citizen science water monitoring and biodiversity projects; embed climate action into paddlesport sessions. Month 8: Deliver youth leadership training and develop peer mentors to support younger participants. Month 11: Plan and produce youth-led creative climate festival, incorporating public art and community campaigns. Month 12: Deliver festival; complete evaluation; refine resources and plan next steps for scaling and long-term sustainability.
