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
Play for Nature
Lead Organization Name
Oasis Children's Venture
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
1970
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
www.oasisplay.org.uk
Initiative Stage
Pilot-Stage (The first activities have happened, and you have proof of concept)
Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Children & Youth
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
Outdoor play is one of the most accessible physical activities for all children. Kids also love getting mucky in mud. Using the green spaces at our Adventure Playground, we will deliver an exciting programme of nature-based activities, getting children involved in digging, planting, growing, harvesting and garden maintenance. Starting their journey of learning about, enjoying, and sustaining the natural environment, they will Play for Nature!
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?
Based in Lambeth, the localities we serve are significantly deprived with overcrowding and a lack of safe green space. Most children have no private gardens, no understanding or awareness of the natural environment and do not utilise local parks, which they see as areas of risk due to high crime rates. They have little concept of the impact of actions and are, sadly, more likely to vandalise a newly planted tree than care for it. Yet, locally, they are most affected by the impacts of climate change and poor environmental care - including poor air quality, high utilities costs, high food costs. Living with poverty, many local children also have limited opportunities to participate in sport, being financially excluded from fee-paying activities. With sedentary lifestyles – enhanced not feeling safe going to local green spaces – and struggles with obesity, many children feel alienated from sport. This impacts long-term health and mental wellbeing. With a safe, outdoor play space in the heart of this community, we have a unique opportunity to support these children to become more active and more actively engaged in the environment, building a healthier and more sustainable future for themselves and their community.
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?
In 2023 Oasis had an Eco-Audit. This identified clear opportunities to strengthen biodiversity, reduce our carbon impact and embed sustainable practice. But to action this requires investment. Our Ah-Ha moment came with this Go!London Sport for Climate Action programme, as it provides a perfect scope to combine active play with environmental action! Our ‘Play for Nature’ proposal provides a unique opportunity pro-actively introduce environmental engagement to children most affected by, but most disconnected from, climate change. While we try to maintain the green spaces around play structures with native flowers, fruit trees and wild areas, the children who attend our Adventure Playground currently focus their play solely on the play structures. Most children have a severe nature-deficit, living as they do in a concrete jungle between two major arterial roads into central London, with nature engagement completely unfamiliar with them. ‘Play for Nature’ will introduce a programme of nature-based activity sessions, using the green spaces around our play structures to engage our children and young people in fun, active ‘greening’ projects. Through this, we will increase their understanding of the natural environment, improve their awareness of the climate crisis and empower them to have a voice and make a positive contribution to addressing local and global issues – all while they lead the improvement of their local environment through active, hands-on projects. Embedding nature into everyday play, this familiar, close-to-home space will be transformed into thriving, species-rich environments, and children will grow up with an enjoyment of nature instilled in them, which they can continue to access as they grow up.
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?
We are youth led and children and young people play a central role in shaping the projects we deliver. All our sessions are also child-led, meaning Playworkers respond to play cues, adapt activities in real time and support children to shape their own ideas, keeping activities meaningful, developmentally appropriate and motivating. Alongside this, our children influence decisions through: •The Children’s Committee, which feeds into service planning & delivery •Youth empowerment and leadership activities, where young people help shape sessions, contribute to site decisions, and act as peer supporters • Sharing feedback through evaluation weeks, structured interviews, and everyday conversations We know that access to our play sessions are hugely valued - a survey of 60–70 parents (Mar 2025) showed strong demand for accessible, inclusive after school play supporting mental health and emotional wellbeing. We also know that when we have done gardening-based activities, children have really enjoyed it. “Planting bulbs is so fun! I love gardening” “We built houses for the birds and it was amazing!” ‘Play for Nature’ draws on this feedback, combining play and environment to remove barriers for under-represented children and young people to become more active and environmentally engaged, and empowering them to access and steward nature within their communities. To maximise engagement, we will also invite older participants, age 14-16 onto a Young Leaders path, supporting them to become Green Champions, learning to lead gardening activities with younger participants, and promote participation through peer-to-peer support. Through this, they will have the opportunity to gain play-based and environmental-focused AQA qualifications, building even greater climate literacy.
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 is designed to support children to recognise, engage in and access the greens spaces around them but are ‘unseen’ and unused by them. In doing so, this unlocks new space for them to be physically active in, through new forms of play activity, that drive awareness and engagement in climate action. Building on local relationships, we will also look to expand activities to the local Park – Larkhall – engaging our young people in park improvement projects. This will give access to another green space that our local children do not access regularly and build pride in the area, diverting from damaging play and vandalism to positive, community-led nature improvement. Reaching c.500 children/year at our Adventure Playground, ‘Play for Nature’ will target five key outcomes: 1: Children and young people (CY) will develop an awareness and interest in their natural surroundings 2. CYP will develop an understanding of climate change and environmental sustainability, and how they can influence it on a local and wider scale 2: CYP will experience improved physical health through active outdoor nature-based play 3. CYP will experience improved emotional wellbeing through nature-based activities 4: Improved environmental habitats, through greater maintenance of local green areas As the Programme becomes established, we aim to increase reach, expanding to our other sites (Kart Track, Bolton Crescent Adventure Playground), and supporting other local youth organisations in introducing the programme. This has potential to expand reach to 1000 per year.
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 tackles the root problem of inactive children who are disconnected from nature. These combined challenges impact their long-term health, wellbeing, and ability to engaging in and influence a changing environment that heightens the pressures they face. Our approach is innovative as it aims to transform the spaces where children currently play, reimagining the 'negative' spaces between play structures, which are often ignored, into dynamic 'positive' play areas. Using environmentally focused activities, we will use these spaces to engage children with hands-on activities where they can see the tangible results of their efforts: flowers blooming, fruits growing, and small crops being harvested. Beyond this direct interaction with nature, activities will be designed to expand their understanding broader environmental issues, how their choices can impact the environment, and how they can use their voice for change. Through nature surveys and observing increased biodiversity, children will begin to understand how greening initiatives can combat issues like poor air quality and support food growing. Through collaborations with local partners (e.g. Larkhall Park Partnership), they will have opportunities to help improve green spaces outside of Oasis; and field trips to environmentally rich places such as the Wetlands Centre or Richmond Park will provide new experiences of active nature spaces. By combining active play with environmental education, ‘Play for Nature’ will foster a lifelong connection to nature. Our approach will not only improve children’s activity levels, but in positively engaging them with the outdoors, will support a longer-term shifting of the community towards greater environmental awareness and sustainability.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Oasisplay is the sole delivery organisation for this project. We have a clear and robust organisational structure that supports safe, consistent and high-quality delivery. The organisation is governed by a Board of Trustees, supported by the Children’s Committee, which informs decision-making from a young people’s perspective. The Director provides overall strategic leadership, safeguarding oversight and operational accountability. Leading direct delivery of this ‘Play for Nature’ will be the Head of Play, who oversees all Adventure Playground delivery, supported by Senior Playworkers, the Community Play Project Manager and the Playwork Team. To develop and lead specific environmental focused play activities for this programme, we would recruit an Environmental Play Coordinator and Environmental Playleaders. They will also be responsible, with support from the wider team, of creating the Play for Nature activity pack. Young Leaders who will be recruited from our cohort to support peer engagement in the programme and help develop and deliver activities - are overseen by the Heads of Play, Youth and the Nature Garden team, with clear role expectations, induction, safeguarding training and sessional support built into each shift. Once established at our Adventure Playground, the team here will work with the Play Service Teams at our Bolton Crescent Playground, Kart Track and Nature Garden, to expand the programme across all our sites. While this is an Oasis-led project, we will use our platform in the Clapham Consortium, Stockwell Partnership, and direct networks with other youth groups, to share our Activity pack and offer complementary training, delivered by our Environmental Play Coordinator to support other local youth organisations to deliver ‘Play for Nature’ activities.
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?
‘Play for Nature’ will be delivered following the core cycle model of Plan → Deliver → Reflect → Adapt → Sustain which guides our work. To ensure easy access, setting our initiative up for success we will deliver sessions within our existing play-session schedule: • Tuesday–Friday: 3.30–6.00pm after-school sessions • Saturdays: 10.30am–4.00pm • Holiday Club sessions (half-terms, Easter, Summer – hours tbc) Sustaining the programme: 1. Within ‘Play for Nature’, we will support older participants (14-16) to take leadership roles in the delivering activities. Giving young people skills and programme ownership, it also means that as the programme progresses, it becomes more self-sustaining, as Young Leaders support delivery 2. Income – We are currently developing our earned income and diversifying our fundraising, with the aim of reducing some reliance on grants and help build our sustainability. Scaling impact: after establishing the programme at our Stockwell Adventure Playground, we will scale to our other sites (Bolton Crescent Adventure Playground, Karting Track & Nature Garden) reaching c.1000 children per year. Alongside internal scaling, as part of programme, we will develop a ‘Play for Nature’ pack of activity sessions & ideas. We will disseminate via our networks along with a training day to support ‘Play for Nature’ initiatives at other youth organisations.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
Subject to further planning and refinement at the finalist stage, this is our provisional project timeline: September-November 2026 - Winners Project begins - Recruitment for Environmental Coordinator and Environmental Playleader - Youth Survey – to gain refreshed feedback from our young people on awareness and understanding of climate change, nature play ideas etc to inform programme - Children’s Committee meetings x 2 to seek additional input into programme ideas December 2026 - Activity pack development - Recruitment of Young Leaders – this will be an ongoing opportunity with 14-16 year olds encourage to step into Leader roles when they feel ready January-July 2027 - Delivery of programme across Play-sessions at Stockwell Adventure Programme (2 afterschool sessions per week termtime, Saturdays termtime, 2 days per week school holidays – exact times tbc) - Surveys & case studies with participants to collect 6-month feedback on programme - Refining of Activity Pack, using delivery experience & feedback from young people, preparing for exernal audience - Trips to nature spaces August 2027 - Planning expansion across Oasisplay’s other sites - Trips to nature spaces September-December 2027 - Delivery of Play for Nature across all Oasisplay sites - Dissemination of Activity Packs across networks, and training offer for other local youth organisations - Work with Young Leaders to plan end of Go!London funding cycle programme feedback, encouraging peer-led data collection and reporting, supporting youth skills development January-March 2028 - Sessions continue delivery - Youth-led data collection for end of Go!London funding period - Feedback collected from any partners that took up training day offer - Continued development of session ideas and Play for Nature (subject to funding – we will seek to secure funding enabling the continuation of the programme, throughout the main delivery period).
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).
Oasisplay would be grateful for support funding if we join the finalists programme. We would seek costs towards: - Travel and expenses for attending capacity building events - Consultancy support to refine the programme structure, including input into youth-led data collection models - Consultancy to develop sustainability plan to support the project beyond Go!London
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