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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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
The Resilient Pitch: Hackney
Lead Organization Name
Life's a Pitch Projects
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2024
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://www.instagram.com/lifesapitchprojects/
Initiative Stage
Idea (You have a solid concept and are hoping to get started in the future)
Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Environment & Sustainability
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
'The Resilient Pitch: Hackney' is a youth-led initiative that audits climate risks to grassroots football and co-designs practical, replicable solutions to safeguard year-round participation in an underserved London borough.
Challenge Focus: What topic does your initiative most directly relate to?
Enabling climate-resilient participation
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?
Hackney’s grassroots football ecosystem is increasingly climate-vulnerable. Extreme heat makes pitches unsafe in summer; flooding damages/closes grounds; air pollution limits safe outdoor play; rising energy costs threatens community club’s viabilities. Young people report high levels of climate anxiety / powerlessness. In Hackney (an underserved borough), these pressures compound existing inequalities. For 13-18 year olds, grassroots sport is more than recreation; it's a critical “third space” alongside home & school, offering belonging, physical release and identity formation. When climate disruption destabilises these spaces, participation fractures. Cancelled sessions, damaged facilities and rising costs reduce access, widening the gap for young people already navigating social vulnerability. The beneficiaries are young people in Hackney who rely on affordable, local football provision through schools & community clubs. Without adaptation, climate impacts risk eroding one of the borough’s most accessible community infrastructures. We’re closely embedded in this ecosystem, with experience working at the intersection of sport, youth engagement and social impact, and have relationships with football communities. Protecting youth participation in the face of climate disruption is not only an environmental issue; it's an equity issue, central to community safeguarding.
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?
'The Resilient Pitch: Hackney' follows a clear model: Audit to Co-Design to Adapt to Pilot to Evidence to Toolkit. Phase 1 begins with a climate vulnerability audit of Haggerston School’s football pitch and surrounding play infrastructure. Working with young players aged 13-18, coaches and staff, we map the lived impact of extreme heat, flooding, air pollution and rising energy costs. We gather environmental data alongside interviews and participation records to understand where and why sessions are lost. Our “aha” moment was simple: climate disruption is not abstract policy, it is already cancelling training. When a session is called off, young people do not just lose football. They lose a safe third space for belonging, physical release and community. That loss compounds existing social vulnerability. Phase 2 moves into co-design. Young people become Climate Captains, working with us to prototype practical adaptations: heat-aware scheduling and shade solutions; low-cost drainage and surface resilience measures; air-quality responsive play protocols; active travel incentives; kit repair and reuse systems; energy-awareness campaigns within the school. Sport becomes a live climate literacy lab. Phase 3 pilots these adaptations across a full season, measuring cancellation rates, participation stability and behavioural shifts. The final output is a youth-authored Resilient Pitch Toolkit – combining manifesto, practical templates, audit tools and data insights – enabling replication across Hackney and beyond. The shift happens at three levels: young people gain climate agency and leadership; the community stabilises year-round participation; and Hackney gains a transferable model for climate-resilient grassroots sport.
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?
The initiative centres 13-18 year olds in Hackney across two sites: Haggerston School’s pitch and Shoreditch Park. We will work with Bene FC youth squads and Haggerston School students to recruit a core cohort of 26 “Climate Captains” (representing two 11-a-side teams plus additional youth leaders), alongside a minimum of 100 wider participants through PE classes, open sessions and community engagement. Recruitment will take place through Haggerston School’s PE department, Bene FC coaches, and targeted outreach to ensure representation from young people facing barriers – including low-income families, minoritised communities, girls in football, disabled young people and young carers. Inclusion is intentional, not assumed. The Climate Captains will not be consulted; they will co-design the work. They will help shape the climate and pitch audit questions, conduct peer interviews, document cancellations and unsafe conditions, map barriers, prototype adaptation ideas, and co-author the Resilient Pitch Toolkit and Youth Manifesto. They will present findings to local stakeholders, including Hackney Council representatives. Wider community members – coaches, parents, site managers, local residents and youth workers – will contribute through listening sessions and feedback forums, ensuring the solution reflects lived experience across the ecosystem. Safeguarding and wellbeing are embedded. The project will operate under school safeguarding structures, with L3 safeguarding-trained leadership and clear consent processes. Young people will be supported to lead safely. This is not a workshop series about climate awareness. It is a youth-led redesign of their own sporting infrastructure – building agency, leadership and long-term ownership of the spaces they rely on.
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?
‘The Resilient Pitch: Hackney’ will generate impact at 3 levels: individual, community and system. Year 1 outputs: - 26 trained Climate Captains - 100+ wider young participants engaged - 2 Hackney sites audited and piloted (Haggerston School/Shoreditch Park) - 12 months of climate disruption tracking (heat, flooding, air quality, cancellations) - 6-8 climate literacy and adaptation workshops delivered - A youth-authored Resilient Pitch Manifesto & practical Toolkit published - A formal engagement session with Hackney Council + stakeholders Individual impact: We'll use pre- and post-programme surveys to measure climate literacy, agency and civic confidence. We anticipate at least 80% of Climate Captains demonstrating increased understanding of local climate impacts, and 70% reporting increased confidence to influence change. At least 50% will take part in a public-facing action (presentation, consultation or peer education). Community impact: Baseline data on weather-related cancellations will be recorded. We aim for a 10-15% reduction in disruption at pilot sites through practical adaptations (shade strategies, drainage improvements, scheduling shifts, pollution protocols). More reliable year-round participation strengthens belonging/wellbeing. Environmental and systems impact: Each site will implement 3-5 climate-resilient measures and document cost-benefit learning. Football pitches act as early warning systems for urban climate stress. By formalising what young people are informally adapting to, this project produces a borough-ready diagnostic model for resilient participation. By Year 2-3, the Toolkit can be adopted by additional Hackney sites and shared across London, embedding climate adaptation into grassroots sport infrastructure.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
This is innovative because it reframes grassroots sport infrastructure as both climate sensor and social infrastructure. While many sport sustainability initiatives focus on carbon reduction or awareness campaigns, our approach addresses the structural intersection between climate disruption and youth participation. We recognise that when extreme heat, flooding or pollution close pitches, the impact is not only environmental but social. Safe “third spaces” disappear, participation fractures and vulnerability increases. By linking climate resilience to social cohesion, we tackle the root system rather than isolated symptoms. Our model shifts young people from passive recipients of climate education to active co-auditors/designers. Climate Captains will gather real disruption data, conduct site audits, test adaptations and engage directly with local stakeholders. This redistributes power: youth voices influence infrastructure decisions, not just behaviour change. The initiative bridges educational and community-owned sites, piloting adaptations across two different governance contexts. The result is a practical, youth-authored Resilient Pitch Toolkit combining climate literacy, site-level diagnostics and implementable measures. By formalising what young people are already informally adapting to, we create a borough-ready framework for climate-resilient participation that can be replicated across London. This integration of cultural co-creation, environmental adaptation and civic engagement positions grassroots football as an active agent in climate resilience, not simply a victim of it. We shift climate resilience from facilities management into youth civic leadership, embedding measurable environmental adaptation within everyday participation.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Life’s a Pitch Projects (LAPP) will act as lead organisation and accountable body for the initiative. LAPP will oversee strategic direction, project management, safeguarding compliance, financial management, reporting, facilitation design, toolkit production and overall evaluation. As Project Lead, I hold Level 3 Safeguarding training and will coordinate delivery across partners. Haggerston School will serve as the primary host site, providing pitch access, participant recruitment (13-18 year olds), safeguarding oversight via the DSO, and integration of learning within PE & enrichment structures. School leadership will sit on the project steering group. Bene FC will act as grassroots delivery partner, contributing youth squads (boys and girls), coach engagement, and practical testing of adaptation measures within live training environments. They’ll support attendance data collection and ongoing climate-related session monitoring. Shoreditch Park will act as a secondary public site for comparative audit work. Local authority engagement will support infrastructure dialogue/policy alignment. UCL East will provide advisory support on climate data interpretation, audit methodology and environmental impact measurement, strengthening the Toolkit’s credibility/replicability. The English Schools’ FA will provide sector insight and support knowledge-sharing pathways to inform wider school sport policy. A steering group (LAPP, School, Bene FC, Youth Climate Captains representatives, UCL advisory contact) will meet monthly to oversee progress, ensure shared decision-making and maintain accountability. 26x Youth Climate Captains will act as co-designers, auditors and advocacy leads – holding meaningful decision-making power throughout the initiative.
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?
Life’s a Pitch Projects is a UK-registered non-profit with a track record of delivering multi-partner sport and culture initiatives, including The Keeper (climate, masculinity and football) and GOAL DIFFERENCE (participatory research with clubs and academic partners). These projects demonstrate our ability to translate environmental and social themes into structured, community-rooted models. ‘The Resilient Pitch: Hackney’ is borough-specific in delivery but intentionally designed for replication. Viability is secured through integration, not parallel programming. Haggerston School and Bene FC provide live infrastructure, safeguarding and continuity. Shoreditch Park anchors the community context. UCL East supports climate measurement and evaluation. ESFA Inclusion Advisory Network enables sector-level knowledge sharing. Local authority engagement is pursued as an outcome, not a dependency. Sustainability lies in durable assets: a youth-authored Toolkit, trained Climate Captains, a practical adaptation menu and a replicable audit framework partners can operate independently. Scaling is modular: ‘The Resilient Pitch: [& insert next borough taking part]’. The toolkit includes governance, facilitation and measurement templates, enabling adoption without long-term central delivery. Year 2 ambition: pilot in one additional borough via partner networks.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
Months 1-2 – Partnership Formalisation & Baseline Audit: Formal agreements will be secured with Haggerston School, Bene FC, UCL East and identified community stakeholders. Safeguarding frameworks and steering group structures will be confirmed. A baseline climate participation audit will be conducted across Haggerston School pitch and Shoreditch Park, documenting heat exposure, flooding frequency, cancellations, air quality concerns, energy pressures and participation data. Youth recruitment for the 26 Climate Captains cohort will take place through school and club pathways. Months 3-5 – Co-Design & Climate Literacy Phase: Climate Captains will undertake structured workshops combining environmental literacy, site-specific audit interpretation and solution design. This phase will generate a practical “Adaptation Menu” tailored to the two Hackney sites. Wider consultation sessions (minimum 100 participants) will gather lived experience input from peers, families, coaches and community members. Months 6-9 – Pilot Implementation: Selected adaptations will be trialled. These may include pitch scheduling shifts, heat-safe session models, drainage advocacy pathways, shade solutions, energy-saving measures and climate-informed training guidance. Data collection will track cancellations, participation levels and perception shifts. Months 10-11 – Toolkit Development & Policy Engagement: Findings will be consolidated into the youth-authored Resilient Pitch Toolkit, including audit templates, governance structures and adaptation pathways. A stakeholder engagement session will be convened to share findings with local authority representatives, education networks and grassroots partners. Month 12 – Evaluation & Replication Planning: Impact will be evaluated against baseline data. A replication framework will be finalised to prepare Year 2 borough expansion.
