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
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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
Voices from the Canal
Lead Organization Name
Cayr Charity
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
www.cayrcharity.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?
Environment & Sustainability
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
Young people aged 10-15 in Church Street, Westminster are designing and leading a climate action trail along the Regent's Canal, creating installations at each stop while generating measurable carbon savings through active walking and cycling routes.
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?
Church Street, Westminster is one of London's most densely populated and deprived areas. Over 40% of children live in poverty, more than 30% of households experience overcrowding, and the ward sits within the lowest 20% of London's wellbeing index. Yet young people aged 10-15 live alongside the Grand Union Canal, one of London's most significant blue-green corridors, with almost no meaningful connection to it. The canal is perceived as unsafe or inaccessible rather than as an environmental resource. These young people experience climate change daily, limited green space, poor air quality, overcrowded housing, flooding risk, but have no platforms to understand it, respond to it, or see themselves as part of the solution. There is no dedicated youth centre in Church Street, and sustained creative provision for this age group is critically lacking. At Cayr Charity, we have worked directly with young people in Church Street since 2023, delivering environmental workshops and a pilot walking programme along the canal. We have seen firsthand how disconnected young people are from their local environment, and how quickly that changes when they are given agency and creative tools to engage with it. This project grows directly from that work and from what those young people told us they wanted: more time outdoors, more voice, and more ways to shape their environmental future.
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 centres on one idea: young people don't just learn about climate change by reading about it, they learn by moving through it, creating within it, and leading others through it. The Canal Climate Trail is a single route along the Regent's Canal from Church Street, designed to be walked or cycled. At each stop, young people have created a different piece of art, a zine, a photography installation, an oral history, documenting their community's environmental story. The stops are deliberately spaced so that real physical activity happens between them. Participants track their steps, distance, and inclines, and we calculate the carbon saved through active travel rather than driving. Two guided events see young people lead walkers and cyclists along the trail themselves. A self-guided digital version then opens it up permanently. The "aha moment" came during our pilot last year. We ran walking sessions with young people along the canal and watched them notice things, biodiversity, air quality changes, that they had never seen before despite living right next to the water. One young person said they had walked past the canal every day and never thought of it as theirs. That shifted everything. We realised the physical act of moving through the space was doing something that no classroom activity could.
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’ll begin with open consultation. In April 2026, well ran five days of workshops where young people tell us what environmental issues matte to them and what they want the trail to address. From flooding and air quality to biodiversity loss and waste, they set the agenda. Then from April to June, they tested those ideas through 16 weekly workshops, experimenting with different art forms and deciding which would work best at each trail stop. Each young person creates a piece of work for the trail, a zine about canal wildlife, a photo series documenting pollution, an oral history from an older resident about environmental change. They choose the medium, they conduct the research, they make the creative decisions. They are the content creators, the route designers, and the problem-solvers. Without their input, there is no trail. In the summer, 15 young people aged 18-30 from across North West London join a paid Change Makers programme. They receive training in environmental arts practice, then each delivers a £200 workshop with the Church Street young people, adding new skills and perspectives to the trail design. When the trail launches, young people lead it. Two guided events see them walking and cycling the route with community members, explaining their work, answering questions, and demonstrating their expertise. They are the guides, the educators, and the public face of the project. The trail doesn't exist without young people. They are the content creators, the route designers, and the problem-solvers. When it launches, they're the guides walking and cycling community members along the route, explaining their work and demonstrating their expertise. This reverses the usual dynamic where young people are told what to think about climate change.
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 pilot over 2023 and 2024 demonstrated this works. We engaged 60 young people aged 10-15 through walking workshops along the canal. Pre- and post-session surveys showed significant increases in environmental knowledge (78% could identify local biodiversity features afterwards vs 23% before), confidence in outdoor spaces (65% said they felt more comfortable using the canal), and sense of agency (82% said they now felt they could contribute to environmental solutions in their area). One parent told us their child had never walked further than the corner shop before, now they were asking to go to the canal every weekend. With this funding, we will scale that impact. 60 young people will create the trail over 6 months. Each will develop creative skills, environmental literacy, and physical activity habits through repeated sessions outdoors. We will track step counts, distance covered, and carbon saved through active travel, we estimate over 5,000 participant journeys generating measurable environmental benefit. The two guided trail events will reach 200+ community members, parents, families, older residents, who walk or cycle the route led by young people. The digital trail extends that reach indefinitely. Other youth organisations, schools, and community groups across London can use it. We estimate 1,000+ people engaging with the trail in year one alone. Long-term impact happens through behaviour shift. Young people who create this trail become active canal users. Parents see their children as environmental leaders. The community reclaims a blue-green space as theirs. That's deep-rooted change.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
What makes this different is the integration. Traditional environmental education treats physical activity, creative practice, and climate learning as separate activities. We don't. The walking and cycling aren't delivery mechanisms, they're the method of inquiry itself. Young people notice environmental changes because they're physically moving through the space, not reading about it. Existing trails are static. Ours evolves. Each art installation reflects what young people noticed, researched, and chose to communicate. A zine about canal biodiversity sits alongside a photo series on flooding, alongside an oral history about environmental change. The trail becomes a living archive of young people's environmental knowledge, not a fixed set of information boards decided by adults. Our trail evolves rather than remaining static. Each art installation reflects what young people noticed, researched, and chose to communicate at that moment. A zine about canal biodiversity sits alongside a photo series on flooding, alongside an oral history about environmental change. It becomes a living archive of young people's environmental knowledge, not information boards decided in advance. We tackle a structural problem: young people in climate-vulnerable communities are excluded from environmental decision-making. We shift that by positioning 10-15 year olds as experts whose families and neighbours learn from them, not the reverse. That challenges assumptions about who holds environmental knowledge and who has authority to speak about climate. The digital infrastructure makes this replicable beyond our capacity. Other London boroughs, canal networks, and youth organisations can adapt the model using our open-source toolkit without needing Cayr to be physically present.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Cayr Charity Hannah Thomas, CEO & Founder: Overall project leadership, strategic direction, funder relationships, safeguarding lead Youth & Community Engagement Manager: Day-to-day coordination with young people, session delivery, relationship building Natalie Clarke (Producer): Event management for trail launches, logistics coordination, volunteer management Bibi Delair (Environment & Impact Producer): Environmental research, carbon tracking, impact measurement Artists & Facilitators Commissioned creative practitioners deliver workshops and mentor young people in developing trail installations Change Makers (18-30 year olds) 15 emerging artists complete 8-week training programme and each delivers one paid workshop with Church Street young people Community Partners Westminster Libraries: Space, promotional support, community referrals Church Street Health Team: Referral pathways, wellbeing support Westminster Wheels: Bicycle loans, cycling safety training Local schools: Student recruitment, curriculum links Westminster City Council: Permissions, regeneration alignment Canal & River Trust: Installation permissions, environmental data, biodiversity expertise Young People (10-15 years old) Co-designers, creators, leaders of guided events, core decision-makers
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?
Sustainability: Cayr operates on a project-based model with proven track record securing restricted funding. This builds on existing Million Hours funded work through 2026, with Alira Arts consultancy providing earned income that cross-subsidises charitable programmes. We've established relationships with Westminster Libraries and Church Street regeneration programme ensuring long-term space access. The digital trail becomes a permanent resource requiring minimal ongoing costs. Scalability: We're already in conversations with youth groups in Hackney and Tower Hamlets wanting to adapt this locally. By year two, we aim to see three other London boroughs piloting youth-led climate trails. By year three, we want this embedded as standard practice across Canal & River Trust networks. The Change Makers programme creates a pipeline of trained practitioners who can deliver independently, ensuring knowledge spreads beyond Cayr's direct delivery capacity.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
April 2026 - Co-Design Phase • 5-day intensive consultation with 60 young people • Route mapping and stop location decisions • Partnership agreements confirmed May-June 2026 - Creation Phase • 16 weekly workshops testing ideas and developing content • Artists commissioned • Trail installations created • Physical activity tracking established July-August 2026 - Change Makers Programme • 15 young people recruited and trained • Each delivers one paid workshop • Additional trail content developed September 2026 - Trail Installation • Physical installations placed • QR codes and digital infrastructure set up • Safety checks completed October 2026 - Launch Events • Two guided trail events led by young people • 200+ community members participate • Carbon savings data collected November 2026 - Digital Launch • Self-guided digital trail goes live • Impact evaluation completed • Toolkit shared with other boroughs 2027 onwards - Scale • Three other London boroughs pilot versions • Canal & River Trust network engagement • Annual trail refresh
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).
We assume the capacity building programme requires approximately 2 days per week in-person attendance. Based on this assumption: Freelance delivery team: CEO/Project Lead (Hannah Thomas): 12 days × £275 = £3,300 Environment & Impact Producer (Bibi Delair): 4 days × £250 = £1,000 Producer (Natalie Clarke): 4 days × £250 = £1,000 Youth & Community Engagement Manager: 4 days × £250 = £1,000 Testing sessions: 1 day of prototype testing with 5 artists: £1,250 Art materials and equipment: £800 External consultancy: Environmental consultant: 1 day × £400 = £400 Digital trail developer: 1 day × £400 = £400 Travel: Team travel to central London: £144 Total £9,294
