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
Youth Climate Playmakers
Lead Organization Name
Kick Out Poverty
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2023
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://kickoutpoverty.com/
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?
Children & Youth
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
Climate Champions Through Sport is a youth‑led initiative that empowers disadvantaged young Londoners to understand, engage with, and take meaningful action on the climate crisis by embedding climate awareness into football, basketball, dance, and outdoor play sessions, using sport as an accessible and unifying platform to spark conversations about extreme heat, unsafe air quality, flooding, waste, and damaged play spaces, training young leaders to become climate educators who mobilise peers through sport‑based campaigns, co‑designing playful climate‑literacy activities that build knowledge and confidence, hosting community sport events that double as climate‑action gatherings, partnering with local authorities, landowners, and environmental groups to amplify youth voices, and creating a movement of young people who use the collective energy, reach, and spirit of sport to inspire behaviour change, strengthen community resilience, and shape a healthier, more sustainable future for their neighbourhoods and the planet.
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 underserved London communities are already experiencing the effects of the climate crisis in ways that directly limit how they play, move, and connect. Extreme heat makes outdoor sport unsafe, polluted air restricts activity for those with asthma, and flooding or damaged pitches regularly cancel sessions. Rising energy and maintenance costs mean many community clubs reduce hours or close, leaving young people with even fewer safe, affordable places to be active. These disruptions hit hardest in low‑income areas where access to green, inclusive spaces is already limited. The young people who will benefit most are those aged 10–25 facing poverty, unstable housing, exclusion, and limited access to structured physical activity. They are disproportionately exposed to climate impacts yet have the least influence over how their communities adapt. Kick Out Poverty is deeply embedded in these neighbourhoods. We deliver weekly sport, mentoring, and outreach sessions on estates, in parks, and in underused community spaces. We see first‑hand how climate conditions disrupt sessions, reduce participation, and increase risks. Our initiative is co‑designed with young people, ensuring it responds directly to the challenges they face and empowers them to lead climate awareness and action through sport.
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 the power of sport to build climate awareness, shift behaviour, and empower young people to take meaningful climate action in their own communities. Through Climate Champions Through Sport, we embed climate literacy directly into football, basketball, dance, and outdoor fitness sessions, turning movement and play into accessible tools for understanding extreme heat, unsafe air quality, flooding, waste, and the changing conditions young people already experience. We train young leaders as Climate Champions who co‑design activities, lead peer‑to‑peer climate conversations, and use sport events to engage families and neighbours in climate awareness. By prototyping heat‑safe session formats, low‑waste practices, and playful climate‑learning challenges, we model sustainable behaviours that young people can adopt and influence in their communities. The idea emerged during our summer outreach sessions, when extreme heat repeatedly forced us to cancel activities. Young people told us they felt climate change “closing down” their spaces and futures. That was our “aha” moment: they didn’t just want protection from climate impacts — they wanted to lead the response. Because Kick Out Poverty delivers weekly sport and mentoring on estates and in parks across London, we see these challenges first‑hand and work directly with the young people most affected. This initiative is built around their lived experience and leadership.
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 the leadership, creativity, and lived experience of the young people and communities most affected by climate‑related disruptions to play and physical activity. Young people aged 10–25 act as co‑designers from the start: they shape session content, identify the climate issues affecting their estates and parks, test engagement tools, and lead peer‑to‑peer climate conversations during sport activities. We train a cohort of Youth Climate Champions who take active roles in designing drills, creating climate‑awareness challenges, and using sport events to mobilise families, neighbours, and friends. Their insights ensure that climate messaging is relevant, accessible, and rooted in real experiences of extreme heat, unsafe air, waterlogged pitches, and shrinking safe spaces for play. We also work closely with parents, local residents, community clubs, housing associations, and local authorities. These partners help us identify underused or unsafe spaces, support youth‑led improvements, and amplify climate‑awareness campaigns. Because Kick Out Poverty delivers weekly sport and mentoring sessions directly in these neighbourhoods, we have trusted relationships that allow honest conversations about climate impacts and community needs. Young people are not participants in this initiative—they are the drivers of it, shaping solutions that reflect their realities and strengthening community resilience through the collective power of sport.
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 will make a meaningful difference by using sport as a powerful entry point for climate awareness, behaviour change, and community mobilisation. By embedding climate literacy into football, basketball, dance, and outdoor play, young people learn about extreme heat, unsafe air, flooding, waste, and sustainability in ways that feel relevant, active, and social. This approach transforms climate education from something abstract into something lived and understood through movement, teamwork, and shared experience. As young people take on Climate Champion roles, they influence peers, families, and neighbours, shifting attitudes and behaviours through sport‑based campaigns, playful challenges, and youth‑led events. We expect to see increased climate confidence, improved understanding of local climate risks, and greater adoption of sustainable habits such as active travel, low‑waste practices, and heat‑safe play routines. Communities will benefit from youth‑led clean‑ups, awareness events, and the activation of underused outdoor spaces as inclusive, climate‑aware play zones. Although this initiative is new, early prototypes during summer outreach sessions showed clear impact: young people quickly connected climate issues to their lived experiences, shared concerns about heat and air quality, and began suggesting their own solutions. This confirmed the potential for a youth‑driven movement where sport becomes a catalyst for climate action. Over time, we envision a scalable model that strengthens community resilience, reduces environmental harm, and empowers young Londoners to lead the transition toward a healthier, more sustainable future.
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 transforms sport from a passive activity into an active climate‑awareness engine, using movement, play, and peer‑led engagement to make climate learning accessible, social, and rooted in lived experience. Unlike traditional climate education, which often relies on classroom‑based information or adult‑led messaging, our approach embeds climate literacy directly into football, basketball, dance, and outdoor play sessions, turning drills, warm‑ups, and team activities into climate‑conversation tools. Young people co‑design every element—from the themes explored to the games used to communicate them—ensuring the content reflects the real climate impacts they face, such as extreme heat, unsafe air, and damaged or unplayable spaces. We also innovate by prototyping climate‑resilient sport practices that can be adopted by community clubs and local authorities: heat‑safe session formats, low‑waste delivery models, youth‑led awareness campaigns, and playful engagement tools that make climate action feel achievable rather than overwhelming. Our “learning by doing” approach means ideas are tested, adapted, and improved in real time with young people, rather than imposed from above. What truly sets us apart is that young people are not participants—they are designers, educators, and leaders. Their lived experience drives the solutions, and their creativity shapes how sport becomes a platform for climate action, behaviour change, and community mobilisation.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Kick Out Poverty leads the initiative, coordinating delivery, safeguarding, youth engagement, and overall programme management. Our core team oversees the design of climate‑aware sport sessions, trains Youth Climate Champions, manages monitoring and evaluation, and ensures that all activities remain rooted in the lived experiences of the communities we serve. Young people play central leadership roles: Climate Champions co‑design session content, lead peer‑to‑peer climate conversations, test prototypes, and shape the messaging used in sport‑based climate campaigns. They also act as community connectors, gathering insights from peers and families to ensure the programme reflects real local needs. Community sports clubs support delivery by integrating climate‑awareness tools into their regular sessions, piloting low‑waste and heat‑safe practices, and providing coaches who collaborate with young people to test new engagement methods. Local authorities contribute access to parks, estates, and underused outdoor spaces, while advising on safety, environmental priorities, and opportunities for youth‑led improvements. Housing associations help identify suitable community spaces and support outreach to families. Environmental partners provide technical expertise that young people translate into youth‑friendly, sport‑based learning activities. Together, these roles create a shared‑ownership model where young people drive the vision, community partners shape the environment, and Kick Out Poverty ensures high‑quality, safe, and impactful delivery.
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 are setting our initiative up for success by building a delivery model that is youth‑led, community‑rooted, low‑cost, and easy to replicate across London. Kick Out Poverty already operates weekly sport and mentoring programmes on estates, in parks, and in underused community spaces, giving us the infrastructure, relationships, and safeguarding systems needed to deliver consistently and safely. Our Climate Champions model ensures that young people themselves become facilitators, educators, and co‑designers, reducing reliance on external specialists and embedding long‑term leadership capacity within the community. We are also developing simple, adaptable tools—climate‑aware drills, low‑waste session templates, heat‑safe play guidelines, and youth‑led engagement activities—that can be used by coaches, clubs, and community groups with minimal training. Operational sustainability comes from integrating climate‑aware practices into our existing sport programmes, building partnerships with local authorities and housing associations, and training volunteers and young leaders to deliver sessions beyond the initial funding period. By documenting prototypes, learning, and youth‑led innovations, we will create a practical playbook that supports long‑term adoption. Our scaling plan focuses on expanding borough by borough, starting with communities where climate impacts are already disr
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
1. Youth Co‑Design Phase (Months 1–2) Recruit and train the first cohort of Youth Climate Champions; run co‑design workshops to identify local climate issues affecting play; develop climate‑aware sport activities and engagement tools shaped directly by young people. 2. Prototype Development & Testing (Months 2–4) Pilot climate‑literacy drills, heat‑safe session formats, low‑waste practices, and sport‑based climate‑conversation tools across two to three estates or parks; gather feedback from young people, coaches, and families; refine prototypes based on real‑world testing. 3. Community Engagement Launch (Months 4–6) Deliver youth‑led climate‑awareness events linked to sport sessions; activate underused outdoor spaces as climate‑aware play zones; begin peer‑to‑peer campaigns and family engagement activities. 4. Partnership Expansion (Months 6–9) Formalise collaboration with local authorities, housing associations, community clubs, and environmental partners; secure additional delivery sites; train coaches and volunteers in climate‑aware sport practices. 5. Evaluation & Learning Cycle (Months 9–12) Collect data on climate awareness, behaviour change, participation, and community engagement; run youth‑led reflection sessions; refine the model and document learning. 6. Scaling Preparation (Months 12–15) Develop a practical playbook, training materials, and a replicable Climate Champions model; identify new boroughs and partners; prepare for wider rollout. 7. Multi‑Borough Expansion (Months 15+) Train new cohorts of Climate Champions; expand delivery to additional estates, parks, and community clubs; embed climate‑aware sport practices across partner organisations.
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).
If selected as a finalist, we are fully committed to participating in the 8‑week capacity‑building programme. However, as a small, community‑rooted organisation delivering frontline sport and youth engagement across London, participation would create additional operational pressures and financial barriers. To ensure we can take part fully and embed the learning into our £50,000 project delivery plan, we would require support to cover the following costs: Breakdown of Costs Requiring Support (up to £10,000): 1. Staff Time Backfill – £4,000 To release key delivery staff and programme leads to attend capacity‑building workshops, mentoring sessions, and collaborative design activities without reducing frontline youth sport sessions or climate‑awareness delivery. 2. Youth Climate Champion Participation Stipends – £2,000 To ensure young leaders can attend co‑design sessions, learning workshops, and peer‑exchange activities. Many face financial barriers, so stipends ensure equitable participation and leadership. 3. Travel and Access Costs – £1,200 Covering travel across London for staff and young people to attend in‑person sessions, site visits, and collaborative meetings. 4. Prototyping and Learning Materials – £1,500 To support the development and testing of climate‑awareness tools, engagement activities, and prototype session formats during the programme. 5. Monitoring, Learning, and Implementation Support – £1,300 To document insights from the capacity‑building programme, integrate new practices into our £50,000 delivery model, and ensure long‑term operational sustainability. This support ensures Kick Out Poverty can participate fully, embed learning effectively, and maximise the impact of both the capacity‑building programme and the £50,000 project we aim to deliver.
If you selected “Other”, please specify below.
What interests us most about this Challenge is its recognition that climate action must be youth‑led, community‑rooted, and delivered through platforms that young people already trust and enjoy. Sport is one of the few spaces where young people come together consistently, feel safe, and express themselves freely — and this Challenge uniquely understands that sport can be a powerful vehicle for climate awareness, behaviour change, and community mobilisation. We selected “Other” because what excites us most is the Challenge’s commitment to centering lived experience in climate action. Young people in underserved communities are already feeling the effects of extreme heat, unsafe air, and shrinking safe spaces for play, yet they are rarely invited to shape solutions. This Challenge creates space for their voices, creativity, and leadership to drive the response. We are also deeply interested in the opportunity to learn, collaborate, and strengthen our model through the capacity‑building programme. The chance to work alongside organisations who share our belief in youth empowerment and climate justice is invaluable. This Challenge aligns perfectly with our mission: using the collective energy of sport to help young people understand what’s happening around them, protect their wellbeing, and lead climate action in their own communities.
