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), evidence of access to a lease for the space you are leveraging, 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.
Yes
First Name
Sangita
Last Name
Chhabhadiya
Pronouns
She/Her
Email address
I would like to receive notifications and updates about Go London!, Ashoka, Ashoka Changemakers, and other Ashoka opportunities.
1
Are you an Ashoka Fellow?
No
Are you applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow?
No
If you are applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow, please specify the name and organisation of the fellow below.
Lead Organisation Name
Soham Community CIC
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2025
Initiative Title
Conscious Active Spaces
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
http://consciouscommunity.co/
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
Conscious Active Spaces transforms underused community spaces into inclusive, youth-led hubs for sport, play, and wellbeing. Our initiative works with children, young people, and local communities to reimagine neglected or underutilised spaces as safe, welcoming environments for physical activity, creativity, and connection. Through co-design workshops, youth leadership programmes, and partnerships with schools and community organisations, young people are actively involved in shaping the spaces they use. Each space is developed to support accessible sport, informal play, and wellbeing-focused activities, removing financial, cultural, and social barriers to participation. By combining physical activity with mentorship, community events, and mental wellbeing support, Conscious Active Spaces promotes healthier lifestyles, confidence, and positive relationships. The project prioritises inclusion, ensuring that girls, disabled young people, and those from underserved communities feel represented and supported. In doing so, we strengthen local networks, increase long-term engagement in physical activity, and create sustainable community assets that continue to benefit young people beyond the life of the project.
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?
Many children and young people in our community face significant barriers to accessing safe, affordable, and welcoming spaces for sport, play, and social connection. Local parks, courts, and community facilities are often underused, poorly maintained, or feel unsafe and uninviting. In some cases, spaces are unavailable outside school hours, restricted by cost, or not designed with young people’s needs in mind. As a result, many young people spend less time being physically active and more time isolated at home. This lack of accessible spaces has a direct impact on physical health, mental wellbeing, confidence, and social development. It particularly affects young people from low-income households, minoritised communities, girls, and disabled young people, who face additional cultural, financial, and structural barriers to participation. Many young people tell us they feel excluded from existing facilities or believe they are “not for them.” Soham Community works closely with families, schools, and youth groups in the neighbourhoods we serve. Through our programmes and regular engagement, we hear first-hand about young people’s frustration with limited opportunities to play, move, and connect locally. Members of our team live and work in these communities and have experienced these challenges personally. Solving this problem matters to us because we believe every young person deserves access to spaces where they feel safe, valued, and motivated to be active. Conscious Active Spaces responds directly to this need by turning neglected places into youth-led environments that promote health, inclusion, and long-term community wellbeing.
Your approach: How are you/ will you addressing the problem outlined above? How does your solution unlock or reimagine access to spaces for sport and physical activity? What role do landowners, local authorities, or other decision-making stakeholders play in your approach? We'd love to know about the origin of your idea, and what was your "aha" moment" that led you to take action?
Conscious Active Spaces addresses barriers to participation by combining youth leadership, community partnerships, and practical space activation. Our approach begins with listening. We work with young people, families, and local partners to identify underused or inaccessible spaces and understand why they are not being used. Through co-design workshops and creative consultation, young people help shape how these spaces look, feel, and function. We then work collaboratively with landowners, schools, faith organisations, housing providers, and local authorities to secure access, permissions, and long-term agreements. By building trusted relationships and demonstrating community demand, we help unlock spaces that are currently restricted, overlooked, or underutilised. Our model reduces financial and administrative barriers by offering free or low-cost activities and shared management arrangements. Each activated space supports a mix of structured sport, informal play, and wellbeing-focused activities, led by trained youth leaders and community coaches. This ensures that spaces remain welcoming, culturally relevant, and responsive to changing needs. The idea for Conscious Active Spaces emerged when our team noticed that young people were gathering in unsafe or unsuitable areas because existing facilities felt unwelcoming or inaccessible. Seeing empty courts and halls alongside disengaged young people was our “aha” moment. It showed us that the problem was not a lack of interest, but a lack of opportunity. By connecting young people, decision-makers, and community organisations, we are transforming overlooked places into active, shared assets that belong to everyone.
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?
Conscious Active Spaces is built around meaningful, ongoing collaboration with young people and community members who are closest to the barriers we aim to address. From the earliest stages, young people are involved as co-designers, decision-makers, and leaders, not just participants. We establish Youth Advisory Groups in each target area, made up of diverse local young people who reflect the communities we serve. These groups help identify priority spaces, shape activity programmes, and advise on accessibility, safety, and cultural relevance. Through facilitated workshops, site visits, and creative sessions, young people share their ideas and lived experiences, directly influencing how spaces are developed. Community members, including parents, carers, local volunteers, and grassroots organisations, contribute through regular forums, open days, and feedback sessions. They help us understand local needs, build trust, and ensure that activities align with community values. Young people are trained as peer leaders, coaches, and ambassadors, supporting session delivery, outreach, and community events. This creates clear pathways for skills development, confidence building, and employment. For example, youth leaders co-host weekly open-play sessions, lead consultation activities with their peers, and represent the project in meetings with partners and local authorities. By embedding young people and residents at every stage, Conscious Active Spaces creates spaces that are genuinely owned by the community, responsive to local needs, and sustainable in the long term.
Potential for/Evidence of Impact: How do you imagine your initiative will make a difference in unlocking spaces for and access to physical activity and sport so far? 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?
Conscious Active Spaces creates measurable change by turning underused spaces into active, community-owned environments that support long-term participation in sport and physical activity. To date, our pilot activities and community sessions have engaged over 150 young people across informal play, wellbeing workshops, and co-design events. These early activities have demonstrated strong demand, with consistent attendance and growing youth leadership involvement. Our immediate outputs include the activation of at least three community spaces, the delivery of weekly open-play and sport sessions, and the training of 20 young people as peer leaders and ambassadors. Each space will provide free or low-cost access to structured and informal activity for an estimated 300–400 young people annually. Early feedback shows improvements in confidence, social connection, and physical activity levels, with young people reporting that they feel safer, more motivated, and more valued in redesigned spaces. Parents and teachers have highlighted increased engagement and positive behaviour linked to participation. Over the next three years, we aim to expand to six sites, reaching over 2,000 young people and embedding sustainable management models led by trained youth and community partners. Our approach creates lasting change by strengthening local capacity, improving relationships between young people and decision-makers, and establishing shared ownership of community assets. We will track participation, well-being outcomes, leadership progression, and space usage data, alongside qualitative case studies, to evidence scale, depth, and long-term impact.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
Conscious Active Spaces is innovative because it shifts the focus from delivering isolated sports programmes to transforming how communities access, manage, and experience physical activity spaces. Rather than building new facilities or running short-term sessions, we unlock existing underused assets and redesign them around young people’s lived realities. Our model combines youth-led co-design, shared governance, and wellbeing-informed practice. Young people are not only consulted but trained as space stewards, programme designers, and community ambassadors, giving them real responsibility and influence. This challenges traditional top-down approaches where decisions about public spaces are made without meaningful youth input. We adopt a flexible, modular approach to space activation, using low-cost, movable equipment, pop-up infrastructure, and adaptable programming. This allows spaces to be rapidly transformed and reconfigured in response to changing needs, seasons, and community feedback. Innovation also lies in how we broker relationships between young people, landowners, local authorities, and grassroots organisations. By acting as a trusted intermediary, we reduce institutional barriers, simplify access agreements, and create shared accountability models that make long-term community use viable. Our approach integrates physical activity with mental wellbeing, creativity, and peer leadership, recognising that sustained engagement depends on belonging and purpose, not just facilities. By embedding these principles, Conscious Active Spaces changes local norms around who public spaces are for, how they are managed, and whose voices matter in shaping them.
Viability and Scalability: How are you setting your initiative 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?
Conscious Active Spaces is designed with sustainability and growth embedded from the outset. Our delivery model combines diversified funding, strong partnerships, and local capacity building to ensure long-term viability beyond initial grant support. Core funding is supported through a blend of public grants, philanthropic contributions, local sponsorship, and modest income generation from events, training, and facility hire, while maintaining free or low-cost access for young people. Operationally, we establish clear governance structures, safeguarding policies, and quality assurance frameworks, supported by experienced project managers and trained community facilitators. Each site operates through shared management agreements with landowners and local authorities, reducing overheads and securing long-term access. A key pillar of sustainability is our investment in people. By training young people and local volunteers as peer leaders, space stewards, and coordinators, we build local ownership and reduce reliance on external staff. This strengthens continuity and embeds skills within the community. To scale, we are developing a replicable “Active Spaces Toolkit” that documents our co-design methods, partnership models, and delivery standards. This will enable expansion to new boroughs through partnerships with schools, housing associations, and voluntary sector organisations. Over the next three years, we aim to establish regional hubs, secure multi-year funding agreements, and form strategic partnerships with London-wide networks to reach over 5,000 young people. Support from Go! London will accelerate this growth by strengthening our infrastructure, evidence base, and collaborative reach.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Conscious Active Spaces is delivered through a collaborative partnership model that brings together community leaders, young people, delivery partners, and local stakeholders, each contributing specialist skills and local knowledge. The Project Lead is responsible for overall strategy, partnership management, safeguarding, and reporting to funders. They ensure alignment with project objectives, financial oversight, and compliance with grant requirements. Community Engagement Coordinators lead youth consultation, co-design workshops, and volunteer mobilisation. They act as the main link between young people, families, and partner organisations, ensuring community voices shape delivery. Youth Leaders and Peer Ambassadors support session delivery, outreach, and mentoring. They co-facilitate activities, promote participation among their peers, and provide ongoing feedback on programme quality and accessibility. Delivery Partners, including schools, sports clubs, and wellbeing practitioners, provide specialist coaching, facilities access, and safeguarding support. They contribute to programme design and host activities where appropriate. Landowners and Local Authority Partners support access agreements, site permissions, risk management, and long-term sustainability planning. They work with the project team to remove barriers to community use and embed shared governance arrangements. An Advisory Group made up of community representatives, parents, and sector specialists provides strategic guidance, monitors progress, and supports continuous improvement. This shared responsibility model ensures strong leadership, local ownership, and high-quality delivery at every stage.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
Conscious Active Spaces will be delivered through a phased programme of activity designed to ensure strong community engagement, effective partnerships, and sustainable impact. Phase 1: Set-Up and Community Engagement (Months 1–3) We will recruit project staff and youth leaders, establish governance and safeguarding systems, and formalise partnerships with landowners, schools, and local authorities. Community mapping and consultation sessions will identify priority spaces and local needs. Phase 2: Co-Design and Site Agreements (Months 3–6) Young people and community members will participate in co-design workshops and site visits to shape space layouts and activity programmes. Access agreements, risk assessments, and operational plans will be finalised for pilot sites. Phase 3: Space Activation and Pilot Delivery (Months 6–12) Three pilot sites will be equipped and activated. Weekly sport, play, and wellbeing sessions will be launched, alongside youth leadership training and community events. Participation and feedback will be monitored continuously. Phase 4: Evaluation and Refinement (Months 12–15) We will review impact data, participant feedback, and partner learning to refine delivery models and strengthen sustainability plans. Phase 5: Expansion and Scaling (Months 15–36) Successful approaches will be replicated across additional sites. New partnerships and multi-year funding will be secured to support growth and long-term operation.
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.
Participation in the 8-week capacity-building programme will be essential to strengthening our organisational systems, partnerships, and delivery model. However, limited core funding means that dedicated staff time and operational costs may present barriers to full engagement without additional support. If selected as a finalist, we may require support to cover the following costs: Project Management and Staff Time: Contribution towards part-time staff hours to attend sessions, complete programme activities, and implement learning within the organisation. Youth and Community Participation: Stipends, travel, and subsistence for youth leaders and community representatives involved in learning activities and workshops. Travel and Access Costs: Transport costs for attending in-person sessions, partner meetings, and networking events across London. Digital and Learning Resources: Software licences, online collaboration tools, and materials required for programme participation and reporting. Backfill and Delivery Cover: Temporary session cover to ensure continuity of community activities while staff attend capacity-building sessions. Access to this support would enable us to fully engage with the programme, embed learning across our organisation, and maximise the long-term impact of Conscious Active Spaces. Investment at this stage will strengthen our operational resilience, leadership capacity, and readiness for sustainable growth.
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User Email
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