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
Sam
Last Name
Clark
Pronouns
He/Him
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
London Youth Sports Trust
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2020
Initiative Title
Changing the Game at The Griffin: Safe Spaces, Stronger Communities
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://www.lovefutbol.org/ https://www.girlsunitedfa.org/ https://www.londonyouthsports.org/
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?
Children & Youth
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
This initiative transforms The Griffin into a community-led, inclusive sports hub through redesigning facilities, governance, and programming to expand access for women, girls, and racially diverse communities while ensuring long-term local ownership and sustainability.
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?
Across South London, access to safe, high-quality sports facilities is deeply unequal. Communities in Southwark and Lambeth, among the most racially diverse and economically disadvantaged areas in the city, have long experienced underinvestment in public sports infrastructure. As a result, young people, particularly women and girls, face structural barriers to participation, unfit changing facilities, limited access to training spaces, and environments that do not reflect their needs or lived experiences. Those most affected include girls aged 5-17, women athletes, and young people from low-income and global majority backgrounds. Community clubs such as Lambeth Tigers, founded to support young people at risk of crime, Girls United FA, a rapidly growing girls’ football club, and Dulwich CC, which is prioritising women’s cricket for the first time in London, all face the same constraint: facilities that have not evolved to serve today’s communities. Without intervention, growth in women’s and girls’ sport will continue to outpace the spaces meant to support it, reinforcing exclusion rather than access. “For our BPR FC girls, good and clean changing facilities aren’t just a nice-to-have, they’re essential. When the environment is safe, hygienic, and welcoming, it shows the players that their commitment and effort are valued. It gives them the confidence and comfort to perform at their best, both on and off the pitch. That's golden.” Alice, parent U13 Girls. We are deeply embedded in the problem and the community it affects. And we’ve heard directly from players and parents about the importance of high-quality facilities, particularly changing rooms, to attract and retain athletes from diverse backgrounds in economically disadvantaged parts of the city.
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?
Our approach addresses exclusion at its root by combining transformation of physical space and community participation to unlock access to sport at The Griffin. Rather than treating facilities as neutral infrastructure, we recognize them as powerful gatekeepers. By that we mean, when spaces feel unwelcoming, participation, especially by women and girls, drops. Our solution reimagines The Griffin as a community-led sports hub designed with and for those historically excluded from high-quality facilities. The project is delivered through a collaboration between The Griffin Sports Club and LYST, who hold the lease and manage the site. Their long-standing relationships with local authorities, clubs, and residents ensure the project is viable and embedded locally. Girls United leads the redesign of changing facilities to remove safety barriers for women and girls, while love.fútbol applies its community-participatory methodology, engaging players, families, and neighbours in co-design, activation, and ownership of the space. This shared approach strengthens connections between landowners, users, and decision-makers, ensuring the space is not only rebuilt but also sustained. Our “aha” moment came through relationships already built in practice. Girls United and the LYST had been working closely for years at The Griffin, while love.fútbol had collaborated with Girls United in Mexico and on other international football for good initiatives. When conversations emerged around the urgent need to upgrade The Griffin’s facilities, it became clear that this was a critical opportunity. We hope that what began as a facilities challenge, becomes an opportunity to model a collaborative way of unlocking access to sport, one that is rooted in participation and long-term community power.
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?
Young people and community members closest to the problem are not passive beneficiaries of this initiative, they are co-creators of the solution. Our approach is grounded in the belief that inclusive sports spaces only succeed when the people who use them help shape them. And this approach has already been demonstrated through our initial improvements of the field. Girls United FA and London Youth Sports Trust have been embedded at The Griffin for years, working directly with young people in the area. Their experience shows that when communities see investment in their spaces, participation follows. Women and girls involved in football and cricket programmes are already shaping the project’s priorities. Through ongoing conversations, they have clearly articulated the need for safe changing facilities, highlighting that many currently avoid showering or using the clubhouse altogether. love.fútbol’s methodology includes structured listening sessions, focus groups, and co-design workshops with players, parents, coaches, and local residents to understand how the space is experienced day to day and what prevents full participation. These sessions inform both the physical redesign of the facilities and how the space will be activated once renovations are complete. Community members are also invited to participate in the construction and activation phases through volunteer days, community-led programming, and shared stewardship. By combining long-standing local trust with love.fútbol’s participatory process, we are ensuring that young people, especially girls, are placed at the heart of decision-making. The result is not just improved infrastructure, but a sports space shaped by its community, activated by its users, and sustained through shared ownership.
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?
Since The Griffin secured a 30-year lease in 2022, targeted improvements to pitches and cricket facilities have resulted in a 30% increase in overall use. This growth provides concrete evidence that when communities see investment in their spaces, participation rises particularly among young people from surrounding low-income neighbourhoods. For context, we have almost 10,000 youth athletes who are regularly using our facilities. The next phase will significantly deepen that impact. Renovating the clubhouse and changing block will remove one of the most persistent barriers to participation for women and girls. Through Girls United FA and women’s cricket programmes, we expect increased retention and growth among girls aged 5-17 and adult women, many of whom currently limit their use of the facilities due to safety concerns. Safe, private changing rooms will enable equal participation, while the new community gym will expand access to injury prevention and cross-training resources typically unavailable to lower-income athletes. With LYST and The Griffin coordinating site management and partnerships, and love.fútbol embedding its participatory methodology, the space will become a shared community asset rather than a single-use facility. love.fútbol’s co-design and activation process will build local stewardship, ensuring the space is maintained, and responsive to evolving community needs. At scale, this initiative offers a replicable model for reimagining urban sports spaces: combining long-term land access, gender-responsive design, and community ownership. The Griffin will not only serve more people but also demonstrate how inclusive infrastructure can drive equitable access to sport, strengthen community ties, and create measurable impact for generations to come.
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 initiative innovative is not simply what we are building, but how power, space, and decision-making are being reimagined together. Many sports facility projects focus on capital upgrades alone. Our approach tackles the root causes of exclusion by combining long-term land access, gender-responsive design, and community-led governance into a single, integrated model. First, we are redefining sports infrastructure as a tool for equity. At The Griffin, women and girls are not being retrofitted into a male-dominated space; their needs are shaping the design from the outset. Through Girls United FA and women’s cricket programmes, users who have historically been sidelined are leading demands for safe, private, and dignified changing facilities. This challenges the norm in community sport, where women’s participation is often limited not by interest, but by infrastructure that ignores their realities. Second, the collaboration itself is innovative. The Griffin Sports Club and London Youth Sports Trust bring land access, governance authority, and deep local relationships. love.fútbol contributes a globally tested participatory methodology to ensure the community helps design, activate, and steward the space. Rather than siloed roles, partners share responsibility across infrastructure, programming, and ownership, breaking down the typical divide between “facility providers” and “users.” Together, these elements represent a structural shift from top-down sports provision to a participatory, gender-responsive, and financially sustainable model for unlocking inclusive sports spaces. And one that can be adapted by other urban communities facing similar barriers.
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?
This initiative is set up for success through secure land access and diversified funding pathways. At The Griffin, long-term viability is anchored by The Griffin Sports Club and LYST, who manage the site and coordinate relationships with clubs, local authorities, and funders, ensuring the project is operationally realistic and locally embedded. We have budgeted for a larger-scale project that assumes additional partners come on board, while also developing scaled scenarios that allow the project to move forward even if less funding is secured. We are actively in conversation with the National Lottery Fund and a range of smaller trusts and grant-makers. If further funding is confirmed, we will deliver more comprehensive improvements; if not, we will proceed with a reduced but still meaningful renovation that improves safety, access, and inclusion within the existing facilities. Our delivery capacity is well evidenced. To date, partners have raised over £800,000 for site improvements, including funding from Sport England, the Football Foundation, Southwark Council, the English Cricket Board, Surrey Cricket, and private donors, demonstrating strong funder confidence and a proven ability to deliver complex capital projects. Operational sustainability is also strengthened by supporting ongoing programming, particularly through Girls United. We have budgeted to ensure their participation throughout the process and to help sustain girls’ programming once improvements are complete. This guarantees the space is not only built, but actively used, cared for, and continuously activated by the community. Scalability lies in positioning The Griffin as a pilot site, showing how strong partnerships and community-led programming can unlock inclusive sports spaces.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Responsibilities for this initiative are shared across partners, reflecting their complementary expertise and deep local engagement. The Griffin Sports Club and London Youth Sports Trust provide access to the land, facilitate building permits, manage construction logistics, and serve as the primary community connectors, linking all clubs, users, and stakeholders to the project. They ensure that the project is feasible on the ground and aligned with local governance and planning requirements. LYST will help measure the long term impact on the community through tracking increased participation and use of the space. Girls United FA leads engagement with women and girls, bringing their experience in inclusive sports programming to the project. They build relationships with local communities, provide insight into user needs (particularly the priority for safe and private changing facilities) and will activate the renovated space with ongoing programmes once construction is complete. Girls United FA will also take the lead on the work of measuring and evaluating the impact of this project in terms of women and girls participation, especially in the long term as it relates to their programming. love.fútbol contributes its globally tested participatory methodology, ensuring that community members are at the heart of design, activation, and stewardship. Drawing on contacts facilitated by Girls United and The Griffin Sports Club/London Youth Sports Trust, love.fútbol coordinates community listening sessions, oversees build-day activities, and leads the inauguration. LF will measure and evaluate the impact of the participation in listening sessions and the volunteers during build day.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
The initiative will be delivered through a series of coordinated milestones beginning once funding is accessed in September 2026: Community Listening Sessions (September-October 2026): Engage young people, parents, coaches, and local residents in participatory workshops to inform the detailed design of the clubhouse, changing facilities, and activation plans. Construction and Renovation (November 2026-March 2027): Complete refurbishment of the 1950s changing block, installation of safe and private women- and girl-centred facilities, and creation of the community gym, ensuring accessibility and environmental performance improvements. Community Build Day (April 2027): Invite local volunteers, clubs, and residents to actively participate in completing parts of the space, fostering ownership and strengthening connections to the site. Inauguration (May 2027): Host an official opening of the renovated facilities with all partner organisations and community stakeholders, showcasing the collaborative effort and celebrating the inclusive design. Open Day for Girls (June 2027): Organise an event where girls from the community can try football and cricket, encouraging participation and introducing them to ongoing programming. Ongoing Girls’ Programming (July 2027 onwards): Girls United FA and the girls’ cricket team will continue to deliver structured programming, integrating feedback from participants to ensure sustained engagement and long-term community impact. These milestones ensure a phased, participatory approach, where community input guides the design and activation of the space, and momentum is built progressively, from listening and co-design through construction, activation, and ongoing programming, maximising the project’s sustainability and inclusive impact.
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.
If you selected “Other”, please specify below.
Alexia Garcia from love.fútbol
