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
Chima
Last Name
Umezuruike
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
Key Performance Institute
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2026
Initiative Title
Rebuilding the body and mind
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
@kpi.fitness - instagram
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?
Health & Fitness
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
The Key Performance Institute provides safe, inclusive sport spaces free for young people aged 16–21, co-created with communities to build physical, mental, and social wellbeing.
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 face significant barriers to accessing sport and physical activity, particularly after leaving school, distanced from the structure of physical education, or experiencing injury without adequate support, neurodivergence, or low confidence. While sports facilities exist in most urban areas, they are often financially inaccessible, intimidating, or designed around elite or adult users rather than young people’s needs. This issue is especially prevalent for young people aged 16–21, where early disengagement from physical activity can have lifelong consequences for physical health, mental wellbeing, confidence, and social connection. For those no longer engaging in sports and struggling to afford a gym membership, the loss of routine, identity, and access to facilities can lead to isolation and disengagement from sport altogether. I am personally close to this problem. I have experienced how powerful sport and fitness can be in improving mental health, discipline, and self-belief, particularly while navigating ADHD and injury. I have also seen how quickly access to sport can disappear once someone falls outside formal systems, leaving young people to train alone or give up entirely. The young people who benefit most from this solution are those aged 16–21 who need free, safe access to physical activity. Also young people who are excluded from traditional sport spaces due to cost along with young people who are struggling with injuries and lacking the appropriate support to effectively recover. Young people who want to move, train, and belong, rather than spending most of their time doom-scrolling on social media. Solving this problem matters because sport and movement should be a shared community resource not a privilege reserved for those who can afford it.
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?
The Key Performance Institute (KPI) addresses this problem by reimagining how existing sport spaces are used and who they are for. Rather than building new facilities, we access underused tracks, gyms, pitches, and university spaces, transforming them into welcoming, youth-centred environments for sport, movement, and wellbeing. A key barrier we address is cost. KPI offers free access for young people aged 16–21, alongside low-cost memberships and drop-in sessions for older participants. This removes financial exclusion while maintaining a sustainable model. My “aha moment” came from my own previous experiences and realising that there must be others in the same situation as me. The spaces existed while the access did not. KPI was born from the idea that we don’t need more buildings, we need better systems of access, trust, and collaboration. Leisure providers, universities, and local authorities play a vital role by providing access to facilities during underutilised hours and supporting community use of spaces traditionally reserved for specific groups. By building relationships with these stakeholders, KPI strengthens connections between communities and the spaces around them, ensuring facilities serve local young people, not just institutions. Safeguarding is a core priority for KPI. All coaches and delivery staff will complete enhanced DBS checks, alongside appropriate safeguarding training, once funding is received. Clear safeguarding policies and reporting structures will be in place before programme scale-up. This commitment ensures that all spaces unlocked through KPI are safe, trusted, and appropriate environments, particularly for young people aged 16–21.
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 Key Performance Institute is structured to ensure young people and community stakeholders are directly involved in shaping and delivering the initiative. KPI operates through a charitable structure governed by trustees, who are actively involved in programme delivery and have already led pilot sessions including strength and conditioning and mixed martial arts. This ensures strong accountability, safeguarding, and mission alignment from the outset. A linked social enterprise, KPI Fitness Ltd, delivers personal training and corporate wellness services. This partnership will play a crucial role in cost recovery and long-term sustainability, allowing community sessions for young people aged 16-21 to remain free or low cost. This model ensures that commercial activity directly subsidises community access, rather than competing with it. Young people are actively engaged through co-creation of session formats and training goals. Also through ongoing feedback loops during and after sessions. They will also be given opportunities to progress into peer mentoring or delivery roles once adequate experience is gained. Early sessions run by trustees have helped shape the programme based on real participant feedback, ensuring the initiative is responsive to lived experience rather than assumptions. As the initiative grows, KPI will continue building partnerships with local leisure providers, universities, and community organisations to strengthen access to space and deepen community 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?
While KPI is at an early stage, the initiative has already demonstrated proof of concept through pilot sessions delivered by charity trustees, including strength and conditioning and mixed martial arts training. These sessions have shown strong engagement and attendance. There has also been positive feedback around confidence, motivation, and enjoyment. Early delivery has helped refine session structure, coaching style, and accessibility considerations, ensuring the programme is shaped by participant experience from the outset. We have run 3 sessions so far from mid-January to mid-February on an invite-only basis. This is due to our current lack of capacity and funding. These have been beginner-friendly martial arts sessions, with 7 attending the first session and 12 in the latest session. We'd like to begin marketing and have open invitations for more young people as soon as possible. In the short term, KPI will unlock regular access to safe sport spaces for young people aged 16–21, removing cost and confidence barriers and embedding physical activity into their weekly routines. In the longer term, KPI aims to improve physical and mental wellbeing outcomes. We also plan to increase sustained participation in sport and movement. We aim to create pathways into employment, volunteering, or education in sport and fitness. The pilot phase will support around 20 young people, with the potential to reach hundreds of young people in the first year and thousands in the years to come as partnerships and access agreements expand across Greenwich and Newham. Impact will be tracked through attendance, retention, participant feedback, and progression into leadership or paid roles, providing a credible path to scale and long-term change.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
KPI is innovative because it changes how access to sport is organised, not just how sessions are delivered. Rather than creating new facilities, KPI reclaims existing spaces and uses them as functional fitness spaces fit for our needs. We apply flexible access models to streamline our operations. We also redefine performance for each individual around their needs such as wellbeing, recovery and progression. These are what we call personalised KPIs where young people define success on their own terms. The Key Performance Institute is special. We don't intend to be just another youth club where young people come to unwind. We help our members develop a strong work ethic and perseverance. To make sure we're moving forward, we have specific objectives that we discuss with each member. We plan on taking on young people from all ethnic groups, especially minorities who may not have had access to the coaching practices used in modern sport. We aim to help young people that may have grown up in other countries where they didn't have the chance to discover certain sports or training methods. We also place emphasis on helping those who struggle with neurodiversity, giving them a chance to let their creativity flow and express themselves through sport and physical activity.
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?
KPI offers a diverse range of products and services to generate income, catering to both online and in-person clients. By providing flexible fitness solutions, we aim to reach individuals at all fitness levels and maximise revenue streams in order to remain financially sustainable. We plan to do this through subscription-based services such as offering access to adult group sessions, premium workout videos, live-streamed classes, and personalised training plans for an affordable monthly or annual fee. We will also provide corporate wellness programmes which include partnerships with companies to provide informative ongoing virtual and in-person fitness programmes. We will host employee wellness days which will be one-day fitness events for companies to boost employee engagement and health awareness. We will also collaborate with universities to implement fitness programmes for students and faculty. KPI is designed to be financially and operationally sustainable from the outset. The partnership between the charity and KPI Fitness Ltd creates a hybrid model where income from adult group sessions and corporate wellness days directly supports community delivery. This ensures that free access for young people aged 16–21 is protected, while reducing long-term reliance on grant funding. The initiative benefits from low fixed costs by using existing facilities, flexible staffing through part-time and freelance roles, trustees with hands-on delivery experience and a clear path from pilot to scale. Future sustainability will be strengthened through partnerships with leisure providers and universities. Additional sponsorship or funding relationships and expansion of youth leadership and delivery capacity. This model is designed to be replicable across other London boroughs
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Founder / Project Lead Vision, partnerships, safeguarding, delivery oversight, and sustainability. Coaches / Trainers (Part-time & Freelance) Session delivery, programme design, youth mentoring. Young People (Participants & Ambassadors) Co-design, feedback, peer support, promotion, and leadership. Partners (Gyms, Universities, Leisure Providers) Space access, facilities, institutional support. Freelancers (Media / Admin) Communications, outreach, and engagement support.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
(2nd Quarter) Secure pilot spaces Finalise safeguarding and compliance Recruit first cohort (focus on ages 16–21) (3rd Quarter) Deliver regular sessions Gather feedback and refine model Develop youth ambassador roles (4th Quarter) Expand partnerships Introduce additional sessions and locations Prepare for scale and replication
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.
Coaches Salaries Venue hire Travel and subsistence for sessions Additional safeguarding, insurance, or compliance costs Capacity-building tools (CRM, monitoring, evaluation) Online Markerting Freelance Media
