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
Jordana
Last Name
Malik
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
New Bermondsey Sports Foundation
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2011
Initiative Title
Growing sport, income and participation at the Thunderdome, SE16
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
http://www.newbermondseysportsfoundation.org.uk; https://thunderbasketball.net; Instagram @londonthunder23; https://fusionttc.co.uk; @fusionttc; www.newbermondsey.com
Initiative Stage
Established (You’ve successfully passed early phases and have a plan for the future. Your venture has been in existence for 6 years and above)
Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Health & Fitness
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
Improving the Thunderdome, SE16, so that more young people can access the facility, throughout the week.
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?
Over the past decade the New Bermondsey Sports Foundation (founded in 2011) has established a 24,000 sq ft basketball and table tennis facility at a warehouse on Stockholm Road, SE16 which receives 4,000 visits a month, mostly young people, as the local area is poorly served for sports facilities. The sports programmes are run by two local clubs, London Thunder Basketball and Fusion Table Tennis Clubs who started on the site in 2013. Renewal (the landowner) has owned and managed buildings and land locally since 2004. Although successful in terms of the number of visits, the partners need to increase their income and improve the facilities to ensure that the sports can continue to be played in this location over the long term. There is an opportunity to add a third sport to the facility as there is some unused space on the first floor and currently the facility is not used in the weekday, from early morning to 4pm. We also know that the facilities require improvements. For example, to improve external lighting so that young women feel safe accessing the facility at night/ in the winter; improved security and access at front door, by installing a new security system and front door that can be operated from the courts (currently the door is left open when club sessions are being run, which is a security risk); a new ramp access to ensure that the wheelchair users can safely access the building for the disability training sessions; install heating for the table tennis courts, as currently they are unheated and it becomes very cold in the winter months, due to the industrial fabric of the building; improving all of the bathrooms and changing rooms, including installing urinals and adding more cubicles for women.
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 ‘aha’ moment was when the local landowner (Renewal) established the New Bermondsey Sports Foundation charity in 2011 to promote sports locally because of the young demographic, a lack of facilities and a strong history of sports locally, including Millwall FC and the boxing history at the former Thomas a Becket pub on the Old Kent Road. After establishing the charity Renewal has supported the growth of the sports facilities by offering a heavily discounted rent (40% of market rent, which is accruing) and by providing personnel resource and supporting the clubs in their capital fundraising to date, which has raised circa £450,000 to turn the Thunderdome from a warehouse to a sports venue with 2 x full sized basketball courts, 16 x table tennis tables, recreation space and changing rooms. From this strong foundation the partners now need to improve the facility and ensure that the building is accessible for more of the week, which will raise further income and ensure the charity is more stable, going forward. In order to ensure the sports can grow and can develop into the future the NBSF needs to become an independent organisation because, as part of the wider development locally (called New Bermondsey), Renewal have outline planning permission at phase 3 of the development for a significant multi-sports facility, provisionally called Energize, which will be owned, run and managed by the NBSF and available to the local community at the equivalent of local authority rates. We would propose to work with the local authority (LB Lewisham) and the neighbouring local authority (LB Southwark) to promote the facility and to ensure that all the local schools, colleges and universities are aware of them for weekday, term time use.
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 local young people that use and potentially could use the facility are key to honing our proposal. We will use surveys, in-person events and meetings to understand their views and ideas and to understand if our proposals for upgrading the facilities align with their ideas and to identify if we have missed opportunity. We will ask them how best to utilise the space upstairs (currently an unused classroom) and how we can increase use of the facilities on weekdays in the daytime. We will also endeavour to promote the facilities to the local existing population who may not know that the Thunderdome is there - through the two local authorities and local schools, colleges and via our neighbours, for example, Millwall Football Club and Padel Box Bermondsey. Through engaging with the people that use and could use the facility we will ensure that any improvements are made will serve them which should lead to an increase in participation at the venue across the week. Any additional sports facilities that are introduced should therefore be popular and well used. We would seek to involve some of the older young people (15+) who are interested or considering a future career in sports, buildings and land so they can gain worthwhile work experience, shaping a building project (improvements to the Thunderdome). For example, how to prepare a brief for contractors; how to consider quotes for building work; how to prepare and stick to a budget; how to prepare a strategic plan for sports management of the building (e.g.: commercial versus community use, considering the impact of increasing business rates and utilities bills etc). We would also seek to use the young people to support any marketing or promotion work, if they were keen to be involved.
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?
The Thunderdome is operational but is only used from 4pm to 10pm in the week and approximately 50% of the weekend. One of the benefits of the building is that it can be used potentially 24 hours a day, because it is in an industrial area, with no nearby residential neighbours. Can the partners, with Go London's support, get the building used more often, by more people, and ensure it is safe, welcoming and accessible for young people and the wider community? By establishing the Thunderdome in 2013 the NBSF has taken a former industrial warehouse and created a genuine community facility, by raising funds of just under £450,000 over the past decade for capital improvements to the building to establish it as a sports facility, and it is regularly used by local people which now welcomes 4,000 visits every month. In order to measure the initiatives impact we would produce robust baseline date of who uses the building currently (and at what times, and when) and compare that to a building use at the end of the initiative where we would aim to see an increase in visits per month and an increase in the number of hours that the building is operational over the week. We would also track income raised through hire and commercial use in the week.
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 established and the core partnerships (New Bermondsey Sports Foundation, Renewal, London Thunder Basketball Club and Fusion Table Tennis Club) have been operational for over a decade. In addition, we propose to work with the two neighbouring local authorities (LB Lewisham and LB Southwark) to ensure all schools, colleges and universities locally can access the facilities. The NBSF has also recently received confirmation that a small group of students from the University of Liverpool's MBA programme are going to work with the charity to develop a strategic plan there is scope for this partnership to continue beyond this initial cohort’s work. We would therefore propose that the solid foundations of the existing partnerships, backed by the landowner (Renewal) and bringing in the local authorities and support from a leading Russell Group university (which alongside the standard MBA also offer a sports management MBA qualification) will ensure that the initiative is well-considered and has the capacity to develop into a significant, long standing partnership that lasts many years and provides the foundations for the eventual sports facilities proposed as part of the New Bermondsey development, benefitting the wider London sports eco system.
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?
By focussing on making the facilities more accessible, throughout the week, we will be generating income to ensure that the sports foundation can continue to provide land and buildings for sports uses for many years to come, both in its current site, and its future buildings at Energize. Once the NBSF has increased its own funding to a sustainable and consistent level we will aim to invest in an employee to manage the sports facilities; part of the work agreed with the University of Liverpool MBA students is to develop a strategy for the NBSF to ensure it is sustainable and self-funding, which will include identifying the correct personnel requirement, at the correct time, to ensure that facility can become sustainable. Prior to someone being employed, the resource for building management and hires will come from our private sector partner, Renewal. Regarding scaling, Renewal has already secured an outline planning consent for Energize and has agreed to provide the land to the NBSF. Renewal currently owns the site which is phase 3 of the consented New Bermondsey development. The NBSF will then need to raise capital funding or access loans to ensure the building can be built and then will have responsibility for managing the facility and sub leasing it to sports clubs and operators.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
New Bermondsey Sports Foundation leases the 24,000 sq ft property from the landlord Renewal. The rent is set at 40% of the market rent and is currently accruing. Jordana Malik, in her capacity as NBSF Trustee would lead this initiative. London Thunder Basketball Club have an agreement with the NBSF to use the facility and currently occupy the facility after school, in the school holiday (for delivery of holiday programmes) and 50% of the weekend. They are responsible for 60% of the building costs (utilities, rates, insurance etc). Fusion Table Tennis Club have an agreement with the NBSF to use the facility and currently occupy the facility after school, in the school holiday (for delivery of holiday programmes) and 50% of the weekend. They are responsible for 60% of the building costs (utilities, rates, insurance etc). London Thunder and Fusion would engage with their young people and members (via surveys, in-person events and meeting) to understand their views and ideas and to shape the initiative. We would expect both London Thunder and Fusion to engage with the Go! London capacity building, alongside the NBSF, but as both sports organisations are volunteer led, the capacity building would have to fit alongside the volunteers’ full-time jobs. Renewal provides support in terms of administration and resource to the NBSF, including Jordana Malik (who is an Executive Director at Renewal) and additional accountancy, legal and building management resource from the wider Renewal team. Renewal would work alongside both sports clubs to involve some of the young people (15+) who are interested or considering a future career in sports, buildings and land so they can gain worthwhile work experience, shaping a building project (improvements to the Thunderdome). For example, Renewal would offer advice on how to prepare a brief for contractors; how to consider quotes for building work; how to prepare and stick to a budget; how to prepare a strategic plan for sports management of the building (e.g: commercial versus community use, considering impact of increasing rates etc). Through the two local authorities we will endeavour to access all the local schools, colleges and universities.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
- Agree role/ support of LB Lewisham and then LB Southwark. At a minimum ask councils to promote the facilities to local schools, colleges, universities & in their newsletters/ communication channels. - Research and start conversations what third sport in the building and other income generating uses. See if there have been any 'leads' generated from Tagvenue.com and other online promotion. Consider marketing strategy for hires. - Following peer review, agree strategy/ timeline for 'Improving the Thunderdome' initiative with key partners (NBSF Trustees, London Thunder, Fusion Table Tennis and Renewal). - Survey existing members/ users of the Thunderdome re: upgrades to the facilities and third sport and see if any members/ young person is considering a future career in sports, buildings and land and would like to gain work experience. - Analyse outcomes of surveys. - Agree improvements for the Thunderdome with partners. - Gain updated quotes for the works identified. - Create a budget and project management timeline for the works.
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.
We would like to offer the sports clubs volunteers (London Thunder Basketball and Fusion Table Tennis Clubs) the opportunity to partake in the capacity building. Ideally, we would like to offer a reimbursement of their time, and/ or any expenses that they incur, because they are volunteers and we wouldn't want them having to take time off their paid job as a barrier to their participation.
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