King’s Civic Challenge

King’s Civic Challenge brings together teams of students, staff and local charities to co-create solutions to some of the challenges our communities face.

Designed in collaboration with our partners in Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster,  King’s Civic Challenge invites local charities to work with the King’s community to develop fresh perspectives on local issues. 

It’s one of the ways we aim to make positive change in our home boroughs, as part of our ambition to be a civic university at the heart of London. By building stronger relationships with local authorities and working side-by-side with local organisations and community leaders, we are developing collaborative approaches to our shared challenges.

With our home boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster, we’ve identified four areas where we can do even more to serve, support and sustain our local communities. The projects we will support through King’s Civic Challenge align with these mutual priorities.

• Education & attainment: ensuring everyone can aim high and reach their full potential
• Business & enterprise: supporting the development of thriving local economies while creating opportunities for all
• Community resilience: strengthening communities and helping them develop solutions to the problems they face
• Health & wellbeing: improving the health and wellbeing of our communities through local partnership.

Previous King's Civic Challenge winners have created an exhibition to raise awareness of the challenges that carers face, launched football workshops for young girls in Lambeth and Southwark and even secured jobs with their charity partner.

King's Civic Challenge 2021/22

Eight projects won funding in the third year of the King's Civic Challenge: each community partner received £5,000 alongside a package of evaluation and support. For the first time, however, project support was provided to all participating partners - not just the winners.

Four awards were given out to align with each of the Civic Challenge focus areas, with three additional prizes awarded to projects for art, science and health, multiple perspectives, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

One further project was developed exclusively by a team of researchers from the Centre for Medical Engineering at King’s and the MITHRAS programme, alongside community partners Coin Street Centre Trust and the Colombo Centre. This project received direct fundfing from the MITHRAS programme itself.

In this year, the Civic Challenge Final took place in hybrid for the first time at Science Gallery London. For the first time in three years, a reception event was held after the final.