Nominations are open for the King’s Civic Challenge Community Choice award, giving everyone the chance to vote for the idea they think most deserves professional consultancy and advice.

King’s Civic Challenge teams up students, staff and alumni with local community partners to create positive change in our home boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster.

This year, for the first time, you can vote for your Community Choice project. The team with the most votes will receive a full day’s support from research consultancy Rocket Science, which can be used by the community partner to take the idea from a theoretical proposal to a viable project.

Since joining King’s Civic Challenge in January, 21 teams have worked together to tackle complex local issues identified by their community organisation or charity. To build and enhance these ideas, each team has had support from a King’s alumni coach and participated in training and workshops covering idea generation, communications, project management, evaluation and pitching skills.

Some of the big issues taken on by this year’s teams include supporting people living with dementia, addressing food insecurity, improving older adults’ digital skills and empowering local young people.

At the King’s Civic Challenge Grand Final later this month, a panel of judges from King’s and our local authorities will announce the Community Choice winner and award nine prizes of £5,000 to help the teams make their ideas a reality.

Four core Civic Challenge awards align with the mutual priorities King’s identified with our local boroughs: health and wellbeing, education and attainment, business and enterprise and community resilience. As part of King’s aim to nurture and enhance its cultural community, at least one of these will be awarded to a cultural organisation or project. A further award will be given to a project that connects art, science and health to benefit local communities.

Four additional projects aligned to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals will also receive £5,000, with these awards made possible by a unique contract between King’s and furniture supplier SouthernsBroadstock.

Register now to attend the King’s Civic Challenge Grand Final on 22 April. 

1. 575 Wandsworth Road, National Trust – Creative Communities Residency Pilot | WATCH THE PITCH
A socially engaged creative residency to connect, inspire and empower local communities through the story of National Trust property, 575 Wandsworth Road, and provide a platform for emerging artists to respond creatively to local issues. The pilot will focus on centring and amplifying underrepresented voices within cultural spaces through the power of storytelling.

2. Age UK Westminster – Increasing Digital Inclusion in elderly, marginalised communities in Westminster | WATCH THE PITCH
This project will address the exclusion and isolation that the elderly marginalised communities of Westminster face. Elderly people often lack digital skills and access to technology, making it challenging to tackle loneliness effectively. This project will provide digital know-how to facilitate long-term social engagement, impart confidence and develop resilience within these communities.

3. ARCS – A New ADHD Perspective: What we should all know | WATCH THE PITCH
A unique ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) educational film project, co-produced with neurodiverse secondary school students in Lambeth, will launch a Young Ambassador Programme, creating a sense of acceptance and community. Neurodiverse pupils have a voice, and the ARCS team aims to empower them to be heard in their school community – by raising awareness!

4. Borough Food Cooperative – Multimedia Cookbook | WATCH THE PITCH
The Borough Food Cooperative team want to create a free multimedia cookbook that will provide cooking tutorials and healthy recipes. This will take the form of 12 cooking tutorials, with an accompanying website and printed literature. It will showcase Borough Food Cooperative members sharing their stories and their ideas surrounding food.

5. Cape Verdean Association UK – Empowering Portuguese-Speaking African Youth through Self-Development | WATCH THE PITCH
This project with Cape Verdean Association UK wants to build the foundation blocks of young Portuguese-speaking African students in Lambeth for their futures after secondary education. With a range of workshops, as well as mentoring programmes, these students will be equipped with knowledge and confidence to make well-informed choices regarding their future professional lives.

6. Caxton Youth Organisation – Caxton Youth Government | WATCH THE PITCH
Caxton Youth Organisation will collaborate with students from King’s to equip Caxton members, who are young people with disabilities and autism, with skills such as debating, public speaking and leadership so that they can establish their own ‘Caxton Government’. This will enable Caxton Youth Organisation to become more youth-led.

7. ClearCommunityWeb – My Digital Journey | WATCH THE PITCH
This project improves digital skills and confidence for older people, vulnerable adults and carers in our community by introducing ‘My Digital Journey’: a personal journal to support learning, retention and being safe online. This motivational tool encourages ClearCommunityWeb’s learners to become self-reliant, increases access to essential resources and supports wellbeing.

8. Girls United FA – Kicking it Up | WATCH THE PITCH
This project will evaluate the impact of Girls United’s methodology of developing life skills through football on existing players at Club London. Girls from Lambeth borough will develop resilience, confidence and decision-making skills, impacting them further than the pitch and push them to reflect on themselves and their growth.

9. In-Deep – Creative Companions | WATCH THE PITCH
In-Deep’s Creative Companions programme will connect socially isolated older people and families with children with special education needs across Westminster, through a shared art-making experience, culminating in an open exhibition showcasing their achievements.

10. Neurodiversity Learning Centre CIC – Inspired by Diversity | WATCH THE PITCH
The aim of the project is to create a parcel with an interactive activity and an informative leaflet. The parcel will contain art materials and a template of a brain as part of the interactive activity. The team hope that through this interactive activity, they can inspire individuals with dyslexia to share their experiences through a creative medium.

11. Policy Centre for African Peoples (PCAP) – Hope after COVID | WATCH THE PITCH
The project empowers people affected by COVID-19 in Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth and Westminster to overcome their negative experiences using African wellness, relaxation, and self-improvement techniques. Over five months, participants will learn to recognise the negative impact of COVID-19 on themselves and acquire lifelong tools to enable them to cope effectively.

12. Power2 – Bridge the Gap | WATCH THE PITCH
Bridge the Gap is a visionary group of King’s College London students working with the registered charity Power2 to help alleviate loneliness in the elderly in Lambeth through the art of friendly conversation. The team seeks to teach the elderly IT skills to enable them to stay connected to the outside world, while equipping the students with important life skills.

13. Restorative Justice for All – Restorative Futures | WATCH THE PITCH
The team aims to inspire and empower grassroots initiatives among young people by fostering an understanding of Restorative Justice and encouraging student activism. Restorative Futures invites passionate, young students alike to take part in an interactive programme designed to transform committed individuals into proactive changemakers in their communities.

14. Southside – Defeating Digital Divide | WATCH THE PITCH
Assist, Adapt, Access – training Southside’s clients to navigate their way into digital literacy, so they can confidently use IT, simultaneously reducing isolation and anxiety. This project will address inequality by bridging the gap between clients with mental health conditions and technology, equipping individuals with essential skills for the 21^st century.

15. St. Faith’s Centre – Age Horizons | WATCH THE PITCH
Age Horizons is an initiative to tackle the loneliness epidemic experienced by the elderly. The team aims to facilitate positive, social interactions through group activities to alleviate the sense of isolation and improve overall wellbeing amongst older people. The elderly are not alone, the St Faith’s Centre team are here to help! 

16. The Dot Collective – A Map to You | WATCH THE PITCH
A storytelling project that supports those living with dementia, and their carers, to rediscover their creativity and improve overall wellbeing via sensory reminiscence workshops. Participants will connect with their memories, their loved ones and the wider community, sharing their experiences of dementia, both online and in person.

17. The Jo Cox Foundation – London Survival Guide | WATCH THE PITCH
This project aims to build a genuine sense of community and belongingness among university students in London through the ‘London Survival Guide’. This is a scavenger hunt with fellow King’s students to unlock rewards and make new connections and memories that will last forever.

18. The Passage – Civic Engagement Certificate | WATCH THE PITCH
A community engagement project that encourages sustained fundraising efforts in schools. A series of workshops and accompanying handouts, in which pupils will learn about The Passage’s mission, creative fundraising methods and receive support to complete their own fundraiser. On completion, pupils receive official recognition to support their future endeavours.

19. The Remakery - Remakery Project Night - ‘Climate Culture’ | WATCH THE PITCH
The Remakery Project Night is a space for young people to unleash their imaginations. ‘Climate Culture’ (working title) is a youth-led magazine made in an ecologically conscious way, that investigates and amplifies local solutions and opportunities to address global climate issues.

20. The Soul Shack London CIC – Lambeth Community Food Healing Project | WATCH THE PITCH
The Soul Shack Team propose co-creating a food pantry to allow families in need to purchase groceries worth £15 at a cost of £3, to help battle food insecurity in the Lambeth area and promote food education, knowledge and hygiene within the community. They will empower local young people by recruiting them as volunteers.

21. Urban Growth Learning Gardens CIC – Brixton’s Climate Action Walk | WATCH THE PITCH
The Brixton’s Climate Action Walk (BCAW) embraces the power of storytelling to create an interactive and immersive digital audio experience of Brixton’s green spaces that will educate, engage and empower young people about the climate, while celebrating and amplifying the electric history and culture of Brixton.