What a fantastic start to the week, with the news that we’ve been revealed as the winner of the first ever Civic Innovation Challenge.

The challenge, which is the first of its kind was founded by the Mayor of London to match tech startups and SMEs with leading companies and public bodies to create innovative solutions to some of London’s most pressing problems, such as isolation, inequality and physical inactivity

Announced at an awards ceremony in London last night, Elemental was chosen amongst 13 other startups and SMEs and awarded £15,000 of government funding and a selection of corporate partners to tackle the challenge of improving physical activity in the area, in partnership with Ealing Council.

“Physical inactivity is one of the core problems we set out to address through our digital platform and social prescribing so we are extremely pleased to be working with Ealing Council to tackle such a fundamental issue.” Clare Cooper, Project Manager, Elemental Software

It’s so exciting to be working with colleagues at Elemental – this is a project where the principles of community engagement meets with Elemental’s social prescribing software – with only one outcome – a healthy lifestyle for local residents! Phil Veasey. Community Engagement Consultant

The pilot, which will launch later this year will see Elemental work with a GP practice in the Southall community, local partners such as housing associations, and residents in one of the most disadvantaged communities in Ealing to co-produce solutions to empower inactive people to become more active.

Using Elemental’s social prescribing software, the project will build a hyper local approach to promoting physical activity by working with residents to map and assess all local physical assets, communicate the various offers to the most physically inactive, and track and evaluate resident’s physical activity journeys.

As a result, our solution will see people in the Ealing area offered the chance to be referred to community based physical activity assets, such as walking groups, swimming lessons and couch to 5k programmes. Using our innovative referral making and referral tracking technology, residents and referral handlers will be able to track and monitor the impact of the activity on a person’s life.

Hearing the announcement, Elemental Co-Founder Jennifer Neff said “With our background in community development, Elemental understands the effect that physical inactivity can have on an individual’s health and wellbeing. We’re delighted to have been announced as winners of the civic innovation challenge and hope that this pilot could act as a global ‘test-bed city’ for civic innovation by embedding physical activity into people’s everyday lives and finding more active ways to connect people to their community.”

To find out more about the project or about our social prescribing platform get in touch or request a demo.