Are you a place-based community or youth group?
Do you want to support young people to transform your organisation’s outdoor space?
Young people are often excluded from decisions about their communities, especially in areas of regeneration. At Build Up, we’re working to change that.
Build Up is a charity that runs practical construction projects across London. We support young people to design and build public and community spaces. We bring young people, builders and designers together. Equipping young people with the tools and agency to have ownership over their neighbourhoods.
Over the past ten years we’ve co-created 50 inclusive spaces of growth, connection and memories that young people still cherish. Together, we’ve built climbing walls, hang out spaces, community gardens and adventure playgrounds. Most importantly we make spaces for young people to experiment in, and have fun in.
Build Up is opening applications for new project partnerships in 2026. We’d love to hear from organisations interested in working with us, to collaboratively empower young people to practically shape spaces that matter to them.
“It’s easy to lose faith, and think “nobody cares”, but challenging that has been helpful. It’s reminded me not to lose my aspiration for change, because it can feel like no-one cares about my community. And now I’m feeling like there are groups of people, with power, who genuinely care about community input.” Mia, 18
What we offer:
As construction workers and architects, we know that building can be a powerful experience, one that can create feelings of ownership and belonging. We work to create access to these experiences for the young people we work with. Sharing the tools and agency that allow young people to build spaces for them, by them.
The Build Up Open Call is an opportunity to partner with us to set up a project for young people to design and build a community space. We’ll work with you to make your young peoples’ ideas a reality; setting up a project, jointly applying for funding and centring young people in design and construction.
Supporting young people to make meaningful decisions requires sustained commitment from all partners. While securing project funding is a shared responsibility, Build Up typically contributes the equivalent of £6–10k in our staff time to selected projects before funding is in place.
Please take a look at these slides which explain how our community space projects work.
What we’re looking for:
We are looking to work alongside partners to develop projects that can be built by young people in outdoor community spaces. This includes youth clubs, community centres, supervised adventure playgrounds and more.
You might be a youth group, or a community organisation who wants to partner with one. The young people you work with may already have plans for a space. Or you might be an organisation committed to listening to young people’s ideas and enabling them to make decisions.
For this Open Call, we are focusing on working with groups of young people aged 12 and older.
Please see the projects and blog sections of our website for examples of the types of spaces we build and the impact they have had on young people and wider communities.
Is this a funding application?
Please note that Build Up does not hold or distribute funding for Open Call projects. A core aspect of any partnership with Build Up is collaborating to secure funding, supported by our specialist expertise.
Build Up provides additional support to grassroots groups or smaller organisations, and expects larger organisations to play a bigger role in fundraising. Our FAQs document contains further information about how this works.
We welcome applications from people and organisations that:
+ Are actively interested in supporting young people to make decisions about their lives.
+ Have long term access to a site where a project can be situated.
+ Can dedicate time to developing their project idea, including attending planning meetings, jointly securing funding and supporting young people to be involved.
+ Are focused on meeting the needs of young people in London facing structural inequalities, whether related to their ethnicity, gender, class, disability, income, housing, sexuality, care experience or other lived experiences.
+ Are committed to putting decision making into the hands of those young people to shape a physical space.
+ Want to create or improve areas for young people to hangout, socialise and play.
Spaces should be:
+ In a London borough
+ Supervised and managed by a community organisation
+ Expected to be in use for at least 5 years
Not in London?
We are currently exploring how to expand the Open Call outside of London. If you are an organisation in other areas of the UK interested in being involved, we would love to hear from you. Please register your interest here.
Before you apply:
+ Public Space project? Please apply to our Open Call for publicly accessible spaces (for example high streets, parks, housing estates) later this year. For more information or if you are unsure which Open Call to apply for, please contact ami@buildup.org.uk.
+ Previous Applicants. Please get in touch with us if you’re interested in applying again. We can offer feedback on your previous application and advise on a further application.
+ Frequently Asked Questions. If you have any questions, please read our FAQs document.
Please apply by using our short application form by Tuesday 10th March 2026.
Our Youth Advisory Board selects projects to move forward and will visit shortlisted applicants in April 2026. Build Up will update all applicants on the outcome of their application by 30 April 2026.
For questions, reach out to ami@buildup.org.uk.
