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A new partnership with Flintshire Youth Justice in North Wales
Back in November 2023, members of the Flintshire youth justice service team attended the Empire gym in Bristol to be trained in the delivery of our Box Champions programme.
And at the start of this year, supported by our regional partnership manager, we are pleased to announce the North Wales based team have now delivered their first sessions at Shotton Boxing club.
Continuing with our aim of impacting lives, we are proud our programme is growing and providing an innovative model of engaging, educating, and supporting young people.
With on-going support from our Northwest based coach Harry, each practitioner from Flintshire youth justice has referred 2 young people each to participate in the programme. Initially they observe a range of sessions, which builds up their knowledge and confidence, with a view to eventually lead on delivery themselves. All this whilst ensuring and maintaining it’s at a standard and correct culture of delivery we expect on the Box Champions programme.
Nicky Team Leader from Flintshire Youth Justice with Harry our North-West based coach managerFor Nicky from Flintshire Youth Justice this is all new, and she is excited if a little nervous about being involved. She said: “We are very excited to be delivering this new intervention with our young people.
I have to admit, that at first sight, the professional gym in Bristol was a little daunting in that it made us wonder how we could replicate this in Flintshire, but the trainers put us totally at ease and showed us the skills necessary to deliver the project in whatever space is available.”
Understanding the impact the programme can have, Nicky is keen to see how it can support the work she does. She continued: “Young people involved with our service can now utilise Box Champions and have some time out from whatever is causing emotional pain and stress within their daily lives, all without talking about it is refreshing and exciting.
Harry with Matt Weedall the ASB Prevention Officer from the Flintshire Youth Justice Team in North WalesI can’t wait to see how the project develops and with Harrys and Empire Fighting Chances support, I can already see how using the principles will help me to grow and develop throughout the training period,” she added.
Our regional partnership Manager Harry said: “The team at Flintshire Youth Justice have worked hard setting up a safe and appropriate space for the programme to be delivered in.
Access to Shotton ABC brings authenticity to the sessions and allows the team to bring an Empire Fighting Chance session alive in a boxing environment.”
Shotton Boxing Club where Flintshire Youth Justice deliver the Box Champions ProgrammeAaron, who oversees the development of the Box Champions programme is pleased with the progress of the project and outlined how the partnership had started.
He said: “After three successful years working with Wrexham Youth Justice, Flintshire Youth Justice heard about the impact and reduction of re-offending rates we were achieving with young people and explored avenues on how they could use our Box Champions Programme in their community.”
Aaron is leading on our scale project taking the Box Champions programme across the UK“The results speak for themselves- nearly 85% of young people who completed our programmes in Wrexham have not reoffended. This is considerably lower than the UK average”.
He continued: “After we delivered the two-day training package to their staff in Bristol, it was really encouraging to see how they believed in the programme.
We are creating a real portfolio of work with Youth Justice services across the UK and would love to expand our impact further. Essentially, we want to share our work and programmes with likeminded organisations and individuals who want to support young people in their community”.
To find out more about the Box Champions programme click here.
