A year of partnership with Flintshire Youth Justice

After four successful years of working with Wrexham Youth Justice Service, and seeing the impact we have made with the young people across Wrexham, there were discussions about bringing our programme to Flintshire.

So , on the month of November in 2023, we invited four practitioners from Flintshire Youth Justice  to the Empire Fighting Chance Centre of Excellence gym in Bristol. They were : Nicky Evans, Matt Weedall, Rio McDermott, and Owen Butler.

The primary role of the Youth Justice Service is to prevent offending by children and young people. And in Flintshire, they work with families and other agencies to make sure every young person gets access to the help and support they need. 

One of their key projects is Bureau, an early intervention programme working with younger children who are at risk of offending. Additionally, when a young person commits an offence for the first time, or the offence is less serious and they have taken responsibility, the police refer the young person to the Bureau for additional support to prevent further offending.

The four practitioners received their training in Empire's Box Champions programme. Development Manager Aaron said : "The training included a deep dive into the psychology behind the Box Champions and the reasons why we use boxing as the vehicle.

The team also got to experience the community in which we are based in inner city Bristol, and the challenges it faces. This was a valuable comparison to see what similar and contrasting challenges they would encounter in Flintshire," he added. 

The team leader at Flintshire Youth Justice Service is Nicky Evans, and she spoke highly of the training and how useful it has been to their practice. She said : " 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. However, the trainers put us totally at ease in our belief that we could do this and develop the skills necessary to  deliver the project up in Flintshire, in whatever the space available."

She continued, "Despite being counter intuitive, initially due to the nature of our roles, the message ‘less is more’ stuck with us as practitioners. The idea that the young people involved with our service can utilise Box Champions to have some time out from whatever is causing emotional pain/stress within their daily lives, all without talking about, was so refreshing and exciting."

Since returning to Flintshire, the team have worked hard setting up a safe and appropriate space for the programme to be delivered in. Shotton Boxing Club have given Flintshire Youth Justice access to use their gym each week to deliver the Box Champions Programme. Having this space will allow the team to bring an Empire Fighting Chance session to life in a boxing environment. 

Our North West based coach, Harry, has been supporting the team at Flintshire Youth Justice.  He has been leading the delivery of the Box Champions Programme at Shotton Boxing Club each week, and 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 Amateur Boxing Club brings authenticity to the sessions, and allows the team to bring an Empire Fighting Chance session alive in a boxing environment.”

Each practitioner has referred two young people to participate in the programme. This allows the practitioners to observe a range of sessions, which will help build up their confidence to take the lead. As the weeks progress, they will take on more ownership of the delivery, with the end goal being to deliver sessions on their own. This will allow Harry to drop in and observe their delivery, which will maintain the standard of delivery we achieve as a charity.

Nicky Evans added:“ I cant wait to see how the project develops and although I am still a little nervous about my ability to deliver the project, with Harry's and Empire Fighting Chances support, I can already see how using the principles of Box Champions will help me to grow and develop throughout the training period.

We are excited to see how we can develop the project further within small groups across the two services. We also want to expand delivery to more schools and communities, with advice from Empire Fighting Chance, in order to tackle the issues that contribute to Anti-Social Behaviour. “

To find out more about our UK network read  here.