Maiden Lane Community Centre's - Foundation Boxing for Girls

The Pitch

Problem statement

Our Girls GLOW project engages with 20 disadvantaged young women, many of whom live in low-income families, have extremely complicated and chaotic home lives and receive little support in navigating through the risks they encounter daily. There’s no free Boxing locally for young people, least of all young women. Following a summer taster session, the girls have requested we expand the project. We wish to deliver Foundation Boxing for our girls’ group across 6-weeks consisting of weekly 2hour sessions delivered by a professional boxing coach. This activity will provide a girls’ only physical activity in a safe space run by trusted Youth Workers they already know.

Solution

This programme will benefit 20 disadvantaged young women over 3 months, they will: - benefit from improved physical health - have a better understanding of the sport, - show commitment to the programme, - receive a certificate of achievement, - receive a healthy hot meal after each session (free), to take pressure off families suffering post pandemic cost of living deprivation. Total project: £2,240 x20 Boxing Gloves & Pads: £400 x2 Freestanding Boxing Punch Bags: £240 x2 Youth Workers: £900 including on-costs (£50x3hrs pw x 6wks) x1 Boxing Coach: £480 (40x2hrs pw x6 wks) x1 overheads (Marketing, admin, monitoring, evaluation, governance) £220 (£20 x 11hrs)

Why are we best placed to deliver?

We’ve been managing externally funded projects working with young people for 22 years. This work builds on the effective interventions we’ve established which are always conducted on the young women’s terms, if not they just walk away. The young women tell us that they are used within gangs to conceal weapons and provide sexual favours for male members. Some are perpetrators of crime themselves. They say they’ll consider engaging in activities that interest them if they feel safe to do so. This is a slow process as many of them have not joined in organised activities for years.

Focus Areas

Delivery plan

Budget breakdown

Beneficiaries

20 people

Who will benefit

Expected impact

The expected impact will be:• Improved physical health of 20 disadvantaged girls/young women• Increased access to participation of boxing for this group• Improved self-esteem• Increased engagement with other activities on offer as a result of this programme• Wider longer-term benefits would include better choices being made regarding participation in anti-social behaviour and crime.We measure the work we do through gathering both quantitative and qualitative data such as attendance, survey data, observational input, photos (with permission), monitoring any correlation between participation with boxing and any other programmes, plus quotes from the participants. Some of this will be gathered during the active sessions, with the survey data taking place at the end of the programme which will include questions on self-esteem and confidence using the widely used Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scales.

Track record

This project follows a Taster Session we ran in the summer for this group of girls/young women. They enjoyed it so much that they asked whether we could put a programme together, so we know there is a demand for this activity. “Boxing was fun. It was harder than I thought it would be, but I’d really like to get better at it” Female, aged 15. We will seek separate continuation funding for the second and third terms to extend this into a 12-month programme, where the equipment will be fully used.

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