Workington Town Boys Club
The Workington Town Boys Club is a community boxing project in the Moorclose area of Workington in Cumbria. The club's members consists mainly of youths aged 9-16 years olds as well as older members, drawn in from local neighbourhoods which are some of the most disadvantaged in the area and indeed in the country.
The boxing club has been of great benefit to the community, providing an extremely valuable physical outlet for young people in the area. As the club hosts their activities on a Friday evening this has also helped discourage youngsters from getting involved in anti social behaviour.
The club's goals are to be able to increase the capacity of their current membership levels, to get more youths involved in doing physical sport and to benefit the community as a whole. The club's activities encourage physical and mental discipline, self respect and respect for others through focused training while encouraging a fit and healthy lifestyle.
The Cash 4 Clubs sports grant of £500 was awarded to the club to enable them to expand their membership and offer a better quality of coaching. The grant will go towards training for a female which will enable interested girls to join the club, A.B.A. affiliation fees to allow their members to compete, and for extra equipment for the younger members.
"Receiving the award will help the club be more inclusive and offer more tailored training by enabling us to train a female coach. As we have recently affiliated to the A.B.A. and are ready to start competing, some of the funding will be used for a new boxing strip. This is high on our list of things we need, which will also help give a sense of pride and belonging which for many of our kids are lacking in their outside lives." Martin Sewell, Chairperson/Coach.
