As soon as you walk through the door of Empire Fighting Chance boxing gym, you are hit in the face with photos of young people that have stepped across the threshold before you. Young people, who were struggling in mainstream school, falling through gaps in our health care system or at risk of going down a path that is hard to come back from. Young people, that with a safe place to go and the right type of support, are now buzzing with pride and purpose. BBF’s Brewed to Give crew met up with Emily and Mariella, to find out how this incredible charity is transforming the lives of young people and how our support is enabling them to reach more.
Empire Fighting Chance is a leading sport for development charity that inspires young people to realise their unique potential. They do this by delivering four psychologically informed non-contact boxing programmes that reach around 10,000 vulnerable young people every year.
They have come a long way since 2006 when their two founders, Martin Bisp and Jamie Sanigar, ‘accidently started a charity’ in response to the rise in young people hanging around the gym with no other safe place to go. They knew these young people were at risk of exclusion from school, which is more likely to lead to criminality, gang membership and substance misuse. They wanted to do something about it – so they opened up the gym for a few free sessions during the summer holidays. 5 weeks later, they had 50 young people attending 5 days a week. When the school holiday ended, these young people continued to show up. Within the year, local teachers were calling the gym, begging the coaches to reveal how they captivated young people that were impossible to reach within school. The gym was combining boxing sessions with maths equations, working to the gym bell, which constantly rings every 4 minutes (signalling 3 minutes on and 1 minute off). They coached young people physically in the ring and emotionally on the sidelines, to realise their strengths and make positive changes to their lives.
Jump forward 18 years and Empire Fighting Chance offers four programmes based on a fusion of boxing and psychology, delivered by coaches and therapists that young people can trust. As Emily describes, ‘There’s something about being in a gym, rooted in your community, which enables a young person to open up and connect’.
And let’s be very clear about this – this is a nice boxing gym. Its clean. Its bright. It smells fresh! Everything about this place is inviting and that is the intention. They want the young people they work with to have a place and a community that they are proud to be a part of. And with fee-paying gym goers, corporate team building sessions, junior box sessions, coaches and staff, there is a constant movement of this community through the corridors, where no one is labelled or singled out.
Bristol Beer Factory brew to unite people and communities over world-class beer. We donate 2% of every brewery sale to groups making a positive difference in our city. Where possible, we donate beer for fundraising events, and support groups to sell this for 3-5 times the cost value.
Empire Fighting Chance recently teamed up with a local events team to hold a fundraiser with a difference – a rave in the Underground (the carpark under the Galleries shopping centre). BBF donated £2k of cost price beer and all the equipment they needed to pour it - including the glasses. Every one of our beers sold helped to raise over £7k which will support 12 young people to receive 20 weeks of intensive 1:1 support through their flagship Box Champions programme, that combines boxing mentoring and psychological support.
Now that’s what you call DRINK WITH PURPOSE.
