Hartcliffe boxing club run by teenagers secures its future

A boxing club organised and led by teenagers in one of Bristol’s most challenging areas for youth work has finally secured a permanent base, after it was set up less than two years ago.

The Hartcliffe Boxing Club, run by three older teenagers aged just 17 and 18, had gathered younger children to meet and train in the park, on football pitches and even in a supermarket car park, before now attracting funding grants and securing use of a local primary school hall.

The club has been supported by leading figures in the city from Bristol Bears head coach Pat Lam to Mayor Marvin Rees, and those behind it say it’s already changing lives - and will continue to do so, now they have secured a permanent home in the hall at Merchants Primary School.

The club is the brainchild of Reegan Humphries, now 18, who suggested to local youth work leaders that a way to engage with young people in Hartcliffe and Withywood could be through a boxing gym.

That was back in 2019, and he and friends Josh Dudbridge, Mitchell Cormack, 18 and later, Ella Taylor, 17, began setting up a boxing club, despite initially having no equipment or a place to hold sessions.

In early 2020, they began holding sessions on a sports court, and in a variety of different school halls in the area.

The nomadic team immediately realised there was an appetite for doing boxing training among the local youngsters.

For Mitchell, who is just a few years older than the youngsters taking part, the connections are the most important thing.

“I think this could be the start of getting the younger lads off the streets and into doing something they enjoy instead of being nuisances to police and bystanders,” he said.

Source: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/hartcliffe-boxing-club-run-teenagers-5661151

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