In Your Corner, Rathbone ABC and Hawley ABC combine for successful Fight Connect pilot programme

England Boxing club’s Rathbone ABC and Hawley ABC facilitated In Your Corner’s pilot programme Fight Connect, which focuses on helping young people improve their emotional well-being and develop emotion regulation skills through the sport of boxing.

In Your Corner has released their official Impact Report from the psychologically informed boxing project, which caters to young people aged 12-15 years old who have been referred from services in Camden and Westminster, including Children’s Services, Early Help, CAMHS, The Lighthouse and local schools.

The programme, which has run three projects over 18 months – beginning in November 2021 and finishing in December of this year – delivers sessions that use evidence-based ideas from psychological intervention delivered flexibly, alongside non-contact boxing skills, to provide an accessible route to improving physical and emotional wellbeing.

Participants were tasked with setting Boxing Goals for their boxing skills and Feeling Better Goals for their emotional well-being.

The report found that participants’ confidence, boxing skills and fitness improved and the majority of young people both graduated and said they intended to continue to box.

Highlights from the Impact Report include:

• Young people showed clinically meaningful levels of positive change in their personalised emotional well-being goals
• 100% of referrers to the project would refer again
• Young people identified improvements in their emotion regulation, confidence and connectedness to other young people as a result of taking part.

One participant of the programme spoke of the improvement it had on their anger management:

“My anger is definitely a lot better. Before, the only option (was to) get angry and get physical, but now I prefer not to get physical, it doesn’t feel right.

“I can handle (my anxiety) better and I haven’t been trying to look for fights. (Since coming to the group) I’ve been a lot more social too.

“Before I was a little bit scared of talking to people… (I’ve liked) having the routine of going every week.

“I’m more disciplined… boxing has sparked it. I have been revising, not getting into trouble.”

Dr Kathy Adcock, CEO of In Your Corner, said: “This is a great example of the mental health outcomes that can be achieved for young people when we work in partnership with England Boxing Club in the local community.

“We are particularly proud of the number of Fight Connect graduates who want to continue boxing at Rathbone ABC and Hawley ABC, with it showing a sustainable impact.

“We are now hoping to build on the success of this pilot by sourcing funding for Fight Connect to become a regular part of the local offering to young people in Camden and Westminster.”

The pilot programme was 100% grant funded, with support coming from the National Lottery Community Fund and the Westminster Foundation.

With the report defining that Fight Connect had significant value for local young people, and the referring agencies, In Your Corner is now looking for sustainable funding to continue the programme.

They are also looking for new England Boxing partner clubs in the London region to facilitate Youth Mental Health projects during the 2023-2024 season.

To learn more, get in touch with info@inyourcorner.uk.

You can read the full Impact Report here.

You can learn more about Rathbone ABC here as well as Hawley ABC here.