Since January there have been 15 young people killed through youth violence (knife and gun crime). Croydon has the highest rates of teenage death, and this has been increasing. 'Violence is an epidemic' and a product of poverty, environment and trauma. Locking young people up and creating harsher consequences is not the cure to this problem, the cure is having more support services providing long term care that offer therapeutic intervention.
Gloves Not Gunz has been set up to tackle this growing issue. The charity was formed in January and since started we have been working closely with local services to provide support to young people involved in gangs. We use Boxing and Fitness as our tool to engage young people and then through this we're able to deliver education and mentoring services. Our education programme uses therapeutic processes to support the young people whilst putting a big emphasis on self-development. Young people attending the programmes will have a safe environment to explore their values, emotions and overcome barriers. These young people need consistent positive relationships over a long period and thats what we offer.
If we're to receive funding and donations we will be able to offer 2 programmes. The first programme will be a 1 year education and mentoring programme with a local gang (12 young people identifed by Youth Offending Team), this will run once a week for the whole year. In this time we will work closely with the YOT and other services to support the young people to make positive changes in their lives.
The second will be an Elite Athlete Pathway programme. This will concentrate on working closely with a small group of young people that have a passion to pursue their boxing. We will meet once a week over the year providing a fitness, boxing and healthy living work shop aiming to get the young people competing in elite boxing matches around the country. they can then join the boxing education at scheme at a local college.