A boxing club that helps young people through sport has launched its own foundation, with the hope of reaching more people across England.
Brightstar Boxing, in Shropshire, uses boxing and education to help vulnerable young people, improve their futures and help them feel a sense of belonging.
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The Brightstar Boxing Foundation, based in Shifnal, will work to develop “undervalued, underutilised local sports clubs” across the country, and help them reach communities and young people who need them.
“We want to empower these local clubs across the country, there are tens of thousands of young people who engage with these clubs,” said Calvin Latham, the foundation’s head.
‘Empower communities’
“We need to access that underutilised resource to be able to do as much as possible with those young people and ultimately make an impact in those areas – building resilience; building better communities; and putting something positive out there.
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“Local communities are feeling a bit down, and actually, if sport is that outlet, we want to be a part of it.”
He told the BBC the foundation would seek to build a bridge between “the big parties sitting around the table” and local clubs.
“We really want to empower them and be that voice between those clubs and the table so we can influence policy in the future and see how we can get more sport organisations out there working with people who haven’t thought about accessing sport before,” Latham explained.
“In a years’ time we’ve got the ambition to target new areas and counties in the West Mercia area.
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“We want to be able to take Brightstar across the country.”
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