Boxing Futures - Peterborough
The charity, founded nine years ago, is up for a national award.
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00:00For men, you know, it's obviously that mano-a-mano, that one-on-one, it's the masculine sport.
00:13Boxing has that allure.
00:17And often boxing reaches some of the communities which are hard to reach.
00:20What it did for me, what it's done for my head coach and what it's done for many others
00:23like us, you know, it saves our lives.
00:27Some of us may have suffered trauma in the past.
00:30Some may have special education needs, you know, mental health issues.
00:35So we like to bring the two together really and explore the strengths of boxing to really
00:39engage these young men.
00:46Now Brothers with Boxing is a very special and very unique project and it targets a group
00:50that we haven't really particularly worked with before.
00:53These are socially isolated young men between the ages of 16 and 25 years of age and we
00:58developed this project specifically for them.
01:11The idea was to bring them into a session that was developed with a boxing focus and
01:18then followed by brief discussions about certain topics.
01:21Things that boys don't generally talk about and probably haven't ever talked about in
01:25their whole life and it's quite taboo.
01:26This is a programme about friendship, it's about connecting people, it's about supporting
01:30each other through tough times because that's really what we're here for.
01:38There is that stigma, isn't there?
01:40Men aren't supposed to be big and tough and not speak about their feelings and what's
01:43going on inside.
01:44But really, I've had sort of issues on going from school onwards.
01:51About a year ago I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety.
01:54From where I am now to what I was doing last year, it is a massive change, it's definitely
01:58a massive change.
01:59I feel a lot better in my mental state, in shape, in fit, I feel like there's a nice
02:02group of people, we can talk about our worries and problems.
02:06It just feels like, yeah, we're a team.
02:08You've all mentioned that you've gone through something in your life, a hardship.
02:12Everybody's got problems.
02:13It's quite detrimental if we don't ask for help.
02:21I only started taking medication for depression in second year of sex form and I'd definitely
02:27been showing signs of it before then.
02:28I tend to be quite open nowadays.
02:30If you can even find just a handful of people that you trust and they trust you and you
02:36can open up to and you have their back and they have yours, when things aren't going
02:40your way, you have someone to pick you up, when you fall down, someone to help pick you
02:44up and get you through that hard time in life and then you do it for them and then in turn
02:48that makes you feel better.
02:50With that November Foundation, these men aren't being helped, they're forgotten.
02:56We're all flesh and blood, we've all got feelings, we all hurt, we all bleed and at
03:00times we all need other people to form those stronger bonds which we hope are going to
03:05be everlasting.
03:06With Brothers Through Boxing, we're changing lives, we're changing attitudes, we're helping men.