Empire Fighting Chance was born on Bristol's streets to fight the impact of deprivation on young people's lives. We use a combination of non-contact boxing and intensive personal support to challenge and inspire young people to realise their unique potential.
We have created an intensive and holistic programme to reflect the needs of the young people that we work with. Young people, aged 8-25, benefit from a personal programme built from our 5 services: Non-contact boxing, Mentoring, Education, Therapy and Careers support.
Our ground-breaking programmes help young people transform their lives. Many of the young people we work with live in poverty, poor housing and workless households. Many have faced trauma and abuse and nearly all are experiencing mental health problems. Not only are these conditions toxic to wellbeing, they result in distress which is often expressed in ways that can lead them into trouble, including poor behaviour in school, drug misuse and gang crime.
Our qualified coaches work with young people to help them improve their mental well-being, for example by learning skills like resilience to bounce back from failure, or the power of decision-making to help manage the impact of anger. This approach works. Last year, during a year of lockdowns and restrictions, the charity supported more young people than ever before. Nearly 5,000 young people received support from Empire Fighting Chance. Young people returned to education, reduced anti-social behaviour and rebuilt relationships with their families.