A Stoke-on-Trent boxing club has been awarded £3,000 from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s People Power Fund to encourage youngsters to get involved in sport.
Meir Boxing Club has been given the funding to offer youngsters aged five to 11 the chance to participate in boxing classes.
As part of his commitment to local communities, the Commissioner is providing £500,000 in 2015/16 through the People Power Fund in the form of grants of between £100 and £3,000.
The fund is supporting locally-driven community safety activities in local areas throughout Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
Mr Ellis said: “The boxing club is a way that young people can learn life skills early such as discipline, self-respect and determination that is positive to their futures.
“It is important to engage with young people which mean we can intervene early to tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour.”
Karl Stubbs, coach and trustee at Meir Boxing Club, said: “The PCC funding has enabled us to offer our facilities to more young people and has enabled us to provide a part-time employment opportunity to a young man with learning difficulties.
“In the future we plan to expand the project and to begin to offer nationally recognised qualifications to young people. We also hope to provide coaching opportunities to more underprivileged young people with the chance for them to undertake formal coaching courses.”
The People Power Fund is one part of £2.5 million of Commissioner’s Community Funding for 2014/15. The Commissioner’s Locality Deal Fund has allocated money to local areas through working in partnership with local district and borough councils. Meanwhile, the Commissioner’s Proceeds of Crime Fund is seeing 100 per cent of funding received by Staffordshire Police going back into local communities, through grants of between £3,000 and £15,000. It is made up of money seized from criminals as Staffordshire Police continue to strip offenders of their assets.
Successful projects in all three funding streams will deliver what’s important to local people based on the four priorities set out in the Commissioner’s Safer, Fairer, United Communities Strategy – tackling the root causes of crime through early intervention, supporting victims and witnesses better, reducing reoffending and increasing public confidence.
