In 2002, local police and mainstream educators identified that there was no support for young people who were removed from school due to continual disobedience, negative behaviours and those who habitually were harming themselves or other people.
Springboard was established with the aim of supporting these young people in to a life of positive transformation. Springboard’s objectives continue to be to cater for many different young people who need that extra support, who are at various junctures of life and need help to navigate through to positive outcomes.
Since then, Springboard has been working in the North Auckland area (Rodney) and through time and experience has built-up a knowledge of local troubled families/youth. We have also been able to identify community trends allowing us to see where gaps in local services are, areas of need and potential opportunities to bring about solutions.
The need for a boxing programme as an outlet and place of belonging for our struggling young people was originally identified by Police and the local high school. When Niki Arnold, ex Springboard client, and NZ Boxing representative, returned to Warkworth we felt the timing to establish the programme was perfect. Niki outworks her expertise, connecting with struggling young people referred by police and teachers and trains them in boxing
disciplines.
The purpose of the programme is to get alongside young people who are struggling, isolated and angry and use sport to build self-respect, discipline, team spirit and routine. Through trusted relationships behaviours will be challenged and alternative pathways offered bringing about changed behaviours.
The programme is all about instilling respect, training hard, values, and encouraging one another, providing clear guidelines around the use of boxing skills. Sessions will be an hour long with a check-in at the beginning and a debrief at the end centered around values based learning before moving into boxing drills, team games and fitness drills.
Any youth identified as needing other professional support will be referred to Springboard services or other local agencies. The boxing programme will also be offered to youth offenders or those who are gravitating towards crime to help redirect behaviours and offer an environment that has positive role models.
The focus of the pilot will be to engage isolated youth displaying negative behaviours and to redirect these young people into focused, structured, purposed programmes reducing anti-social behaviour and crime. establish regular attendance, positive connections and bring about positive outcomes.
Gender equality is promoted by setting up classes addressing the needs of each gender.
Equal opportunity will be provided for both genders to succeed either inside or outside of
the ring. While boxing opportunities for females in NZ are light, Springboard will be putting extra attention into building these opportunities as our coach has been one of the best female
boxers in NZ.
