Carney’s Community

Project Summary

A donation from ICAP Charity Day 2019 was dedicated to the Boxing, Bikes, Food and Family Project, where Carney’s provide free access to boxing training, bike workshops and healthy, nutritious meals alongside mentoring and key work support. This is an ongoing project and there were clear plans on how it would  run. However, when the Coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, Carney’s needed to be creative in their delivery.  

As soon as the first UK lockdown was announced in March 2020, Carney’s moved the boxing and bike sessions online, with daily workouts and challenges on Instagram  and virtual boxing sessions on Instagram live.  Initially they were delivered by  coaches, but Carney’s also recruited some of their participants to feature in the videos, which had a huge impact on their self-esteem and confidence. 

Mentoring and family support was also moved online, which was not ideal, but Carney’s used  this opportunity to get many of the families laptops and tablets, that had been donated, so they could take part.  Carney’s were aware that some people still needed that face to face support, and as they could no longer provide a healthy meal after the face to face sessions, they set up food parcel deliveries.  This meant being able  to deliver food to those most in need, and they took that opportunity to have face to face interaction in the process.   This was done with the help of some of their ex-participants, who helped to pack and deliver  food parcels.  These ex-participants became so involved with this aspect of the project, the police contacted Carney’s to raise a concern that known “ex-gang members” were seen in and around their centre.  Carney’s were able to inform the police that these young people, who had been previously associated with negative behaviour, were in fact volunteering to help their local community. 

The energy of all involved was so positive, that Carney’s were contacted by UK Rap Artist Stormzy, who visited the centre to help with packing food parcels and to meet some of their participants. Based on feedback that some families were unsure on how to cook some of the ingredients in the food parcels, Carney’s set up weekly virtual cooking lessons with their chef to teach participants how to make healthy meals. 

Mentoring support carried on throughout the pandemic, and was needed more than ever following George Floyd’s death and was stepped up a level during the Black Lives Matters movement.  It was essential to provide more support at this time and to help give a voice to the young people who felt impacted by it.

The reduction in the number of people able to engage in group activities meant the need to focus more on one to one support, where they worked on personal development, education, employment and reducing offending and anti-social behaviour. Carney’s are extremely proud to say that in a time where employment opportunities were cut drastically, they have helped 15 participants into employment, their virtual sessions were viewed by 19,900 people and they have given out over 6,000 free meals.