The pandemic has led to a big rise in vulnerability among young people and support services have had to be nimble and innovative to even come close to meeting these acute needs.
Two of our local delivery partners in London – Gloves Not Gunz and Urban Yogis – and jointly run by directors Ben Eckett and Adam Ballard. They use boxing, martial arts and yoga to prevent and divert youngsters from crime, anti-social behaviour and exclusion from education.
Like all delivery teams, Covid-19 lockdowns largely prevented them from face-to-face delivery and initially left their participants without regular access to sport and physical activity, mentoring support, positive peer groups and trusted adults.
Gloves Not Gunz and Urban Yogis work with Croydon, Hammersmith & Fulham, Sutton and Bromley Councils. They received a higher level of demand in their referrals from them all.
“There’s been an escalation within the community of young people being exploited,” reveals Ben. “When you’ve got less support for young people through education and youth groups, and they have reduced contact with positive adults and peer groups, that is big support for a young person to lose. In a lot of cases there’s not much support at home either.
“When you take away protective factors for young people like school or their boxing club, they’ve got less emotional support and more free time on their hands. They might go into environments where they are easily exploited. It certainly heightens that risk.”
The rise in mental health issues goes side-by-side with that vulnerability and lack of support or opportunities. Ben says: “We know all about the positive impact sport and physical activity has on young people physically but also mentally. The conversations our coaches and mentors have with participants, when they offload what’s going on at home or on the streets, are massively important.
“The pandemic has really highlighted the impact that schools and youth clubs have on young people. When you take that away, the impact is huge.
“You realise how, in times of crisis like this, it always hits the people who don’t have as much a lot harder. I have visited tower blocks with six kids crammed into a two-bedroom flat. It definitely brought home that unfortunately it’s always that part of society that gets hit the worst.”
Ben and Adam have reacted with agility and creativity to these challenges by adapting the delivery models of Gloves Not Gunz and Urban Yogis rapidly.
During the first lockdown they produced a timetable of online boxing, jiu jitsu and yoga sessions, delivered through channels such as Instagram Live. They organised one-to-one sessions with trained youth workers that took place during online games of FIFA. When permitted, they did one-to-one mentoring within sport sessions with vulnerable young people (while following social distancing rules). Urban Yogis sessions were put on for survivors of domestic violence, NHS frontline workers, in schools and prisons.
Support was provided for parents/carers along with a 24-hour helpline. Levelling the Playing Field’s mentoring training is improving capacity by “really helping to upskill our staff,” Ben says. Two of those trainee mentors went through Gloves Not Gunz’s programmes as young people.
Although young people’s attendance reduced from the usual 30-40 at a typical boxing session to around 10 per session online, Ben and Adam did everything they could to ensure support was there to those who could access it. “Engagement was definitely affected but we were able to maintain the same level of opportunity,” said Ben.
As soon as restrictions were relaxed, both organisations re-started face-to-face sessions in boxing, jiu jitsu and yoga, including mentoring and counselling for participants and parents/carers. Schools were among the first venues to be allowed to open so they seized on the opportunity to deliver in nearby school assembly and sports halls.
Another blessing in disguise during the lockdowns was time to think strategically about both organisations’ future. They changed their mentoring model into a two-tier pathway system for early intervention and higher-risk individuals.
The early intervention group includes young people at-risk of exclusion from school, vulnerable to exploitation and negative peer groups, and/or who persistently go missing – all early signs that their situation could escalate. They are seen once a week to engage them in positive activities.
Higher-risk young people include those engaged in county lines, serious youth violence and gangs, who may typically be referred in by youth offending teams or social care. These young people will require much more intense support (two or three times a week), including education or employment links as well as sport and physical activity and family therapy.
Ben adds: “Being able to revamp the mentoring service has been great. Working on the organisational structure of the business, setting goals and look at funding are things we don’t usually get much time to do because we’re so busy.
“Covid-19 has taught us the importance of always having a Plan B. It’s definitely made us more creative. If we can’t do face-to-face delivery what alternative can we offer to engage young people most effectively? It’s been a hard period, no doubt, but it’s seen us come up with some great ideas to keep young people on board.”
