Community Spotlight: Alpha Boxing CIC

Founded by Andrew Connor in 2024, Alpha Boxing CIC is a community boxing club based in Consett, County Durham.

The gym, run by a dedicated team of 6 experienced, passionate professionals, is the first provider of SEN-oriented fitness and interaction in this area.

The particular focus of the club is on supporting disabled and neurodivergent children and young adults by providing inclusive boxing and fitness sessions completely free of charge.

Boxing is Love looks forward to working with Andy and his team on delivering our flagship programme. Before that, our CEO, Spencer Boya, sat down with him for a conversation around his motivations and the work that they do for the community.

Andrew Connor, Founder and Head Coach of Alpha Boxing CIC

Transcription of key points below:

What inspired you to start this boxing club focused on disadvantaged and disabled youth?

I was inspired to create Alpha Boxing CIC due to my own childhood and the lack of support I received throughout my career. I have always wanted to provide an environment where people felt like they were never judged. Somewhere they could make friends, or as we like to call it, a family.

I focused on disabled children after my son Soul was born. Soul thrives on our training, and he has something to focus on. He enjoyed feeling a part of ‘daddy’s world’. His behaviour massively changed with the discipline and structure of boxing, and I knew there were so many other children around who needed this just as much as Soul did.

Soul felt like a her,o and I wanted to share that with other children, who may of felt left out. That is our aim, to make all children, regardless of their background or disability to feel like a hero.

⁠How does boxing help your members beyond physical fitness?

Our gym isn’t just about fitness; it is about feeling part of a team, a place where you are never judged. They can talk to any member of the gym, whether a coach or another participant and feel welcomed. Every person in the gym is a friend or, in our case, a family.

We show all children and young people that they are safe, welcomed and not judged in our gym. We welcome everyone with open arms, and as soon as you walk into our gym, you are apart of something, something special, a family!

Can you share a success story of someone whose life was positively changed through the club?

There have been so many success stories in such a short space of time; however, one that really sticks out to me is a girl called Caitie. Caitie came to me after being bullied by older children in and out of school. A timid girl who you could see lacked confidence and had begun acting out at home also.

Caitie, her parents and I sat down, and we discussed how she was feeling. It was heartbreaking to hear this 9-year-old girl say how frightened she was to go out and play in case the bullying happened again.

I came up with a programme especially for Caitie, which would increase her confidence. The most important part of the programme was for Caitie to realise her worth. I stood her in front of the mirrors and asked one simple question:

“Who is your hero? I don’t want the usual Spiderman, Superman, etc, who is your hero?” Caitie looked at her mam confused, but I explained to her that her hero is staring right back at her. She is the hero, believe in yourself.

We worked hard over 8 weeks, gaining Caitie’s confidence, and now we have a confident 9-year-old girl who comes bouncing into the gym every session, helps the younger children out and is just generally a very happy, content little girl.

What are some unique challenges you face running a community program like this?

When I first started the project, I knew I needed to act quickly as there was so many disadvantaged and disabled children that needed my help. I was given the opportunity to rent the current gym; however, it needed a lot of work. We had no funding in place, so I sold old items, things that I had in the garage, used equipment that I had for myself just to be able to open the doors.

The gym is useable; however, we need to secure more funding for building work, such as a new entrance, a larger SEN room and more equipment that the disabled children can use. We want to be able to open our doors to every single child with disabilities. We require additional staff during the SEN sessions so we can open our doors to those who have severe disabilities, but without additional funding, this isn’t possible.

The feedback we receive from our SEN session prove to us we are doing good things, but we don’t want to say “sorry, we don’t have an accessible entrance” and turn those children away.

How does the club address the risk of crime and help divert young people from negative influences?

One of our programmes is ‘beat the streets’, a person hands in a knife, whether male, female, old or young any person and we train them for free. I personally hand the knife in and we discuss the importance of what has just happened. We discuss how many lives that person has just saved.

We create a program specifically for that person in which we discuss why they felt the need to carry a knife and work on their confidence to show that a knife isn’t needed. We give them the confidence to believe in themselves, that they don’t need to carry a weapon to feel confident. That confidence comes from inside.

We, as a gym, a community, want to create a team that will go onto the streets and talk to young people about knife crime and the effects it can have not only on themselves but also on their family, friends, and their community.

We want to show the community that not all young people are evil, that young people are misunderstood and giving the right guidance, change can be made.

What message do you want people to take away about boxing as a tool for social change?

Firstly, every disabled child deserves a chance to be a hero!

There are 5 very simple things I want people to take away from training with ourselves:

•⁠ ⁠Hope

•⁠ ⁠Love

•⁠ ⁠Respect

•⁠ ⁠Discipline

•⁠ ⁠Belief

Hope that you are not alone, everyone is welcome into the gym regardless of your story. There is no judgment. When you set foot into the gym, you are one of us.

Love, the gym has so much love to give everyone. Everyone has their own story, but what the gym gives you is love, no matter what. We don’t judge people, all we want to do is provide people with a safe space to learn something new, make new friends and gain confidence.

Respect, respect isn’t given, it is earned. We want to show our family how to respect themselves and each other. Regardless of their story, rewrite your story with respect for each and every person.

Discipline, boxing is a discipline sport. You have to train even when you are at your lowest but having that discipline to come into the gym even when you feel lost will gain all of the above from your boxing family.

Finally, belief. Believe in yourself. Believe you can achieve anything, believe that you are capable of being that person you never thought you would be. I have a quote that has stuck with me for my fighting career. We all have an UNTOLD story, and sometimes a story needs to be told.

What does the phrase boxing is love mean to you?

Boxing is love to me means ‘ learn to love boxing and boxing will love you’. Not every single person can be a boxer, but everyone can love and show love through boxing.

Boxing doesn’t choose a person; a person chooses boxing.

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Photo Credits: Little Visions Design