New boxing option for custody intervention project DIVERT

The Police Community Clubs of Great Britain [PCCGB] has been named as the preferred provider of boxing programmes for the custody intervention programme DIVERT.

The scheme already works alongside the Football Association in providing 18 to 25-year-old participants with routes into education, apprenticeships and employment to help prevent re-offending.

But now boxing has been introduced as an alternative sport, with the PCCGB’s non-contact Leader programme an initial pathway into coaching, leading to the subsequent progression to both Level 1 and Level 2 National Governing Body qualifications.

The boxing curriculum is enhanced by the inclusion of PCCGB and NPCT citizenship training, which enables delivery in the subject to a number of organisations including schools, colleges and clubs, providing another route to employment.

Successful applicants for the programme will be introduced to selected registered clubs and mentored for a period of one year.

All participants in this programme are the subject of qualitative and quantitive evaluation, and past experience shows that many will progress into self-employment as coaches or citizenship facilitators.

The programme is overseen by the New Era Foundation, and DIVERT trustee Wilf Pickles said: “I am proud to be involved with this ground-breaking project which engages with young offenders, diverting them from crime and into employment and education.

“The project has dramatically reduced re-offending rates from 29% to 7% by diverting them from crime and into employment and education.

“This success shows the value in rolling this project out throughout London, and elsewhere in the country.”

DIVERT is currently running in the London Boroughs of Lambeth, Haringey, Lewisham, Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

For more details, visit www.newerafoundation.uk/divert