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June 2022
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June 2022

By June 23, 2022February 9th, 2024No Comments
Welcome to Carney’s Community Newsletter!

It’s been an inspiring, joyous and at times challenging few months for Carney’s Community. As always, we are very grateful for your continued support which allows us to continue on with our work.

Please read on to find out about what’s been going on…
This year the Big Give appeal runs from Tuesday 14th to Tuesday 21st June and it’s our most ambitious appeal yet! We have received a generous pledge from our sponsor St Philip’s School of £6000 which has already been matched by The Childhood Trust giving us an incredible matched funding pot of £12000! So, we are looking for donors who will contribute to this appeal aiming to reach a total of £12,000 from donations during the week, every penny of which will then be matched with our pledge funds. If successful, this will give us a total fund of £24,000! This will help hugely in our efforts this year to reconnect with all the young people in our area who need our support.
We are excited to announce that we have recruited two new staff members being; Arafat Kabuye who is our new Lead Key Worker and Lizzie Takyiakyaa as our Lead Youth Worker, who have both settled really well into the team!
Make My Mark
We have seen successes with 5 participants that are key worked, after they successfully applied to Make My Mark for £3k each.  The separate projects they had funded were:

  • Kae’Chan – To open and develop an eyelash extension business.
  • Tre – To open a football project FR33/FAC3S which is set up to help young people free themselves from social, mental, and environmental barriers. His aim is to use football to build bridges between different worlds (bridging the social divide).
  • Osmond – To create an event based on the cultural heritage of black life, where he aims to celebrate culture as Africans, from different nations, different languages and not to mention their foods. Music will be played to set a vibe and conversation and speeches shall be made from a handful of countries on their experience in the UK, as well as highlighting the multitude of positive impacts they have had on British culture.
  • Rosalina – To open a genderless store so that no matter a person’s gender identity, whether that be male, female or anywhere in-between they will have a positive shopping experience in a place where they feel safe and not judged.
  • Athian – To develop a Black history podcast that gives young people growing up in the 2020s the Black history that they are not taught in school but have the most to learn from. Stories of Black resistance, contribution and joy will be at the heart of the podcast. Eventually the podcast will be brought to life through live shows, exhibitions, and workshops with young people.

One of our participants “Big Lew”, who spent a substantial amount of time in custody, has come out and focused on his personal training qualification, which he has almost completed with us.  Following him appearing on numerous podcasts about his life, he has decided to start his own YouTube channel, where he interviews and trains well known figures, such as musicians and professional athletes.

Please support him by subscribing to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2LTNg2BsgPYH8g0LtvwIww

You can also check out his latest interview with James English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raVBuBTwz9o&t=145s

Change of session times:

We have changed our community boxing session times to the following:
Mondays and Wednesdays back to 5-6:30pm for 11-17yr olds and 6:30-8pm for 18+.
We referred another participant, Shaquille, who has been doing the level up course that AIM High run at Carney’s, onto a project called “inside out”.  The aim of the project was to get a group of young adults, who had previously spent time in Feltham YOI, to create their own clothing brand.  Shaquille did so well on it that, following them featuring him on numerous news channels, he was given the opportunity to sell his products at a pop-up store in Westfields.  Please go down and show your support if you can.
Aleyna is one of our participants and the founder of Gold Beautique Ltd.  Gold Beautique Ltd offers a range of beauty treatments and accredited beauty courses. Aleyna is the director and sole employee of the company, and her duties include performing treatments, providing training courses, web design, marketing/advertising, financial record keeping and administration duties.

Her aims within the business are to encourage and equip fellow women with confidence, advice, and qualifications to start and build their own business (she has already supported one of Carney’s participants to do this). She also enjoys helping other women to feel and look beautiful, which has a huge impact on self-esteem, stress, anxiety, and wellbeing.  While some clients may sleep during treatments, some use the treatments as a therapy session (any beauty therapist will tell you that their job title includes the word therapist for a very good reason) and so she has recently completed a mental health first aid course and hopes to use those skills to recognise, assist and direct those suffering mental health issues.

Gold Beautique is also going to be a sponsor for period poverty for Carney’s, providing products for the ladies’ toilets each month

Aleyna is a valued member to the community and hopes to inspire others and improve wellbeing.   She is currently looking for advice and knowledge of how to secure a premises and run a shop.  If you know anyone who may be able to assist with advice and knowledge, please do get in touch aleyna@goldbeautique.com or 07507881335.
Huge well done to Lodge boy, Nick Patterson Jones, who decided a good way to spend his 60th birthday was to spar 60 one and a half minute rounds, only pausing for a max of 30 seconds, to change opponents. In doing so, he managed to raise a huge £3,795 for Carney’s in the process.  You can still support him by donating at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/6060-sparathon
On 19th May, Harry Glatman participated in the Future Dreams White Collar Fight Night and has raised over 20k so far!

’18 months ago, my sister and I were introduced to boxing and it has become a source of comfort for me and a sport that has enabled me to positively channel and process my grief and trauma, helping to improve my mental health and general wellbeing. We have been training with Rupert Harmsworth based at Carney’s, and with Mark Reigate, Head Coach and Co-Founder of Carney’s and Fitzroy Lodge. I have got to know Mark and learnt first-hand how his passion to improve social mobility and community cohesion is vital to the success of these two charities that rely entirely on voluntary donations for survival.’

Please support him here in his mission to raise money for Carney’s Community Centre in Battersea and Fitzroy Lodge Amateur Boxing Club in Lambeth, two small London Charities that support and engage young people through boxing, taking disadvantaged and excluded young people off the street and away from a life of crime and despair, giving them skills, discipline and self-respect and the opportunity to be the best people they can be.

A heartfelt thank you to Harry Glatman for supporting Carney’s and to everyone who has donated so far!
A special thank you to Rupert from Power of Boxing, who kindly brought Carney’s Community new boxing ring rope covers.