NCB was commissioned by the Sussex Violence Reduction Partnership (VRP) to undertake a process and impact evaluation of the WBC Cares Brighton and Hove Boxing Gym programme.
Brighton and Hove Boxing Gym uses a sports-based approach, alongside elements of mentoring, with young people at risk of, or involved in, violence/offending.
Findings suggest that the Boxing Gym provided structure, one-to-one support and a safe space to talk, which helped reduce the likelihood of young people engaging in violence or offending and improved engagement with school, mental health, wellbeing, physical health, development of life skills, and access to prosocial networks.
NCB's evaluation report sets out those findings based on the following methodology:
- Exploration of process and impact across the programme through 10 semi structured interviews with Delivery Staff and Community Stakeholders, a survey with 25 young people and 11 parents, and three observations of Boxing Gym sessions.
- Development of three vignettes outlining the experiences of individual young people who have engaged with the Boxing Gym, based on semi-structured interviews with the young people, their parents, and an adult who had worked closely with them (i.e., Community Stakeholder or Delivery Staff).
- Quantitative analysis of project monitoring data covering April 1 2024 to December 31 2024.