ROC Boxing Gym launch in Charlestown

The journey for this started at a ROC Conversations event in Harpurhey on 29th April, 2010. As part of the evening, we discussed various issues affecting North Manchester. Local residents, church leaders, fire officials, and police were all in agreement that one of the greatest needs of the area was for more youth provision. During the evening, Debra was approached by PC Rickie Taylor, who expressed a real heart for working with young people. Up until this time, it was mainly through the outlet of football, but Rickie wanted to start a boxing gym. In the weeks following, Debra met with Rickie several times, looking at various locations and planning how best to proceed.

On the evening of the ROC Showcase event at Manchester Velodrome in June 2010, Rickie presented his plans. Rickie made lots of new connections and put in a considerable amount of hard work, resulting in the launch of the first ROC Boxing Gym!

The ROC Boxing Gym is a multi-agency initiative, similar to the ROC Café, and many partners helped to make it a reality including GMP, Manchester City Council, and Manchester Creative and Media Academies.