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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Danny Rigg

Unassuming boxing club 'saving kids from prison'

Walking down one terraced road in Kirkdale, you'd be excused for thinking no one's home in the community centre that takes up half the block.

Aside from a logo painted on the shutter, no sign exists of what goes on inside the Primrose Street building.

But seven days a week, the Inclusive Hub CIC team uses boxing to help transform the lives of people with additional needs.

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One kid coming here is wheelchair-user with cerebral palsy who travels all the way from Widnes.

He had difficulty putting his hand in the boxing glove on his first day. Now he uses it to eat and express himself and he's just landed a college apprenticeship.

You "can't put a monetary value on" seeing kids transform, according to club manager Liam Starkey, who said: "It's an amazing feeling."

Liam's dad started weekend sessions for autistic people in 2016 after Liverpool Council demanded more inclusivity in his boxing gym.

Then a salesperson, Liam started volunteering before eventually going full time.

He told the ECHO: "I've got a nephew who's got autism and is nonverbal, and it was quite hard because I always wanted to have that relationship with him, but I didn't see him much.

"When I did see him, I felt really bad because I couldn't really get on the level with him. Then my dad started his autism classes in 2016 and I just started volunteering.

"Spending some of my free time with people, week in, week out, only for an hour or two, they were changing every week and they were getting more aware and physically better.

The Inclusive Hub, a boxing gym for people with additional needs, on Primrose Street, Kirkdale (Danny Rigg/Liverpool Echo)

"I thought, 'Oh my god, this couple of hours a week is make a big difference to people's lives."

The Inclusive Hub is kitted out with a row of exercise bikes, a walking machine, and a hot room to warm up before hopping in the boxing ring with a pair of gloves.

Liam said: "To put a pair of gloves on and have a hit and have that impact, it gives people that empowering factor, it releases something into the brain where the confidence grows.

"Another thing with boxing is the discipline, the fitness aspect. It does give you good habits moving forward in life."

The Inclusive Hub runs boxing sessions for kids and adults with additional needs (Danny Rigg/Liverpool Echo)

Liam says the hub does vital work offering exercise, social contact and an understanding attitude that helps improve school behaviour and even bring down medical costs.

But for six months two years ago during the pandemic, the initiative was homeless.

Liam ran sessions outside in parks until they secured the use of these premises with the support of funding from the Steve Morgan Foundation.

The insecurity of funding for community projects still looms over Liam.

Once a salesperson, Liam Starkey now runs the Inclusive Hub, which started as a boxing session for autistic people (Danny Rigg/Liverpool Echo)

He told the ECHO: "It's scary because you're only ever six months away from closing the doors, so it's vitally important that we keep fundraising, we keep getting sponsors to come on, we keep accessing grants that are available for us, and make sure that they're always going back into the community where they should be.

"But there are no guarantees.

"All I do know for certain is, if we didn't have a roof over our heads, we still would have to cater for those people, whether it's in green spaces or in the street."

The indoor facilities are vast, with the boxing gym downstairs next to an adjacent kitchen for tea and coffee.

It has a room with blacked-out windows, sensory lights, blankets and bubble machines where people can escape when they're struggling with group settings.

The sensory room in the Inclusive Hub on Primrose Street in Kirkdale (Danny Rigg/Liverpool Echo)

Upstairs even has a football pitch and dance hall.

The hub runs four sessions a day during the week, and two on weekends, working with an average of 300 people per week from schools and the Kirkdale area, including survivors of domestic violence.

During the summer and half term, the Inclusive Hub runs a week of activities like boxing, dance, arts and crafts, and football, with hot food provided for people attending.

The indoor football pitch at the Inclusive Hub on Primrose Street in Kirkdale (Danny Rigg/Liverpool Echo)

Now hooked on helping, Liam and the team also distribute 40 hampers a week to schools and families in Kirkdale, Anfield and Walton, some of the most deprived parts of Liverpool.

Liam said: "It'd be massive on people's mental health and physical health.

"We deal a lot with mental health, people who may have lost a partner or lost people, family members, to covid, and they're just getting respite here.

"It has a massive effect. You can't really put a monetary value on it, if I'm being honest with you. It's a life or death situation."

He added: "I think in this day and age, it's saving lives.

"These children are on such a fine line where, if they've got an additional need and not getting the care that they should have. The family are having the ripple effect of not getting the respite that they need.

"Ultimately, in the community, you have children that are so close to going into care, or so close to going to jail, never mind getting a job - that's hard enough.

"So if you can instil a bit of discipline, a bit of confidence, a bit of respect into where they belong, you're creating a better future for everyone."

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