Fight for Peace’s 2023 Summer Programme ended last Friday, bringing to a close a period of sport, fitness, food and activities for young people aged 7-14 during their school holidays!

This latest version of the Summer Programme, made possible thanks to funding from East End Community Foundation’s Life Chances programme, was Fight for Peace’s most comprehensive to date. Not only did it include three sessions a week of boxing, fitness and personal development (and lunch!) for young people aged 7-10, but also featured brand new junior muay thai and judo training sessions for 10-14 year olds. In total, 66 young people accessed the programme over 55 sports and personal development sessions. 

“It was fantastic to kick off this new version of the programme this year”, said Sports Development Manager Silvino Domingos. “We are always looking to increase the number of young people from this age group attending Fight for Peace as it is such a crucial period of their lives and a time when we can really help them nurture their sporting skills, their health and wellbeing, and their personal growth and development.”

The programme was great credit to the qualified coaches who ran it, all of whom have formally accessed Fight for Peace’s services as young people, and some of whom recently gained their coaching, safeguarding and first aid qualifications via a Fight for Peace employability programme, also funded by East End Community Foundation.

Those coordinating the programme put on an excellent schedule balancing fitness activities, games, and sit down sessions aimed at discussing issues and learning life skills. This formula reflects the wider Fight for Peace approach of combining combat sports and personal development to unlock the enormous potential our young people possess.

With the return to school for young people involved in the summer activities, Fight for Peace goes back to its regular schedule of ‘Twilight’ sports and personal development sessions for 7-14 year olds. Meanwhile, a fantastic legacy of this year’s summer programme is that the junior muay thai and judo classes will be continuing on a permanent basis for the 10-14 age group, alongside three weekly Twilight sessions, thanks to new funding from The Hargreaves Foundation.

“We are delighted to be continuing with the offer of services to the younger age group going forward,” explained Silvino. “The summer programme has been a real success and it’s been wonderful to see so many young people enjoying not only the sports and games but also the personal development sessions which are so central to everything we do. This was a great way to launch new sessions for our younger members and we are excited about growing this part of our work over the coming weeks and months.” 

Fight for Peace wishes to extend deep thanks to our partners East End Community Foundation who made this year’s programme possible and to The Hargreaves Foundation for providing ongoing support for activities to continue for this younger age group. Thank you!