Empire Fighting Chance
Using non-contact boxing and intensive personal support to challenge and inspire young people
Empire Fighting Chance uses non-contact boxing and psychology to support young people aged 8 to 25 who are growing up with the effects of poverty and inequality. Born in a Bristol boxing gym with decades of champions behind it, it meets young people on ground they’re proud to stand on.
Coaches, mentors and therapists weave evidence-based psychological tools into boxing drills, games and metaphors, so support feels natural rather than clinical. Programmes run at the gym in Easton, Bristol, in schools, and through partner organisations and amateur boxing clubs the charity trains across England and Wales.
Young people leave standing taller, with better ways to handle anger, stress and setbacks. They use what they learn to improve their mental health, return to school, find work or leave gangs behind, and some become youth leaders who help shape Empire’s work across Bristol and beyond.
2022
Year they joined the Raise Your Hands platform
10,609
Children and Young People supported last year
Why they’re needed
Poverty and inequality pack a powerful punch, shaping home life, health and opportunity. Many of the young people Empire works with have also lived through trauma. Carrying all of that can show up as anger, anxiety, low mood or low self-esteem, often long before anyone asks what is going on.
When distress comes out as behaviour rather than words, young people are more likely to be punished than supported. Some end up excluded from school or drawn into risky situations, and the further they drift from help, the harder it becomes to reach them before they hit crisis point.
Traditional services do not always feel welcoming. A clinic waiting room or a formal careers appointment can feel like a place for someone else. A boxing gym carries real credibility, so young people turn up week after week and get support without feeling ashamed for needing it.
How they do it
Box Champions is a 12-week programme for 8 to 25-year-olds, run in three-minute rounds of pad work, shadow boxing and bag work. In the one-minute rest between rounds, the coach mentors the young person, sharing simple principles for handling emotions and setting goals that matter to them, like returning to school.
Box Therapy is an active alternative to talking therapy. Across 12 weeks of one-hour sessions, a qualified therapist and young person box together, using drills, games and metaphors as a shared language to explore feelings, manage anger and build confidence. It takes therapy out of the clinic and into a place young people are proud to go.
Box Careers pairs boxing with coaching for older teens and young adults heading into learning, training and work. Over 20 weeks, young people work through a personal careers checklist, join CV and interview workshops, visit workplaces and can earn AQA Awards or an entry-level gym instructor qualification.
Box Juniors offers regular after-school classes at the Bristol gym for 10 to 16-year-olds, a welcoming way in and a place for graduates to keep training. Young people also help steer the charity through a Youth Advisory Board, Box Leaders and Youth Ambassadors.
Find out more about Empire Fighting Chance’s amazing work
Rey’s Story
Rey came to the UK from Iran as a refugee and now lives with a foster family near Bristol. When his social worker referred him to Empire Fighting Chance, he was lonely, angry and missing his family, spending much of his time alone in his room.
Through Box Champions, Rey has trained with his coach, Matt, for about a year. The journey to the gym takes an hour and a half each way, yet he rarely misses a session. Matt has become like a brother, someone Rey can always turn to for help, and Rey has found a community and a new sense of purpose.
He has now moved on to pad work, and he says his progress keeps climbing. “Before boxing I was at zero,” he says. “Empire is like a second home to me now.”
Support Empire Fighting Chance along with 15 other children’s charities
Empire Fighting Chance is one of a portfolio of small UK children’s charities championed by Raise Your Hands. When you donate to us, your gift is shared equally between every charity in the portfolio.
One donation. 16 small charities. 16 ways to change a young life.
