On Friday, the 16th of May I am taking to the Ring to box on behalf of the Wickers Charity.

The Wickers Charity -

The Wickers was founded by Henry Smith in 2018 to reduce knife and gang related crimes. We believe that every young person should be able to fulfil their full potential, regardless of social status, race, religion, or postcode.

Our mission is to help disadvantaged young people from East London to truly achieve their potential.

We do this by:

• Delivering activities that keep young people off the street and build their life skills

• Providing positive role models that give hope for a better life and prepare them for a positive future.

• Giving access to opportunities for employment

We work in partnership with the young people, members of the community, corporate organisations, local authorities, Met Police, social media influencers, positive role models, to develop appropriate and bespoke interventions to steer them onto positive pathways. We take a holistic approach when supporting young people ensuring that they remain central in the decisions that affect them.

We have had some great successes over the years, we are reaching hundreds of young people per week. The Wickers Charity is a well-established charity in Hackney and is number one for youth engagement in the borough, we provide services to Newham and Tower Hamlets, as well as delivering in other boroughs across London.

The charity has gone from strength to strength, due to the hard work and dedication of our team. As we move into our 7th anniversary year, we have just become lead on violence reduction in Hackney, working in partnership with the Mayor’s Office, the Violence Reduction Unit, the Gangs Unit and other well established and long-standing community organisations. This is a very proud moment for all of us connected to the charity, to be able to lead on My Ends – Rise Up East programme.