From Bolton Lads and Girls Club to the Paris Olympics

Twelve years ago I saw a young woman outside the door of Bolton Lads and Girls Club. She looked nervous and unsure, wondering whether to come in. I was a youth worker there and when I saw her, hesitant and a little anxious, I came out of the building to invite her inside and to reassure her that this was a place she was welcome.

Now I’m turning on my TV to watch that young woman, Cindy Ngamba, fight in the boxing ring at the Olympic Games in Paris. I couldn’t be prouder of her journey and what she’s achieved, and I also couldn’t be prouder of how youth clubs and youth workers have supported her along the way.

When Cindy first came to Bolton Lads and Girls Club she hadn’t long arrived in the country as a 14-year-old from Cameroon. She had travelled with her brother to join her family in Bolton. She didn’t speak much English and she was very shy.

A big part of being a youth worker is helping the young people we see to open up, try new experiences and build their confidence. Straight away we knew Cindy loved sports. She started playing football with our female team but soon dismissed it as ‘too girly’. Then she discovered BLGC’s boxing room.

Our legendary boxing coach Dave Langhorn and sports manager Nick Raynor took Cindy under their wing. Dave put her through her paces with endless rounds of skipping, then let her start on the pads and in the ring. ‘She’s a raw talent’, Nick told me.

The club’s boxing team spent hours with Cindy in the ring and in the gym, helping her get stronger and fitter, before entering her for development championship fights run by English Boxing.

They used the club’s mini bus to travel all over the country, celebrating Cindy’s wins with a full English breakfast the morning after.

But it wasn’t just boxing that Bolton Lads and Girls Club was there for. Cindy’s an ambitious young woman who wants to do her best in every area of her life. We helped her to write her CV and applications for college and university. I also encouraged her to be a young sports leader, setting up sessions for our younger members and being a role model to them.

‘Leon, I’m bricking it,’ she whispered to me when faced with a gaggle of eight-year-olds in the club’s sports hall. I burst out laughing – she’s fearless in the ring but these kids had her on the ropes.

Seeing Cindy become the confident, articulate and passionate person she is now is one of the proudest moments of my career. She even works with me at weekends at Blackburn Youth Zone, she tells me that youth workers gave her so much and now she wants to give something back.

It was always Cindy’s dream to qualify for the Olympics, and as she’s still waiting for her paperwork to be sorted, she’ll be boxing for the Refugee Olympic Team in Paris. She’s an elite athlete with incredible talent and an outstanding work ethic, but any young person who sees her on TV and wants to emulate her success might find it a tall order.

There’s a crisis in our young people’s activity and fitness levels right now. The WHO recently reported that by the age of 15, just 11 per cent of girls and 16 per cent of boys in England do at least 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity – that includes things like cycling or brisk walking.

And we know a quarter of English children are obese by year six (25.5% according to the government’s National Child Measurement Programme).

The young people I work with every day are in no way lazy, and they want to be active, but they face significant barriers. Schools play an important part, but this is not a problem we can expect teachers to solve on their own.

PE hours in schools are being squeezed – more than 40,000 hours have been lost from the curriculum since 2012 – and our own research at OnSide shows that 1.3m young people had to give up out of school activities last year due to cost, with sports and fitness the most likely to go.

Heartbreakingly, young people told us much-loved clubs like football or gymnastics have had to be sacrificed in the cost-of-living crisis because parents can’t afford bus fares or petrol to get their kids there, let alone pay the subs or for kit.

There is an untapped solution to this crucial issue that’s right in the heart of our communities – youth centres.

Bolton Lads and Girls Club and Blackburn Youth Zone are both part of the OnSide network; 15 brilliant youth clubs, known as Youth Zones, built in the most disadvantaged parts of the country, equipped with excellent facilities and staffed by dedicated and trained youth workers. Youth Zones cost just 50p to enter, and we waive that cost for those who can’t afford it.

Across the OnSide network we provide an enormous 120,000 hours of sport for young people every year – that’s equivalent to 42% of all the PE taught in secondary schools in England.

Every Youth Zone has a climbing wall, a dance studio, a boxing ring, a gym, football pitches and a sports hall.

Every day I see young people getting active, making new friends and developing the skills that are essential to thrive in life, like leadership, teamwork and communication.

Another six Youth Zones are set to open in the next 18 months, but that’s just the start of OnSide’s mission. We want every child in every town or city in the country to have access to excellent youth workers and fun, fulfilling activities outside of school.

The very first day that Cindy walked into Bolton Lads and Girls Club I had no idea where her journey would end, but I knew that, like every young person who comes through our doors, we would help her to unlock her true potential.

Leon Crosby, Director of Operations at OnSide’s Blackburn Youth Zone.