VIEW issue 4 2012:VIEW issue 4 2012 29/04/2012 16:54 Page 12


VIEW, Issue four, 2012


Website: viewdigital.org


Page 12


Clockwise from above: Paul Johnston, who works as a volunteer at Monkstown Boxing Club, youngsters Michael and Morgan engage in a bit of light sparring, and a circuit training session


tery will allow the club to employ a full-time mem- ber of staff. We also intend to run an after-schools project at the club. Paul said: “The after-schools programme will hopefully engage young people who are at risk of getting expelled or leaving school with no qualifica- tions. Within this community there is a massive lack of aspiration about wanting to go to university,


Paul Johnston, who has worked as a volunteer with the club for 22 years said the kids in the area deserve to have a “second chance”. “I got a second chance in life. I did not do well at school and I wasn’t an ideal pupil. But I went to university at 35 years of age and I ended up getting a first class honours degree in community develop- ment. I believe in second chances without a doubt. We need to tell the kids in the area that their life is not over at 16 and they are not failures.” The five-year funding of £337,690 by the Big Lot-


T


he decision by the Big Lottery to award funding to Monkstown Boxing Club will help to give teenagers in the area a “sec- ond chance”.


Images: Kevin Cooper, Photoline


VIEW talks to Paul Johnston, a volunteer at Monkstown Boxing Club, following the decision by the Big Lottery to award £337,690 to the community facility


compared to the Catholic community. One in five Catholics will expect to go to university. Within this community, it's one in 10. Fifty per cent of young people living here will end up on benefits. We feel, that as one of the major community groups in the area, we can try to address that problem. “We will also be bringing in drug awareness tu- tors to address issues that are real to young peo- ple in this area. Also, it’s much better to come in here and channel your aggression or anger into punching a bag than taking it out on the streets on someone else. There is no such thing as a bad child – you just have to find the goodness and try


to bring it out,” adds Paul. The club is also involved in cross-community programmes. Paul said: “In 2006, along with Holy Trinity Boxing


Club in Turf Lodge in west Belfast, we went to Washington DC in the US. “We visited areas that had massive gun crime, drug problems and low educational attainment. There are a lot of similarities to here, if you were to add in paramilitaries. “One of the things that boxing did in some of these areas, which were very severely disadvan- taged, was an after-hours school programme for kids who were at risk of dropping out and leaving school with nothing and getting into a spiral of


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