Summary (click here for the full report)

The Naenae Boxing Academy provides a positive and nurturing environment where young males are guided and supported by a dedicated team of male mentors and role models. While boxing training is an important aspect of the project, built into the training are opportunities for young males to learn a number of important life skills, pro-social values and develop strong friendships and bonds with other young males.

Participants identified a range of positive changes that they attributed to the project. Particularly telling is the number of young males, some previously on medication for behaviour problems, showing improvements in their behaviour and in their engagement with school because of Billy’s resourcefulness, persistence, ideas, strategies, mana and community contacts.

The change stories show the positive impacts that Billy’s work has had on many of the young males and families involved and the sense of fellowship, camaraderie and community that has developed around the Academy since 2006.

Finally, the findings of this report challenges many of the negative perceptions that exist around boxing and stand as testament to the broader social and health related impacts that boxing can have on individuals, their families and the community.

Conclusions

Here we do not revisit the projects per se but draw out more general issues that we observed in the course of the evaluation.

The first of these is to highlight the point suggested by the Introduction and the sketch of materials from other local youth projects, to the effect that the three Vodafone Foundation World of Difference projects reviewed here are all exemplars of the Positive Youth Development paradigm, as articulated by the Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa. They demonstrate an excellent fit with the tenets of youth development and with the concept of building stronger communities and supporting better outcomes for young New Zealanders (World of Difference aims).

The projects demonstrate the value of engaging with young people in order to work successfully with them and to bring their concerns and aspirations to the centre stage. A range of positive changes were identified, grouped broadly under the areas of social cohesion, capability building and health and wellbeing. They engaged young people, their families and the wider community including key agencies such as the police and schools, producing positive changes at all these levels. They have become firmly integrated into neighbourhoods and communities, take strengths and values based approaches and focus on youth interests within the broader context of their families and communities. A key success factor is the people involved, from driven individuals and families leading the projects to those who have become engaged and committed to each project.

In each instance the hallmark of the project – dance, moving away from gangs, boxing - is seen as a hook to learning and development rather than solely as an end itself. However, boxing and hiphop also provide a sense of achievement and increase physical fitness and ability. Their successes bring prestige and pride to individuals, groups and communities.

In working with young people who are in many instances, not interested in school, “under achieving” and seen as likely to leave, the projects offer alternative pathways and demonstrate positive outcomes. The themes and stories in this evaluation show multiple instances of project leaders and staff intervening in the systems that are not working for young people in their care, making often simple changes that, for the young person, produce changes in outlook across the board. Such changes have been achieved in sometimes fairly dire situations and it is clear that, without the work of the projects, things could have been very different for the young people and their families.

This is an endorsement of the projects, but also an indictment of aspects of our society and many of our youth institutions; for example, school principals and police officers have sought out the projects to provide what should be within their domain of their activities. The evaluation tells of young people living in environments where they may not feel well supported, whether it is due to dominant cultural norms, socio-economic circumstances or the lack of positive male role models.

Although Positive Youth Development is seen as a valuable way forward and a number of initiatives are based on its principles, there is little evaluation. Although evaluation may be

seen as taking resources from the ‘coalface’ of work with young people it also provides a powerful tool for the development and understanding of projects. Without such research based knowledge there is a danger that the gains made by any particular intervention will be lost to the wider community of those working to improve the heath and wellbeing of young people.