Shifnal boxing club in project to help unemployed people

Brightstar Boxing said it uses the sport and education "to empower everyone to make changes that transform their lives" (generic image)

A boxing club is part of a new scheme to help unemployed people find work.

Brightstar Boxing in Shifnal, Shropshire, said the project would include physical activity as well as upskilling, such as CV writing.

The club, which is involved along with three other organisations, will work for a day a week with groups of adults taking part in a six-week programme.

The Make Sport Work sessions start next month in Shrewsbury and Whitchurch along with Ludlow after Christmas.

Shrewsbury Town FC Foundation, Embrace and Shropshire Cricket Board were collaborating with Brightstar Boxing, it said.

Iain Howard, from Brightstar Boxing, said those taking part in the new scheme were referred to as NEETs - those who are Not in Education, Employment or Training.

He stated: "Sport in general and physical activity can be a way to engage young people, people in general, with a side of their personality that maybe that they've left in the past or they haven't accessed before, that engages both the mental and the physical side.

"On the back of that, we can use it to sort of prove, for want of a better word, to people what skills they maybe didn't realise they had."

Iain Howard said the scheme would use sport and physical activity "as the catalyst" for change

There were plans to work on mental health support and do team-building exercises.

"[Sport] really does sort of help unlock our potential... so the sport, the activity, is the foundation and then on top of that we'll work around how we can unlock what really makes people tick in terms of getting them back out there.

"It might just be that they need say, for example, a boost in self confidence and we've done a team work and team-building exercise using beanbags.

"All of a sudden they realise 'oh actually, I didn't realise I could work that well with other people'."