Soooo….
Empower C.I.C. all started with me feeling a calling to help prevent the youngers and my peers from pursuing a path down the wrong lane. To do that I had to try to lead by example, as many of the people I knew growing up, kept getting posted on the front page for x, y and z. These times when I’m seeing them I felt I got a lucky escape, after having an epiphany in 2015 about the way I was living. And from there I started taking more responsibility for my actions and saw how my life was changing for the better. So I wanted to share my knowledge from the experience of what you reap you sow, the law of attraction.
But I didn’t know where to start so it was just a feeling for a few years. I had all these mental challenges like are people going to take me seriously, call it imposter syndrome if you will. But enough was enough when a certain documentary aired on BBC about Huddersfield’s gun crime and gang culture, I won’t share my opinion on that… but yeah I voiced my desire to help make a change and then from there I got in touch with the right people to help birth the Empower C.I.C. Also, in that same summer, I started doing outdoor boot camps away from the gym where I was a personal trainer and kids in the neighbourhood (some of who we work with today) kept coming down and imitating the exercises. So that planted a seed and once we got established a youth camp was our first project.
We’re like the bigger brothers in the community that we never had. We deliver multisports and creative arts activities on a grassroots level and help improve young people’s social-emotional mental health, alongside communication skills, physical fitness and self-aspirations.
Since starting, we’ve never really stopped. Funding or not, we’ve turned up for these young people and it’s paid off. We were recently awarded Ashbrow’s community organisation of the year 2022 and awarded a capital grant from the Our Space programme at Kirklees Council for gym equipment. This has given us the confidence to open up a gym and in return give our younger people an even better start, especially the teenagers who we sometimes find harder to engage with.
We’ll be offering free and discounted memberships to young people and their families, delivering educational workshops and working alongside schools to deliver interventions for their more challenging and vulnerable students.
I did backflips when I found out that we got the funding. It means that we can do so much more to empower young people.
Find out more
Empower – Leaders of the Future C.I.C (facebook)
Thank you to Tashan for sharing this story with us. Local organisations, citizens and Kirklees Council are working alongside each other to make our local places even better. Share your story to tell us what might help more people to get involved.
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