Heart of Hayling Boxing Club have thousands in the bank – but they can’t use it to help survive lockdown

One such organisation is the Heart of Hayling (HoH) Boxing Club which was officially launched at the start of last year thanks to financial help from the island’s Lions Club.

In a relatively short space of time, the club has changed lives for the better. Taking on youngsters with anger management and mental health issues from vulnerable backgrounds, HoH have helped steer some away from potential drug problems by harnessing the power of weekly exercise in a friendly, encouraging environment.

In an island community short on places for teenagers to meet up at, HoH officials are fully aware their club provides a social need every much as a sporting one. And their future is currently very much an uncertain one in a world now accustomed to lockdown.

HoH organiser Wendy Coates has given The News an insight into the problems the Covid-19 pandemic is causing a club who firmly believe - as their name suggests - they are at the heart of their community

‘It’s affecting us considerably,’ Coates said.

‘We have around 150 boxers who attend every week - mainly from key stages 2 and 3, the end of junior school and the beginning of secondary school.

‘Some of our kids come along because it helps with anger management issues, we are very much aware that some come from vulnerable families.

‘We said when we started that we were not going to turn any kid, or adult, away due to money.

‘There are a lot of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ on Hayling. Yes, there are some wealthy people but also a lot of families on Universal Credit, a lot where the parents either work in care homes or the holiday industry.

‘As a result, we have never really made a lot of money from people actually coming through the door - only around £2,800 of our total receipts I would say.

‘Against that, our rent is £6,000, insurance is another £1,000, safeguarding is also around £1,000 - everything costs money.’

Sport England announced at the end of last month that they were making £195m available to help sports clubs cope with any financial difficulties encountered due to Covid-19.

Good news for some, but not for HoH.

‘The trouble with bidding for grants is that you have to be specific - I can understand that, because some of it is using taxpayers’ money,’ Coates explained.

‘I know Sport England have made money available, but I have spoken to them and we don’t qualify because we already have grant money we haven’t spent.

‘I have £4,750 sitting in our bank account from Sport England for us to spend on training for our coaches.

‘It’s around £270 for each of them to take a level 2 coaching badge, and they need to take those courses.

‘That money is ring-fenced for training, there’s nothing else I can spend it on. There’s no flexibility.

‘We have money from Hampshire County Council to spend on mental health training for our boxers. I can’t spend that on anything else either, it’s got to be spent on that.

‘After we started up we received money from the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Charity Foundation, which is funded by local businesses. Our grant was funded by Kenwood.

‘They don’t mind what equipment the money was spent on, and they also allowed us to spend some of the money on rent.

‘We’ve also used it to buy medals, certificates and awards for the boxers. That might sound trivial but for some of the kids it’s the first thing they’ve ever won - it’s important that they see they are achieving something.’

Like many sports clubs, HoH - who earlier this year won the Club of the Year honour in the annual Havant Borough Council Sports Awards - have resorted to online ideas in a bid to keep engaging with their boxers.

Only this week they started a new ‘Skip for Hayling’ social media initiative. Members are being asked to video themselves skipping and post it online.

‘We’ve spent £400 on skipping ropes,’ said Coates. ‘They’re being delivered to the boxers but any family on Hayling can request one - the (HoH) volunteers who are taking out medication and food parcels are taking the ropes as well.

‘We’re asking everyone to start skipping and post videos online. It’s important the children feel we are still in contact with them, and still engaging with them.’

Coates continued: ‘All the grants at the moment are to get clubs through lockdown, but we’re more concerned about when lockdown ends - that’s when we are really going to need it. ‘When lockdown is over there could be a much wider gap in terms of inequality caused by the pandemic.

‘If we don’t address those issues, it could add to some people’s mental health issues and cause greater community tension.

‘We would like to run something similar to Arsenal’s Double Club scheme. We’d rent an extra room on a Wednesday and work with the local junior and secondary schools, we’d offer extra classes so no child got left behind due to the pandemic.

‘We want to make sure every child achieves their potential.

‘My son Mark ran something similar in Aldershot, which was praised by Ofsted.

‘We believe the cost would be around £9,500, so not an enormous sum.’

The uncertainty as to when lockdown will end, and the financial problems it has created, present a myriad of issues.

For instance, HoH have paid a year’s rent in advance to the Community Centre. ‘We were able to and it helped them out because they were struggling financially,’ said Coates, who doesn’t know if they will get a rebate on any of their rent.

A lot of families on Hayling are also dependent on the tourist industry, which will obviously take its own hit this summer - and possibly far beyond.

‘It could take the tourist industry a while to recover, and I don’t think it will recover this year, so we could lose a lot of our local funding,’ Coates said.

After lockdown, ‘I think most of our boxers will return - there’s nothing else for them to do on Hayling, there’s no swimming pool, no sports hall.

‘I was chair of the Havant Police Advisory Group, and my son is a teacher - we knew that county lines (drug dealing) was on the island and there were kids getting involved in that.

‘Without the club, I don’t know what they would have done.

‘Kids have turned their lives around because of the club, it’s been incredible. Some who were involved in drugs are no longer involved in drugs.

‘We try and make sure everyone feels part of the same family, we look after everyone the same way. If someone says they haven’t been paid one week, that’s fine.

‘That was the whole ethos behind the club, no matter what a person’s background is. I know people have been involved in criminality who have come to us and have been changed.

‘Because there is a lot of poverty on the island, we started a Food Bank - the local fruiterer provides fruit and the kids love it.’

HoH are also delighted to have built strong links with Portsmouth FC.

‘Kev the Kit Man (Kev McCormack) has been great with the kids, and Christian Burgess has been wonderful,’ said Coates.

‘He’s come round and helped us with our deliveries, he’s gone to the houses where the kids who support Pompey live and waved through the window to them.

‘He’s been skipping as well this week.’

As the uncertainty continues, HoH obviously have no idea when they will be allowed to use the Community Centre again.

But the determination to help their members burns fiercely.

‘We will train kids on the beach, observing all social distancing rules, if we have to,’ said Coates.