ABOUT THE PROGRAM

‘A Round to Remember’ will engage 120 Hull residents in a celebration of the city’s boxing heritage. Whilst children growing up today in a community which is the fourth most deprived in England may aspire to follow in the footsteps of homegrown London 2012 Olympic Champion Luke Campbell, the older generation fondly remember the exploits of household stars including Paul Ingle, who held IBF and IBO titles between 1999 and 2000, and Barbara Buttrick, the world’s unbeaten bantamweight and flyweight champion between 1950 and 1960.

 

The concept behind ‘A Round to Remember’ was developed during the pandemic by a group of nine individuals who were former coaches and participants. The group met virtually once a week to share stories of amateur and professional fights from yesteryear, and by July 2020, had turned into a two-hour session attended by forty-two participants. Edinburgh scale data suggested the project supported improvements in participant mental wellbeing, principally through supporting connections with lost friends. Now, following consultation with the local community and statutory partners, we seek the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund to deliver a one-year activity programme that will scale our boxing reminiscence project to engage new audiences, collect and preserve memories, and showcase Hull’s proud boxing heritage.

 

With a focus on engaging under-represented groups in heritage learning, particularly those living in areas of high deprivation, as well as supporting people to develop new skills and achieve greater wellbeing outcomes, ‘A Round to Remember’ will:

 

• Deliver two, weekly one hour boxing reminiscence sessions which bring together current and past members of the Hull boxing community to reminisce and share memories. One session will be based from the City of Hull Wellbeing facility, with the second taking part in local care home facilities who will each receive six sessions. Activity will include screening former fights, featured presentations from individuals, and general ‘free topic’ conversation that stimulates connections. A dedicated social media page will be running by the project to oversee group discussion outside of the weekly sessions.

 

The two reminiscence sessions will be the catalyst for:  

 

• Ten young people aged 14-16 currently engaged in wider Group community education programmes will be tasked with collecting oral memories from the participants with an aim of preserving memories related to boxing in Hull. These young people will receive training to support their roles, including interview techniques, with an aim of creating a series of podcasts that can be accessible for people in the future to enjoy and learn from.

 

• Ten adults will be supported to upskill as heritage leaders, developing the skills, confidence, and knowledge to lead sessions in the future once the funded period has concluded. This will be an open-access opportunity, with an extended focus on encouraging older men and unemployed adults to engage in the training.