Children First Derby are delighted to have been awarded a grant of £2500.00 from the Foundation Derbyshire Walbrook Fund, for the delivery of a martial arts club as part of their Mentoring Programme.
The grant will cover four, six week activity programmes, based at a martial arts club, to support the charity’s mentoring provision.
Children First Derby currently offer one to one and group mentoring for young people aged 10-18 to give them the support of caring role models to grow into confident, successful adults. The martial arts club will be a new addition to the current group mentoring activities which include Drama, Football and Climbing.
The Walbrook Panel said they understood that the martial arts activity was a great way to boost confidence, self-esteem, and respect.
Kerreene Davidson, Mentoring Service Manager at Children First Derby explained, “The Mentoring Service has seen an increase in physical and verbal bullying which has left some of our mentees hospitalised and as a result we had a consultation with our Youth Forum to hear their views on how we can effectively support these mentees.”
The response to the consultation, gave an insight into the young people’s views around the benefits of learning martial arts. They shared the need to improve their confidence, the feeling of helplessness when being attacked and expressed that having the skills to protect themselves may have prevented them ending up in hospital.
Kerreene added, “We are delighted to have been awarded this funding that will give young people the opportunity to participate in Jui Jitsu sessions at Gracie Barra. The sessions are tailored to the specific needs of the young people and are designed to increase their confidence, self-esteem, teach self-discipline and self defence.”