Olympic medallists Anthony Joshua and Nicola Adams with members of Fight for Peace

Newham charity receives backing from Olympic stars

Kay Atwal, Chief Reporter Friday, November 23, 2012
5:19 PM

Olympic gold medallists visited Newham charity Fight for Peace to show their support for its work.

Olympic gold medallist Anthony Joshua spars with a member of Fight for Peace

Boxing champions, Anthony Joshua and Nicola Adams spent time with young people at the charity as it released a report showing the positive impact its work has had on individuals and communities.

Fight for Peace, which is based in Woodman Street, in North Woolwich, achieves success by using boxing and martial arts combined with education and personal development to realise the potential of young people in communities that suffer from crime and violence.

Newham based charity Fight for Peace today released the external evaluation findings from a Centre for Institutional Studies at the University of East London (UEL) research paper into crime reduction and successful progression of young people into education and employment as a result of participating in Fight for Peace projects.

Anthony Joshua, who recently visited the Fight for Peace programme in Rio de Janeiro with Prime Minister David Cameron and Nicola Adams, said: “Fight for Peace is an inspiring project making a huge difference to young people and their communities in London and Rio. Boxing has a proven track record of helping people to build a better way of life and I fully support any project that can use sport to provide young people with a purpose and a structure that helps them in all aspects of their life, as Fight for Peace has done.”

Luke Dowdney, MBE, Fight for Peace Founder and Director, said: “Sport, especially boxing, has long held a reputation as being able to make a positive difference in the community. But what makes Fight for Peace different is our integrated approach that combines boxing, formal education and personal development. It is this methodology that helps us offer young people alternatives to crime and violence, and that has lead to a positive economic return for Newham.

A report released by the University of East London estimates that Fight for Peace has delivered at least £2,504,457 of additional social benefit in the UK in the past 12 months.

For more information about Fight for Peace visit www.fightforpeace.net