UFC to Launch New UK Youth Mentoring Project
May 28, 2021
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is creating its first ever UK youth mentoring program. The world’s premier mixed martial arts organization’s new multi-year partnership with leading youth charity OnSide will result in the creation of ‘Youth Zones’ in communities across the nation with former and current UFC athletes taking part.
Established in 2008, OnSide funds and builds state-of-the-art youth centers in the UK, providing young people aged 8-19 years old with affordable access to a wide range of positive activities and opportunities and high-quality sports, arts and leisure facilities. Youth Zones also faciliate access to trusted youth workers, providing guidance in areas including employability, health and wellbeing.
Since its inception, 14 Youth Zones have been developed, supporting over 50,000 young people across the OnSide network. And the charity has ambitious plans to grow this network to enable more young people to benefit.
“Giving young people positive opportunities to have fun, get fit and connect with their peers will be even more important as we emerge from the pandemic. This partnership is a great opportunity to introduce young people across the network to an incredibly popular sport, and we are delighted to be working with UFC to launch this mentoring program and look forward to seeing the positive impact it will have on young people across the OnSide network of Youth Zones,” said Kathryn Morley, Chief Executive of OnSide.
The UFC’s OnSide Youth Mentoring Program will be led by former UFC light heavyweight Jimi Manuwa, UFC welterweight Leon Edwards and UFC middleweight Darren Till. Each athlete will lead a martial arts-focused mentoring program as part of the after-school health and wellness curriculum at OnSide Youth Zones in South London, Wolverhampton and the Wirral.
Mixed martial arts has been shown to help young people develop a wide range of key skills to support their physical and mental health, including improved cognitive function and muscle strength, better balance and coordination, enhanced flexibility and better self-awareness.
The program wants to help young people develop these skills with a focus on self-discipline and self-defense, while giving them access to inspirational expert UFC coaches and instructors in a safe and familiar environment. Participants will also receive access to the Youth Zone’s educational classes, tutoring and after school programs.
12-16 year-olds will be eligible to join the program, comprised of weekly classes over a 6-8 week period. Participants will be selected through a combination of pre-existing members of local Youth Zones and from the local community.
“I’m very proud that we have used our platforms and positions to be able to give back to our communities across the UK,” said Jimi Manuwa. “Violent crimes, especially knife crimes, are very apparent in the cities we all grew up in and we want to help to give these kids other options in life that we didn’t have when we were growing up.”
Classes will teach various levels of martial arts disciplines such as Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Judo and Jiu-Jitsu - which UFC says are foundational to the sport of MMA. In conjunction with training, the program will also periodically host youth engagement activities with law enforcement from the South Area Command Unit of the Metropolitan Police, providing opportunities for police officers to continually build relationships and trust in the community.