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The Champions programme allows every individual to feel that they belong, to feel safe and to feel loved. This is the foundation from which all future development will come.
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The Champions programme encourages young people to learn how to develop positive relationships with the diverse individuals who they train with in each academy. We believe that if change is going to take place in our communities that those from diverse backgrounds must have a space where they can come together and share common ground. This means decreasing the distance between those with power and those without, those with resource and those who have little. Within our academies this social connectedness takes place from the age of nine, as from an individual’s first day they will come into contact with those whose backgrounds vary greatly.
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The BGYF model creates the realisation that individuals should be thinking of the needs of those around them rather than just themselves. BGYF’s desire is for this realisation to carry well beyond the academy, and into lives of those connected with our members. The Champions programme supports this development in a number of ways, such as young people being expected to participate in community development throughout the year, or providing senior members with the skills and knowledge to support their junior counterparts through voluntary coaching.
Billy Graham Youth Foundation
The Billy Graham Youth Foundation (BGYF) was created to establish and support boxing academies in communities around New Zealand, that are based off the original Naenae Boxing Academy model (est. 2006). Our national vision is ‘Champion young people contributing to their communities’. BGYF's mission is to ‘Support BGYF Academies to empower young people and whanau, and to uphold the integrity of the BGYF spirit’. BGYF supports each BGYF Academy to create positive environments, build strong relationships, and support the holistic development of every young person who walks through their doors. The original Naenae academy was set up to provide safe spaces and build relationships with local young people, many of whom fall in to at-risk categories.