Mini-Grant Recipient Success Stories: Southpaw Prince
Southpaw Prince was awarded a 2018-2019 Healthier Jupiter Mini-Grant to support their Southpaw Prince Free After School Boxing Program.
Southpaw Prince’s mission is to provide low-income students with an after-school boxing training program focused on discipline, character building, and mentorship. Boxing training not only provides participants with strenuous exercise, it also teaches self-discipline, self-confidence, and focus. As part of the program, mentors are assigned to each student to promote educational opportunities and help develop a path to success. Southpaw Prince provides an opportunity for underprivileged students to enter a safe environment to participate in an enriching after-school activity regardless of family income. Using a platform of boxing towards education and social development, Southpaw Prince, Inc. develops positive young citizens who contribute to their communities.
Southpaw Prince used their Healthier Jupiter Mini-Grant to rent the facility at Jupiter Boxing Club to give children ages 8 to 17 a healthy outlet through an after school boxing program.
Southpaw Prince shared some of their great successes with their students. All thirty students attended our boxing program religiously over the six months of the program. We tracked our success through assessments on the first day of practice and a final assessment the last week of practice. Our students experienced an increase in flexibility, boxing ability, and strength.
Southpaw Prince was also very open with sharing some of their challenges. Here is what they had to say…”the children enjoyed and benefited from the boxing program. However, we found that transportation was an issue for some students who wanted to attend practice. On the other hand, we also found that some students were late to practice due to a lack of responsibility stemming from the parents.
Although the students benefited from the program, it is my personal belief that the best way to help youth become more physically active on a regular basis is to educate parents and leaders within at-risk communities about the importance of youth extra-curricular activities. Originally, I thought the cost associated with after-school activities was the main factor that prevented parents from putting their children in after-school activities.
To my surprise, I found that a lack of education causes many parents not to value these activities as much as they should. I suggest an emphasis on a top-to-bottom approach that focuses on educating the parents, along with delivering a healthy outlet for youth rather than a bottom-to-top approach that focuses solely on providing youth services. In summary, the children can want to participate in an after-school activity as much as the next kid that participates in every sport under the sun, but children will soon be disappointed if parents do not create an encouraging environment to assist them. We, as a community, have to solve the root causes of a problem rather than the symptoms. We would like to go back to the drawing board to see how we can solve the problems”.
Southpaw Prince’s project met Healthier Jupiter’s focus area to help individuals become more physically active on a regular basis, including encouraging people to engage mentally and physically to practice healthy behaviors.
About Healthier Jupiter’s 2019-2020 Mini-Grant Program
Healthier Jupiter, a community initiative founded to address health and quality of life issues, for the fourth year in a row, Healthier Jupiter will offer Mini Grants to impact the health of our community. The goal of the Mini Grants is to fund innovative projects that have measurable impact and can create meaningful, transformative change in the health, wellness and success of the greater Jupiter community. The grants will allow civic organizations, churches, temples, schools, government entities and nonprofits to fund pilot ideas to improve our collective community health in one of four focus areas:
Increase the availability and affordability of fresh, healthy foods;
Help individuals become more physically active on a regular basis;
Encourage people to engage mentally and physically to practice healthy behaviors; and/or
Support changes in the built environment and community policies that promote equitable opportunities for healthy living.
For more information about Healthier Jupiter’s Mini-Grant Program please visit healthierjupiter.org/grants. Here you can learn about past recipients, get some great inspiration from innovative ideas from around the country, and submit an interest form (which is required to submit a grant).
Healthier Jupiter is funded through a generous grant from Palm Health Foundation in partnership with Jupiter Medical Center, as part of the countywide Healthier Together Initiative.