Jennings Gym Charity Number 1199507 Unit 25-27 Coppull Enterprise Centre Mill Ln Coppull PR7 5BW
## **Gym Overview**
Jennings Community Boxing Academy also known as Jennings Gym was set up by Ex Professional Boxer Michael Jennings and Professional Coach David Jennings in 2013, it became a constituted community group in 2015 and gained Charity status in 2023.
The gym is run by Michael and David as coaches along with trustees and has two distinct “arms” a professional boxing gym primarily run by Michael with full coaching support from David and a community offer primarily run by David with support from Michael.
Central to the gyms ethos is the promotion and general health and wellbeing of its service users and of course the coaching and professional progression of its boxers, this is achieved through pro boxing and coaching sessions, community led health and fitness classes and targeted provision such youth referrals along with bespoken group sessions.
## **The Trustees and Volunteers include:**
Neil Aspinall - Chairman and acting Treasurer & Secretary David Jennings - Vice Chairman and Coach, Safeguarding Michael Jennings - Trustee and Head Coach
We have recruited Martin Grime and Matty Palmer who will soon become trustees eventually taking responsibilities of secretary and treasurer, both are local teachers and who will become responsible for safeguarding, policies and procedures although at a recent audit the Council was fully satisfied that all safeguarding provisions, policies and procedures were in place, the gym fully complies with Governing body rules and regulations.
The gym is currently reliant by volunteers with no salaried staff and only paid session work by adult boxers within the gym, Michael and David do not currently take an income from the gym apart from basic expenses.
## **Turnover**
Currently turnover is £25,000 based on April 2024 accounts submitted to The Charity Commission and is running on a break even basis.
External funding is currently limited to sponsorship, project funding and paid session work via other community groups such as Chorley’s Inspire Youth Zone, the vast majority of income is via subscriptions and membership.
## **Location**
We have moved the gym on two occasions as a result of an increase in general demand both within the community and from professional and aspiring professional boxers.
Initially located in Chorley the gym was eventually moved into Coppull Enterprise Centre on a long term lease. The centre was previously a large cotton spinning mill and in 2017 we relocated to a larger unit in the mill again due to an increase in demand on our services.
## **Community Background**
We work within the Borough of Chorley and surrounding areas such as Coppull, Adlington, Horwich, Brindle and Clayton Le Woods however we have increasingly seen demand for the community and professional arms within Lancashire including Blackpool, Preston, Morecambe, Burnley, Nelson and towns within the Greater Manchester area such as Wigan, Hulton and Standish.
All these areas feature high on the 2019 Indices of Deprivation with 16.7% (36,322) of children aged 0-15 living in income deprived families, and 11.2% (74,890) living in employment deprived areas, the Fylde and East Lancashire all featuring within the UK’s top 10 of areas of deprivation as well as some Wards within Chorley.
With this in mind our community offer has seen a steady increase in demand as the gym becomes more prominent and known within all the above areas, this has also been reflected in the number of aspiring boxers and links with other professional boxing gyms, local councils and authorities.
## **Our Current Community Offer (What We Do)**
The gym is open Monday to Friday between 9am and 7.30pm generally closed late morning to mid afternoon, the morning is generally handed over to the development of aspiring and pro boxers however due to capacity and lack of space it is shared with other projects which is not ideal.
## **Classes and Sessions**
- Monday - Friday 9.30am - 2.30pm we run classes for young people referred to us by local schools, the young people have been referred as an alternative to exclusion due to emotional issues and difficulties in engaging in mainstream classes.
We currently have provision for 10 young people with roughly 50% having Special Educational Needs and Educational Passports and are considered having Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties as well as being known within the youth justice system.
Classes and sessions focus on health and wellbeing, social awareness and as a way of improving self esteem and a sense of citizenship all through boxing as a diversionary activity although their is no “contact” boxing involved, young people are taught and encouraged to cook healthy yet cheap meals in our basic kitchen for everyone and encouraged to do the same at home.
We did have a small allotment to grow our own vegetables however Covid meant we gave back the tenancy.
David will sign post young people to other youth services where appropriate and regular feedback sessions are arranged with the referring school on progress.
- Open evening sessions for young people are available Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday between 5.15pm and 7.30pm with a regular contingent of 40 young people per session many of which fall within the community background areas previously mentioned. _It is important to note here that no young person will be prevented from taking part due to financial restrictions as such up to 25% of the young people access the sessions for free with all equipment provided such as gloves, gum shields and boots._
- Adult Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation sessions run on Tuesdays between 5pm and 6pm, we offer up to 5 places per session however there has been an increase in demand since Covid19 Lockdown.
- Funded Service Veterans sessions for up to10 veterans run on Thursday between 6pm and 7.30pm.
- We provide a coach to the local Inspire Youth Zone in Chorley which is attended by up to 20 young people every Wednesday, Inspire are invoiced monthly and 100% of the payment is made to the coach we supply.
_-_ Mixed ability “drop in sessions” are offered Tuesday and Thursday evenings for 18+ years and open for anyone to attend and we regularly achieve our maximum 30 participants, _again our policy is that the inability to pay is not a barrier to taking part._
_-_ We have also on occasions provided adhoc bespoken sessions for young people referred to us by the Police in particular young people engaged in low level anti social behaviour and generally considered “at risk”, the demand for these sessions varies throughout the year.
_-_ Although not a set fixture in our calender we have offered holiday club provision to young people and families on low income with a hot meal provided when funding is available.
_-_ Our professional and aspiring boxer sessions run every morning between 9am and 11am.
## **Challenges**
As we hope can be seen we offer a wide range of classes and sessions which are community based however we have reached our capacity for numbers and demand on the equipment and assets and as a result a “bottle neck” has become problematic with demand exceeding our current capacity.
Demand on equipment has meant that much of what we own has become “tired” and has reached the end of its life but more importantly the gym space has become overcrowded with sessions overlapping and increasing demand on the assets we have.
This has had a direct impact on the “professional” arm in that we believe we are currently not providing the best chances and opportunities for our pro and aspiring boxers in fact it has become difficult to accommodate those young people and adults who would like to transition and progress in the sport from the community offer to the aspiring boxer offer with spaces at a premium.
Part of the gym and boxing life is aimed at local “shows” with opportunities for our boxers to demonstrate their skills in a competitive ring and environment and for young people and their families to enjoy an evening of boxing however there are no facilities currently on offer which are affordable within our Borough as such we are missing out on valuable income and opportunities unless we hire a space (which we have in the past) outside of our current area.
The gym currently breaks even financially with funding and sponsorship being difficult to obtain due to not having a dedicated funding “officer” although we have always aspired to try.
## **Opportunities and Current Priorities Going Forward**
The owners of the mill have offered us a much larger space almost taking up a full floor of the spinning mill, they have pledged to waive the rent for a determined number of years based on how much is invested in the refurbishment of the unit by either the gym or its funders.
The space is currently in a state of disrepair as such we have engaged the services of an architect who is currently drawing up plans with a view to obtaining quotes on the work needed to bring the space up to specification and in line with the wants and needs of all our service users, we are also in the progress of evaluating and costing our asset needs.
We anticipate the opportunity to increase our current capacity four fold with the obvious benefit of engaging more community service users overall and widening what we offer to the community.
We hope funding will be available to completely replace and increase the number of assets such as boxing equipment, boxing rings and exercise equipment, zones within the unit can be assigned to projects and sessions enabling more users to access the facilities without any “competition” for space or equipment.
Whilst we offer accreditation through England Boxing for both coaches and young people we would like to provide young people with a “learning zone” where we can offer full accreditation within the sport of boxing but also other educational provision such as The Young Peoples Arts Award and bespoken sessions delivered by external professionals in areas such as healthy eating, crime prevention, citizenship and peri teacher led curriculum support, the space can also be used by boxers wishing to take coaching qualifications and accreditation.
The new space will give us the opportunity to put on local and regional shows which will bring in valuable income for the charity.
The increase in demand and ability to service that demand will need and provide an opportunity to increase the number of volunteers and coaches which would act as a pathway to employment, education and training for many especially young people given the educational platform via the “learning zone” we plan on having.
In hindsight we have realized the current way the gym and charity is run that is relying on volunteers and the unpaid work of Michael and David, this approach has served its purpose and is not sustainable long term and as such this needs to be addressed even though it is counter intuitive for both of them, if the planned growth and move is to mean a sustainable future the vision has to include provision for wages by way of session fees funded or otherwise for coaching and community work.
There is an opportunity now for us to build on the success of the gym from a charity, community aspect and professionally within the sport of boxing and beyond, we have a vision of providing an holistic approach to the sport of boxing and what it offers from healthier lifestyles and mental health to accreditation, education and a pathway to become a competitive boxer, raising the profile of boxing and sport in general within our local and wider community, with this in mind we have identified three current objectives but not restricted to to equip us for the challenges and opportunities ahead and which we would also welcome help to achieve, these are;
- Strategic Planning. - Funding. - Marketing and PR.
Jennings Boxing Gym has achieved so much with limited funds but what it has achieved has been through the time, dedication and dogged determination of Michael and David and everyone who provides them with their time and support.
The gym has developed a reputation and a proven track record of delivering a wide range of community led projects as well as huge success within its professional boxers and title wins which only inspire the young people and adults to get involved and take part and with our vision to increase capacity and the gyms assets we are determined to build on that success.
Neil for Dave, Michael and Jennings Gym
**Jennings Boxing Academy 1199507 Receipts and payments accounts For the period** 4/30/2023 4/30/2024 **To from**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|**A1 Receipts**
Subscriptions
**21,711**
Grants LCC
**650**
Sponsorships
**2,500**
Tornament Income
**710**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**25,571**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total receipts_ 25,571**
**A3 Payments**
Rent
**14,016**
Electricity
**3,548**
Telephony
**410**
Internet/Netflix
**184**
Insurance
**330**
Heater Fuel
**445**
Affiliation Fees
**220**
Staff Fees and Expenses
**1,404**
Repairs (Heater)
**1,308**
Misc and Other
**129**
**_Sub total_ 21,994**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total payments_ 21,994**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ 3,577**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**-**
**_Cash funds this year end_ 3,577**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Restricted**
**funds**|**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**21,711**|
||||**650**|
||||**2,500**|
||||**710**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**25,571**|
|||||
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
|||||
||||**25,571**|
|||||
||||**14,016**|
||||**3,548**|
||||**410**|
||||**184**|
||||**330**|
||||**445**|
||||**220**|
||||**1,404**|
||||**1,308**|
||||**129**|
|||||
||||**21,994**|
|||||
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
|||||
||||**21,994**|
|||||
||**-**|**-**|**3,577**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|**3,577**|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|**Details**
Total cash funds
**Details**
None
**Details**
None
**Details**
None
**Details**
None
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**3,577**
**-**
**-**
**3,577**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**|**to nearest £**
**Restricted**
**funds**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**to nearest £**
**Restricted**
**funds**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Cost (optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Cost (optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Amount due**
**(optional)**|
||None||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees Signature Print Name
**----- Start of picture text -----**
CC16a
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **Last year**
## **to the nearest £**
**N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A -**
**-**
**-**
**-**
## **Endowment funds**
## **to nearest £**
**-**
OK
## **Endowment funds**
## **to nearest £**
**-**
## **Current value (optional)**
**-**
**Current value (optional)**
**-**
**When due (optional)**
Date of
approv
**Jennings Boxing Academy 1199507 Receipts and payments accounts For the period** 4/30/2023 4/30/2024 **To from**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|**A1 Receipts**
Subscriptions
**21,711**
Grants LCC
**650**
Sponsorships
**2,500**
Tornament Income
**710**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**25,571**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total receipts_ 25,571**
**A3 Payments**
Rent
**14,016**
Electricity
**3,548**
Telephony
**410**
Internet/Netflix
**184**
Insurance
**330**
Heater Fuel
**445**
Affiliation Fees
**220**
Staff Fees and Expenses
**1,404**
Repairs (Heater)
**1,308**
Misc and Other
**129**
**_Sub total_ 21,994**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total payments_ 21,994**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ 3,577**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**-**
**_Cash funds this year end_ 3,577**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Restricted**
**funds**|**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**21,711**|
||||**650**|
||||**2,500**|
||||**710**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**25,571**|
|||||
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
|||||
||||**25,571**|
|||||
||||**14,016**|
||||**3,548**|
||||**410**|
||||**184**|
||||**330**|
||||**445**|
||||**220**|
||||**1,404**|
||||**1,308**|
||||**129**|
|||||
||||**21,994**|
|||||
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
|||||
||||**21,994**|
|||||
||**-**|**-**|**3,577**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**|
||**-**|**-**|**3,577**|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|**Details**
Total cash funds
**Details**
None
**Details**
None
**Details**
None
**Details**
None
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**3,577**
**-**
**-**
**3,577**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**|**to nearest £**
**Restricted**
**funds**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**to nearest £**
**Restricted**
**funds**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Cost (optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Cost (optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Amount due**
**(optional)**|
||None||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees Signature Print Name
**----- Start of picture text -----**
CC16a
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **Last year**
## **to the nearest £**
**N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A -**
**-**
**-**
**-**
## **Endowment funds**
## **to nearest £**
**-**
OK
## **Endowment funds**
## **to nearest £**
**-**
## **Current value (optional)**
**-**
**Current value (optional)**
**-**
**When due (optional)**
Date of
approv