Shreveport Youth Boxing Club gets $25,000 community impact grant

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) — Shreveport Youth Boxing Club received a special gift Wednesday, July 6

New York Life donated a $25,000 community impact grant to the nonprofit.

KSLA News 12 has been told that it will be used to help train youths and for those working toward getting to the Junior Olympics.

We spoke with head coach Donny Jackson about how he believes the boxing program can help keep youths on a straight and narrow path.

“It’s so much parallel to life, everything about it. And then the kid gets in the gym because it starts with a simple notion. I have to work hard to achieve what I want to achieve in life. And with that being the beginning concept, we try to teach them respect and to look a person in the eye, just simple things that you think most kids will truly understand. Sometimes they don’t have those types of structures. In order to accomplish those, you have to put those goals in place to try to meet and obtain those goals.”

Shreveport Youth Boxing Club, located at 2525 Midway Ave. in Shreveport, is a nonprofit geared toward low-income, inner-city families with kids who are at risk of falling between the cracks.

The families it serves earn an average of $12,000-$20,000 a year and have at least three children.

“Most of our kids live in some of the most difficult and poorest areas of Shreveport,” says a statement from the program. “The neighborhood that SYBC resides (in) has a lack of after-school and mentoring programs. SYBC provides both.

“The children are given a reason to accomplish goals, inside and outside of their community. A couple of our students have earned a place at the Junior Olympics this year. We are beyond proud of our kids!”

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