ABOUT US
PASSION AND UNDERSTANDING
Off The Ropes was created as a result of a shared passion in the sport of boxing and an understanding of the benefits that the discipline can create in young people and adults.
OUR HISTORY
FROM “IN YOUR CORNER”TO “OFF THE ROPES”
Off The Ropes (formerly known as In Your Corner) has been a registered charity since October 2018 set up by Ash, Patrick and Warren to support people suffering with their mental health.
The Launch of In Your Corner
The In Your Corner programme, which focuses on improving people’s physical and mental health through boxing, was initiated in 2014. It was the creation of psychiatrist, Patrick Davey, and Occupational Therapist, Warren Dunkley, both of whom worked at an adult inpatient mental health unit. Their shared passion for mental health and their love of sport sparked the idea to develop a wellbeing model which they shared with the British Boxing Board. They then teamed up with Ashley Newman, who Warren had coached and boxed with in an amateur and professional capacity for over 20 years, to create a group through connections with Swanley Boxing – In Your Corner.
Since its inception, the In Your Corner team have delivered hundreds of non-contact boxing sessions to adults and young people across the London and Kent regions – in schools, hospitals, business, and in the community. In the sessions are led by qualified boxing and health professionals who engage with individuals and focus on improving and managing participants mental health symptoms, using a fully integrated approach which tackles personal and social issues.
The team have been facilitating non-contact boxing sessions with young adults and children in NHS mental health services at the Bracton Centre, Bexley; Green Parks House, Bromley; Barefoot Lodge rehab, Greenwich and the Woodlands Unit, Bexley since 2016. Run in council premises in Swanley, the sessions have steadily expanded to include other units in London and Kent with the intention on extending the service into more mental health service/rehab units, schools and corporates.
Securing charity status in 2018
After years of running the programme with very limited funds, Patrick, Warren and Ash were delighted when In Your Corner became a registered charity in 2018. This not only enabled the team to start raising much-needed funds, but it meant that they could start to fulfil their ambitions of expanding their support services much more.
In Your Corner becomes Off the Ropes in 2021
Since the launch of the In Your Corner programme in 2014, the team’s passion for helping young adults and children suffering with their mental health has continued to grow. To see the huge value and benefit that members have gained from attending sessions and being made to feel part of a community, is so incredibly rewarding.
After a difficult 18 months navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic, the In Your Corner team decided it was time for a change. And so ‘In Your Corner’ was relaunched as ‘Off the Ropes’. Not only does the new name give the programme a new identity, but it also gives the team fresh new foundations and renewed energy on which to continue building on their ambitions.
The sessions address the underlying and complex mental health problems in London and Kent, offering a holistic approach programme addressing some of the following underlying causes:
- POOR EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
- MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS
- LOW SELF-ESTEEM
- LOW CONFIDENCE
- SELF-HARM
- OBESITY
- LOW EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
- POOR INTERPERSONAL/SOCIAL SKILLS