Tough love scheme is working

4:09am Friday 13th June 2008

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A REMARKABLE community project is transforming the lives of children in an underprivileged area by getting them fit and healthy.

In doing so it is also helping in the battle against antisocial behaviour.

The volunteer-run Street Tough project has been serving the North Road area of Southend free of charge for almost a year now.

Parents and local policing teams have been wowed by the effect on kids - both mentally and physically - and it has even gained plaudits in high places.

Project chairman Stephanie Stamp was recently contacted by the Government's Department for Health who wanted to use the scheme as an example of local people setting up an initiative to combat obesity in children.

The group meets on Monday evenings at the Balmoral Centre in Salisbury Avenue, Southend, where about 30 children are given a rigorous work-out.

For the first hour, the children are put through their paces by Scott Tilson - cousin of Southend United manager Steve Tilson - who also teaches them the importance of fitness and healthy eating.

Then they sit down to eat for half-an-hour and have a choice of nutritious home-cooked meals, including chicken, pasta, salad and fruit.

After this, they have an hour of kickboxing training with martial arts expert Pat O'Keeffe.

Stephanie said she has been struck by how much the children taking part in the scheme have changed in the past year.

She said: "When they first came here, some of the kids were almost feral they were so badly behaved.

"I wondered: What on Earth have we done?' "They just wanted to fight each other and mess up the toilets. But they have been transformed.

"We used to get a lot of graffiti and vandalism, but since we started, it doesn't happen.

"As well as fitness, this also develops their team-building, confidence and leadership skills. We teach them that exercise is fun and can be incorporated into your life in so many ways."

It's hard to believe that Stephanie is describing the same children who I saw this week, who are all polite, disciplined and well-behaved. They clearly love both the exercise and the food on offer.

Stephanie, 55, started the project as a way of reviving the formerly council-owned Balmoral Centre, which at one point was threatened with closure.

She grew up in the area and wanted to give something back to it.

She said: "It was apparent that many of the kids weren't so fit and there wasn't much round here for them to do.

"So I got together with Scott and Pat and together we devised the Street Tough challenge.

"This is a poor neighbourhood and this facility is absolutely crucial."

Earlier this year, the scheme got funding from South East Essex NHS Trust and the Jack Petchey Foundation, which was enough to keep it going for the next two years.

The group is run by a four-strong committee, plus Pat and Scott, and has a part-time caretaker, Peter Frarey.

The area's police and community support officer Chris Hawes said Street Tough has broken down barriers between local youths and the police.

He said: "The group has had phenomenal results." Fellow support officer Martin Lamb, said: "We've noticed a real difference with the younger nuisance youths in the area.

"A year ago, we thought some of these kids might have been a concern, but you can see a great change in some of them through coming here."

Such is Street Tough's popularity, a second outdoors class has opened on Wednesday afternoons in the nearby Milton Hall Primary School sports field.

l To find out more about the project, or to help with funding, call the centre on 07738 171800.