Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what we\u2019re showing is the gym community is accepting them and they start to move them away from the negative environment into the positive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
An avid martial arts fan himself, Green took inspiration from his father and started practising alongside his siblings as a youngster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s nothing new to harness combat sports to divert negative feelings into positive ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Green recalls stories of others finding the sports to put them on the straight and narrow after becoming involved in anti-social behaviour in younger days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To people who are experiencing homelessness, the endless pursuit of progress in the sports can offer something that life often cannot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing is the endorphins and the dopamine and the sense of feeling good about themselves,\u201d says Green. \u201cA lot of people in homelessness, they don\u2019t feel like they have an identity. They don\u2019t feel like they are a part of a community group. They don\u2019t feel proud of themselves or anything. But setting a personal best is a reason for them to get up in the morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting up and reminding themselves they\u2019re homeless is horrible, bless them. But when they wake up, they put their Fighting Homelessness jersey on, they feel part of that group, that team. They feel good about being a part of that and they realise they\u2019ve got a goal to set for today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The support ethos that Fighting Homelessness champions even comes down to the kit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jerseys with the Fighting Homelessness logo on are part of the 10-week programme. They remind people who take part that they are \u201cworthy\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s become something of a catchphrase for Green.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that we do just for the sake of doing it, because it\u2019s cool,\u201d he says. \u201cEverything we do is about support, even down to a detail like that in the kit, it\u2019s everything, even the word worthy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For now, Green is the sole employee of Fighting Homelessness with around five volunteers helping him to cover cities and towns across Wales.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n
But he has big plans for the future. Green wants to take on two new employees this year and the next step for Fighting Homelessness is to get accommodation of their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Green believes this will help the people supported by the project to focus on nutrition and take away the negative effects that come with homelessness. While that\u2019s the big ambition for 2026, even longer term, the dream is for Fighting Homelessness to get a home of their own: a gym and accommodation in the same spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Green tells Big Issue an example he heard from one man that drives his ambition for a base.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore he got through the front door, there was somebody smoking spice,\u201d says Green.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHe got through the front door, there was somebody arguing with the staff. He went upstairs and somebody was having a mental health breakdown. He goes into his room, locks himself in, isolates himself, and then all the negativity starts up again. So that\u2019s an uphill battle for us.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we want to do is take away that by having our own house, coming back to a house that is Fighting Homelessness and everyone in the house is training, everyone is having a similar goal.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Change a vendor\u2019s life this winter.<\/p>\n Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 and always take the magazine. It\u2019s how vendors earn with dignity and how we fund our work to end poverty.<\/p>\n You can also support online with a\u00a0vendor support kit<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0magazine subscription<\/a>. Thank you for standing with Big Issue vendors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Green took the idea to gyms and devised a 10-week programme that helps people learn the basics of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,554,6680,137,122543,7694,588,85],"class_list":["post-399155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-exercise","tag-from-the-magazine","tag-health","tag-health-and-wellbeing","tag-homelessness","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/50-OFF-CTA-Desktop-800x250-1.jpg\")
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