Boxing Out Negativity<\/a> back in 2009. The non-profit organization held a grand opening for a new space in the city\u2019s North Lawndale neighborhood on Saturday afternoon. <\/p>\n\u201cThis space is going to change lives,\u201d he told NBC Chicago.<\/p>\n
Brown is helping to train young boxers in the ring, building their confidence and channeling their energy into something positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoxing Out Negativity is not just a program it\u2019s a way of life and we\u2019re not just teaching kids how to box we\u2019re teaching them how to box their way through life,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The space allows them to serve even more young people through other services like workforce development. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be a catalyst for change and really spearhead the youth into doing what\u2019s right in the community,\u201d said Devin Murphy, executive director of Boxing Out Negativity.<\/p>\n
For Brown, starting the organization was mission fueled by personal experience. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was born and raised in North Lawndale, at the age of 17 I went to the penitentiary. I\u2019ve been shot, my friends ended up getting killed, and all while I was going through that ordeal I wanted to change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Over the years he\u2019s reached thousands of teens, partnering up with six schools in the area. <\/p>\n
One of the teens is Michael Horn. The Golden Gloves champ joined the program years ago and has seen a personal transformation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like the confidence, it brings out of you,\u201d he said. \u201cIt brings out discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n
They want every teen who walks through the door to feel seen, heard, loved, and supported in the space. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt means the world to us and when we see that it makes our heart smile, kinda keeps us going,\u201d said Murphy. <\/p>\n
The boxing ring is going to be installed next week. All the programs and services are free. Click here<\/a> if you\u2019re interested and would like to register your child.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From being homeless to mentoring at-risk youth, a Chicago man is expanding his reach using boxing to engage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,293067,82],"class_list":["post-841707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-north-lawndale","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}