Last updated 08:40, Tuesday, 18 November 2008

It may not resonate with the primal power of 'I am the greatest!' But it is a statement of intent nevertheless.

Charlie Shepherd shows his British Lonsdale Title Belt to Mark Harvey, left and Aiden Bowness

• Slideshow: images from the Champ's Camp

“I want to be the heavyweight champion of the world.”

The speaker is George Dudley, the location Holy Trinity Church Hall, Wigton Road, Carlisle.

George has a little way to go before his ambition is fulfilled. He is relatively new to boxing. There are tactical and technical weaknesses which badly need addressing.

And the future heavyweight champion of the world currently weighs just four stone.

George Dudley is seven years old. But he has a dream, and dreams are what Champ’s Camp is made of.

Champ’s Camp is a partnership between Carlisle’s former world boxing champion Charles Shepherd and boxing coach Barrie Scougal.

Their dreams are less grand than George Dudley’s but they are no less important: using boxing training to empower individuals and communities.

Children – and people of all ages, they hope – will train at several Champ’s Camps around Cumbria and beyond.

They will learn not just jabs, leads and uppercuts but respect, discipline and confidence.

Boxing doesn’t only harm. It heals. And the community around Wigton Road is already reaping the benefits.

Champ’s Camp arrived here, two nights a week, £2.50 a session, during the summer. The area needed a lift, as Keith Forrester of Carlisle Housing Association (CHA) explains.

“Last November the area took a real hammering with criminal damage and antisocial behaviour. Fences were being ripped out, there were constant fires. We had a residents’ meeting where parents said their children didn’t have anything to do. Before Christmas I met some youths. They presented me with a list of things they wanted. Top of the list was boxing.”

Keith’s son Jack was attending Champ’s Camp at William Howard School in Brampton. Keith had been impressed so he approached Charles Shepherd. Eleanor Hancock, priest at Holy Trinity, was happy for the club to work there.

And has it made any difference to life on the streets outside? Keith thinks so. “Anti-social behaviour has gone down. The police say fear of crime is also starting to reduce.”

Now CHA is meeting requests from residents in Petteril Bank and Longtown with plans to finance Champ’s Camps there. Another opens in Haltwhistle today with more in the pipeline. Charles and Barrie hope to involve primary schools too.

An exciting future beckons. But here and now it’s a Thursday night upstairs in Holy Trinity Church Hall.

Barrie, known to all present as Baz, issues instructions to 15 boys and young men, and one girl.

They jog on the spot and throw punches at the air. “Jab with the left, cross with the right.”

Discipline and concentration. The only sound other than Barrie’s voice is the patter of feet on wooden floorboards.

This is not a youth club. They come here to work hard. But for those who love it this feels more like playing hard.

It’s not a boxing club either. No one is hit, except Charles and Barrie when they put on a body protector and pupils queue up to batter their masters. “They look forward to that,” smiles Barrie.

There’s no boxing ring; the club is trying to raise £1,800 to buy one. In the meantime a square of chairs sits in the centre of the room. Students take turns to punch the pads on Charles’s hands, following his orders.

“One-two! One-two! Excellent!”

Three punch bags hang by chains on the walls, destined to be pounded for the next hour.

The youngest children here are just five. “We often mix the age groups up,” says Barrie. “The older ones encourage the younger ones. Some lads in their late teens have now become coaches.”

Barrie and Charles met 10 years ago, when Charles was about to bring the world super featherweight championship to Cumbria. In those days Barrie ran several bars in Carlisle. Neither man is following the same path now, having come together with their shared vision.

This involves a feeling of pride for Champ’s Camp members: pride in the club, in their community, and in themselves.

But it has to be earned. There is a “three strikes and out” policy. No swearing, bullying, lateness or back chat.

Anyone found bullying will be instantly kicked out.

The club’s mission statement says: “We will work with community leaders and police to deal with members found to be involved with any antisocial behaviour in the community using the same three strikes rule.”

Barrie says: “One or two have had a couple of warnings. We’ve said ‘If you keep getting in trouble you won’t be back.’ One or two have banned themselves. They’ve done something wrong and they’ve known it so they’ve stayed away for a couple of weeks then come back and apologised.”

Behaviour is changing in all sorts of ways. As well as those who have calmed down there are the ones who walk taller. Barrie proudly describes being thanked by a mum and dad for increasing their son’s self-esteem. He says: “You can’t buy that sort of thing.”

Jamie Aldersey’s parents Mike and Alison are among those dishing out compliments. “Jamie has taken to it really well,” says Alison. “Before he started here he was quite shy. His self-esteem has really grown. He demonstrated boxing to Year 7 at William Howard assembly today. He doesn’t like messing about in boxing lessons because he wants to learn, and that’s carried over to school.

“He’s a lot fitter than he used to be. We do a lot of mountain walking. Before he’d never get to the top. This summer he just bounded up.”

How would they feel if Jamie announced he wanted to begin fighting – taking punches as well as throwing them?

“The coaches think he’s got a degree of talent but I don’t think he’s got the killer instinct,” says Alison. “You don’t want them to get hurt. But it is well regulated.”

“You just have to let people take the path they’re going on,” says Mike.

Among all the boys and young men stands the only girl: 11-year-old Casey Gray.

Her nana Linda Cleminson watches Casey lay into Charles Shepherd’s pads. “When I brought her here and they were all boys I didn’t think she’d stick with it. But she loves it. I’m very proud of her, she’s doing really well. Her grandad Nicky Gray was a boxer so maybe it’s in her.”

Casey says she doesn’t mind the lack of other girls. What are her best punches? “My jab. And my right hook.”

These are just some of the shots 14-year-old Mark Harvey unleashes. “I can get my anger out on the bags,” he says.

And on Charles Shepherd. The former world champion dons the body protector and everyone launches into him with body shots. Charles can’t help wincing when the big boys have their turn.

At the end of the session, flooded with endorphins, discovering physical and mental strength, some of the children pose for pictures with Charles and his title belts.

“It’s getting kids off the streets,” he says. “Boxing changed my life forever when I was their age. It gave me a purpose.

“When I was boxing I had fantastic support from Cumbria. Giving something back feels brilliant. It’s not about making good boxers. It’s about making good people.”

For class times and more information about Champ’s Camp visit http://champscamp. wordpress.com