Belonging Starts With Inclusion: Lessons From A Local Women’s Boxing Course
Learnings from a local, women's boxing course.
Date: 8 March 2026 Author: Bethany Brown
Zarka was just 16 when she first set out to create a physical activity space for girls. Having experienced cultural and religious barriers herself, she knew something was missing from her community and wanted to address that gap.
The Agency is a Southampton-based programme that helps local young people bring their ideas of change to life. Zarka was one of the successful agents whose joint project was funded in 2023.
The Agency was something my mum and a family friend suggested to me. I was reluctant to go at first because I thought it would be like school and I really didn’t want to do that. But I eventually decided to join and I’m really happy I did!
When I was researching The Agency, I noticed a cricket project from the previous year. It was run by a boy named Ishmael who was also a family friend.
In my interview applying for The Agency I asked my interviewer, Natalie, “was Ishmael’s project aimed at just boys? That’s what it seemed from the video.”
Natalie replied, “no, But I don’t know why no girls signed up.”
As someone from a religious and cultural background, I understood. So, I started thinking: how can I do something similar but make it accessible for girls?
I partnered up with another girl, Sharnay, who had a similar idea but focused on mental health. That’s a really big aspect – especially with insecurities because of what people post online – so I thought it’d be nice to combine our projects and desires together. That’s how we came up with the idea of ‘Sport With Support’.
It was all about staying true to the promises we made.
After being selected to receive funding, we made sure to create the most comfortable environment we could provide. We booked an enclosed area as Muslim and other religious women can’t play sports in front of men and we reached out to Active360 because we needed female only coaches. Even the photographer we hired was female. It was all about staying true to the promises we made.
Then it was about finding the right people. Because our target audience was teenage girls, we had to go to places where they were. Like a local Mosque which hosted girls only groups. Sharney also went into a girls only Catholic school and put up posters. The Head Teacher played one of our short videos – which covered what it was, what was going to happen and how – to two different year groups and from there we got 50/60 sign-ups.
I personally had to stop playing when I was younger. So, I got to see the version of me that I had given up on.
For 8 weeks, we hosted sessions every Saturday which lasted around 2-3 hours. Girls got to try basketball, football, badminton, dodgeball – anything they wanted to do. The hall was split into two so different activities could run at the same time. There was also a creation studio which was filled with wellbeing books and prompts. Each session we provided snacks and drinks to keep girls energised. And everything was free so that finances didn’t prevent anyone from getting involved.
We had 25-30 participants consistently showing up. Football was the most popular. It always got so loud! They’d be so competitive which was really special to see because I personally had to stop playing when I was younger. So, I got to see the version of me that I had given up on. My sister, who was 9 or 10 then, attended. And again, that was so special because she didn’t have to give up her passion for sports because of barriers. I had made it possible for her and other girls.
It was really important to me to make sure everyone felt respected, their religion was respected and their culture was respected.
The project worked because we understood people’s specific needs – why these cultural and religious barriers existed and how they could be overcome so girls could actually participate. It was really important to me to make sure everyone felt respected, their religion was respected and their culture was respected. Making sure I hadn’t promised something that I couldn’t live up to.
If I saw someone trying to enter the building, I went over and explained this was a female-only space and we had it booked. I was really trying to stand by what I said so everyone could feel like they were in a safe space.
After the 8 weeks ended, I got an email from Will at Active 360 asking if we’d be interested in keeping the project going. We’d had Active360 coaches during the project. and they clearly went back and spoke about it – how well it went and how everything was done.
I created a presentation with photographs from the session, statistics of how many participants there were and what backgrounds they had and presented it to Will. A couple of days later I received an email saying, ‘I would be happy to give you permanent funding’. When I saw the word permanent, I was like, oh my gosh, my legacy is basically going to stay in Southampton forever.
From then on, I designed the sessions professionally, in meetings and one-to-one sessions with Taylor and Vicky from the Active Me 360 team. We talked about how we wanted the sessions to run and where. Then in September 2025, we held our first session.
Don’t give up on something you’re passionate about.
We want to keep evolving. So, we have spoken to participants and asked what they wanted to do next, and so many people said swimming. So Active360 are looking at how we could make that possible. I am a university student now as well; with my timetable we’re working around that, but we’ll carry on.
Don’t give up on something you’re passionate about. This project opened up so many other doors, genuinely so many other doors. I’m part of a research group for University of Southampton and I work for Testlands Hub doing workshops for young people in Millbrook and other holiday clubs. I’ve got so much going on just because I said yes to one thing and didn’t give up.
Helping us tackle inactivity to boost health and happiness
