Downtown Boxing Gym Wins 2017 Impact100 Grant
The Downtown Boxing Gym was selected from among three finalists. The funds we’ll receive from Impact100 Metro Detroit will help dozens of our students learn to read, a gift that will last a lifetime. The intensive literacy intervention program begins this summer.
Women are a powerful force. The group Impact100 Metro Detroit is showing us just how powerful we can all be when we work together. One hundred metro Detroit women pooled their resources, each contributing $1,000 to establish a $100,000 grant. The Downtown Boxing Gym is truly honored and grateful to be this year’s Impact100 Metro Detroit grant recipient.
“Our purpose is to fuel transformation in our local community by uniting women in collective giving,” reads the Impact100 Metro Detroit website. “We provide an environment that’s inviting and rewarding, while giving women the ability to combine their money in order to make big contributions to local nonprofit organizations.”
The grant will fund an intensive literacy intervention program called Beyond Basics for 60 of our students. All of our students were tested and assessed; those with the greatest need were selected to participate.
“Some of our students have been through a six-week reading intervention pilot program already,” said Khali Sweeney, Founder and CEO of the Downtown Boxing Gym. “These guys tested below average, so low that they didn’t even have a score. Now, those same students who went back there and studied hard every single day without complaining, now they’re testing at a college level.”
This week, about 25 Impact100 Metro Detroit members and friends visited and took a tour of our facility. They also met with the students and delivered the first portion of the grant.
“These people are taking the time to pay for something that’s very important,” Khali told the kids who gathered around for the presentation. “Take advantage of it.”
Click HERE to learn more about Impact100 Metro Detroit. Click HERE to make an impact by supporting the Downtown Boxing Gym Youth Program.
