Schenectady Youth Boxing & Fitness Inc. is helping to prepare boys and girls and young men and women in Schenectady to play positive roles in their communities.  Working with young people from eight to 25 years old, Schenectady Boxing teaches lessons in self-discipline, commitment and responsibility.

Schenectady Youth Boxing and Fitness is an after-school and recreational program that offers a safe haven and supportive environment to inner-city youths and young adults.

Organized in 2004 by Vincent L. Kittle, a former U.S. Marine Corps boxing champion and long-time advocate for inner-city youth in the Capital Region, Schenectady Youth Boxing is a non-profit 501c3 corporation.

Boxing and fitness are our central activities. Our mission, however, is to help youths and young adults who are vulnerable to getting involved in gangs, drugs and other trouble develop the character and confidence that will ensure that they become productive members of the community. A founding principle of our organization is that physical well-being, moral strength, emotional health and a hopeful outlook can be nurtured simultaneously.

Thus, through boxing and fitness, we teach life skills, such as self-discipline and how to work successfully with other people. In short, we mentor. And we help youths and young adults make good choices.

One example of using boxing and fitness to serve another purpose is our daily requirement that students complete homework before beginning other activities.

Many of the young people we serve are at risk, by virtue of difficult circumstances where they live, of making a variety of harmful choices. Through relationships with the Schenectady County Probation Department, Schenectady High School, Northeast Parent & Child Society and other organizations, we seek especially to identify youths who have begun to head down destructive paths and who would benefit the most from additional stable adult relationships. By giving them an opportunity to belong to a healthy social network, we help them find a positive path.

Successes

We know from experience that youths who get involved in our program get on track at school and take more responsibility for themselves. With the nurturing guidance of our program, young people come to see that hard work, civility and a positive outlook do pay off.

Trevor Bryan provides an especially good example. Clearly headed in the wrong direction by age 14, when Mr. Kittle invited him to join our program, Mr. Bryan graduated from Bishop McGinn High School in Albany in June 2008 and then received a four-year USA Boxing athletic scholarship from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Mich., where he enrolled in January 2009.

Schenectady Youth Boxing is supported by a variety of contributors, including individuals, businesses, foundations and government entities.

Please call Vince Kittle at 518-377-1811 for information about visiting the Schenectady Youth Boxing gym and helping to continue its work.

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