A vibrant mural representing the seven sacred teachings welcomes visitors into the new space for the Spirit Horse Initiative.
In the boxing gym, Henry McKay brings those teachings to life.
“Every week we try to go through a different sacred teaching,” McKay said. “Those teachings are kind of like a guideline for people to try to live a good life, a good, balanced life…so, it’s very important to teach those teachings to our youth.”
This week that teaching is honesty, represented by the sabe.
“Boxing is a very hard sport to do sometimes, so knowing your boundaries and your limits is being honest with who you are,” McKay said. “But then also wanting to kind of push them, to better yourself.”
Making space for youth
Matt Davidson founded the Spirit Horse Initiative to help at-risk youth get on a better path.
He uses an action therapy model to engage them in activities and connect them to their community.
With the help of the city’s Building Safer Communities grant and generous donations, the space is now home to a music production studio and boxing gym.
In the corner of the production space sits a wooden skeleton of a soon-to-be soundproof practice room.
“Every day we plug away at it and try to make it turn into something beautiful,” Davidson told APTN News of the music studio. “We have had artists come in here already and youth to record and learn the programs.”
Getting to the root of the issue
In Winnipeg, youth crime has seen a notable increase over the past few years.
According to the Winnipeg Police Service’s 2023 Statistical Report, youth crime rose by 23.1 per cent over 2022, and 14.3 per cent over five years.
Davidson believes offering youth guidance and programming is crucial to reducing those numbers.
“They haven’t been jaded, you know? Once you’ve been jaded by life, it makes it incredibly difficult to transcend and heal past a lot of those things,” he said. “To hone in on the youth, to hopefully make sure they don’t have to experience the things that some of us have experienced, that is where my passion and energy needs to be.”
Mixing physical activities with teachings, youth in the boxing program learn that movement is medicine.
“Everything is all connected, right?” McKay said. “They can work on their physical and emotional self here, and then that just betters everything else.”
Currently, the initiative hosts the boxing class once per week. In the future, McKay hopes to offer drop-in programming at the space.
