The Azzim Dukes Initiative is our youth anti-gun violence boxing and creative arts program at Maleek Jackson Fitness Boxing Gym, helping kids cultivate their personal, athletic, and creative talents.
Reducing the incidence of gun violence requires interventions through all systems – health, the family, home, legal, public health, public safety, and community. We offer a proactive versus reactive response to Philadelphia's gun violence culture. Raising awareness of different options, cultures, and stress releases discourages participation in the gun activity and violence in our streets.
The initiative makes it possible for Philadelphia children faced with the possibility of gun violence to take weekly boxing lessons, redirect their focus, practice discipline, experience mentorship, and access and achieve positive community ties through the experience of art-making. Priority will be children living in the city with incarcerated parents or from single-parent households.
ADI is interactive boxing and creative art after-school enrichment programming for kids 7-17 years old. We offer the perfect balance of learning and play and strive for excellence from the start.
Why Boxing?
Maleek's most significant influence growing up was Muhammad Ali, and he spent his youth boxing at a Philadelphia rec center. He rediscovered his passion for boxing when he was imprisoned at 16. While serving his sentence, he trained in the art of the sport and learned the professional and authentic way to teach what he learned.
Why Art?
In school, Maleek's day ended with his favorite class – Art with Ms. Kattle. Her classroom was on the first floor next to the principal's office, where he spent the other parts of his day. Supported by Mural Arts Philadelphia, part of his eighth-grade graduation project was to create a mural on the outside school building wall. This mural serves as a reference point for the positive impact of art on his life. Azzim Dukes was also a student of Ms. Kattle's, who supports the Azzim Dukes Initiative today.
Why Art + Boxing?
Boxing provides the discipline, structure, self-belief, perseverance, and fortitude needed to face life's adversities. Art speaks to the creativity and individualism of a person. Combining these, we help children develop logic, motor, and even social skills. We've designed our boxing program and arts program to help encourage creativity and fun, using the most powerful thing of all to access their inner resilience – their imagination.