Lambeth (Parliament Politics Magazine) – A Lambeth fitness charity creates outdoor gyms from confiscated knives, providing young people with support and purpose to combat violent crime.
Founded in 2017, Steel Warriors creates callisthenics gyms in London using metal that has been moulted down from weapons that the Met has seized.
Through its free lessons, school visits, and gym program at Brixton jail in Lambeth, the organization, which has expanded to six gym locations, empowers at-risk youth.
Compound movements and body weight are used in callisthenics, a type of strength training, to work several muscle groups simultaneously.
According to Steel Warriors CEO Jenny Oklikah, who spoke to Southwark News, the team decided on callisthenics as their preferred sport because it is “attractive and exciting” for young people to watch someone who is skilled at it.
Oklikah, 54, said: “Callisthenics is great for functional fitness and great for goal setting.
Young people will set goals on what they want to achieve then take that ability to set and achieve a goal into other areas of their lives. For example, schools report many young people not getting on with mainstream PE or sport but getting on well with callisthenics.”
One 16-year-old boy who was excluded from mainstream education said: “As soon as I started Steel Warriors classes I knew I had found something I liked. I was always quite sporty but didn’t really get on with sport at my school.
I felt like it was for a different type of person. I felt comfortable here, like it could make me better and give me a focus. I look up to my coaches, Tayo and Colin. I see that I could be more like them.”
Steel Warriors needs 8,000 knives or two tonnes of steel for each of their gyms, which are situated in Lambeth, Haringey, Stratford, and Brixton. The organization, the first of its kind in the UK, shreds and melts the steel into shape after obtaining the blades from the police.
Oklikah said: “We get great results. 75 per cent of young people who come to our sessions say they feel better about themselves and more than 90 per cent say they learn new things.”
Alongside their public park gyms, Steel Warriors run mobile events in schools and a 10-week programme in Brixton prison.
Oklikah added: “This is a collaboration between Steel Warriors, the Metropolitan police and Brixton prison, and we are seeing very strong early results.
We found that younger men who are more attracted to callisthenics are less likely to be in prison educational and vocational programmes so we also provide access to educational support for the prison’s literacy and numeracy classes.
We’re also adding an awards ceremony at the end so that men who have excelled in this round can support men on subsequent programmes.”
Every week, callisthenics world champion and Steel Warriors coach, Simone Ming, leads sessions in Denmark Hill’s Ruskin Park on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Ming, 33, said: “The community we have grown here is unmatched.
We have a very mixed group of people coming to our classes from six-year-olds up to pensioners from all backgrounds. It’s a great place to really feel included in a great sport.”
Steel Warriors, which focuses on choosing areas with higher levels of deprivation, is expanding to Enfield and looking to open three new locations by the end of this year.
Ming added: “One of our members told me that he was on the wrong track but I encouraged him to come to one of the classes. He was able to build up his skillset and change his whole life around. This member is now a personal trainer and a coach for Steel Warriors.”
How has Steel Warriors measured impact on knife crime since 2017?
Since its founding in 2017, Steel soldiers has been measuring its impact on cutter crime primarily through the amount of knives that are melted down to create out-of-door gymnasiums. They track the number of knives seized by the police, with reports indicating that thousands of knives are taken off the thoroughfares each month.
For illustration, during one week in 2024, 400 knives were seized, and in the same period, nearly 1,000 cutter- related apprehensions were made. The charity also assesses impact through the number of spa locales established in high cut crime areas and their engagement with youthful people through fitness programs and community events.
While there are no homogenized or published quantitative studies explicitly linking Steel soldiers’ conditioning to reductions in cutter crime, their ongoing efforts are estimated through community engagement.