The Float Like A Butterfly (FLAB) Social Coach Leadership Programme (SCLP) took an important and significant step in its on-going development, growth and potential with the delivery of its second workshop at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

The workshop coincided with the 5th Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards, which is now the annual gathering of all who have been inspired by the lifetimes and legacy of Muhammad Ali’s sport activism and humanitarian work. This workshop also represented the Youth Charter’s ten years of partnership, development and activity that would see a ten-day trip go beyond the engagement, equipping and hopeful deployment of the social coach delegates who attended on 19th September 2017. The visit also included a presentation to an invited audience of appx 100 public, private, community and third sector organisations, who all work on the issues surrounding social, cultural and economic deprivation and disadvantage of our young people and local communities. The schedule also included four visits to the West End of Louisville and in particular, the Smoketown community that had remarkable similarities to Moss Side in Manchester. Many projects and programmes were visited and above all the people of Smoketown. The challenges and opportunities of regeneration and renewal were as evident and stark in their similarities reflected in the two southern and northern cities of Louisville and Manchester. The social and economic barriers to a good education and healthy lifestyle of wellbeing opportunity and hope have contributed to the disaffection, anti-social behaviour and gang related activity that have tragically seen so many lives lost in the respective communities. However, there is hope reflected in the intergenerational evidence that was apparent in communities trying to help themselves and with the right political and economic investment to bring about a better quality of life for its citizens, young and old.