NAM YANG HOVE BRANCH OPENS:
In May 2021 Nam Yang Brighton opened their doors to their new full time Martial Art and Combat Sport centre in Hove Methodist Church, Portland Road, Hove. It all started as part of a collaboration with Hove Methodist Church, Brighton Table Tennis club(BTTC) and Stay Up Late. To build a community hub, along with the already established Food and Friendship and Chomp HMC.
How It Started
Andy Lowe, the head minister for Hove Methodist Church, was helping with negotiations with another venue for Stay Up Late and BTTC. Our three organisations had all discussed the possibility of all working out of the same venue after the BTTC ran a fantastic course called ‘Building a grassroots community’ during the Covid lock down. And we all thought what a wonderful opportunity for building a community led space that could be.
Almost immediately we could tell that all our organisations were on the same page with our core values and our social aim and what a wonderful fit it would be for us to all be under the same roof. From the offset the Minister and staff at HMC were very excited about the idea. The next point was to speak to the church congregation, and get their approval. We were amazed by the reception we received and the open mindedness of the fabulous team who run HMC as well as their community and congregation. All the organisations came together and for Nam Yang and Stay Up Late, HMC became a full time home.
What we do at HMC
Now, we run classes 4 nights of the week for both children and adults and we teach sessions as part of our outreach program during the daytime. With K1 Kickboxing, San Da, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Little Tigers class and Junior sessions running, we have an already busy schedule. Daytime and evening sessions both available as well as one to one and small private groups sessions available.
With such a wonderful venue now available to us we are delighted to be offering regular K1 Inter-club competitions and national squad training sessions for the Great Britain Savate Federation.
We have built some fantastic partnerships along the way. Over the school holidays we have started running sessions alongside Chomp, a wonderful organisation working with marginalised groups and low income households. We have also started offering weekly sessions for the luncheon club run by the brilliant Food and Friendship.
All in all, it has been the most amazing experience to get to know so many fabulous people and build so many amazing partnerships with so many fantastic organisations. Not to mention a wonderful full time Martial Art and Combat Sport centre for Nam Yang to provide our community work and excellent classes now to a whole new area of Brighton and Hove. We are delighted to be part of this great community.
