With help from the Mosque the club has always had a regular attendance of young people from the local community. Fifteen months on the young people are very keen on the sport and there have been massive improvements in skill, technique and discipline. The team at BWCT and local club Bolton Judokwai have been inspirational in delivering the session at the Mosque.
To bring in an element of competitiveness, project coordinator Nicol Meredith and Bolton Judokwai organised a competition were young people from the Mosque and local club came together to compete against each other. The project and competition has proved a great community cohesion initiative with young people from the Mosque all from the Muslim faith group coming together to participate and compete against other faith groups such as Christians and Hindus.
Another barrier within Bolton is the lack of young Asian females participating within sport but through research and hard work the Mosque club has eight young females who are regular participants and took part in the competition. As a result of the work, the project coordinator believes a clear exit route for young people has been made by working in partnership with Bolton Judokwai where young people from the Mosque can now attend and become regular members.
Bolton Wanderers Community Trust organised the first local Judo Mosque competition. The event was part of the new Premier League 4Sport initiative. For the past seven months Ghosia Mosque in Great Lever has been hosting a satellite club of Judo with an average of 50 boys and girls aged between 5 and 15. With this being a brand new club set up as part of the initiative within a mosque, none of the young people had ever experienced Judo.