Boys and men are learning to defend themselves against knife crime – a serious concern for many of the 30 people signed up to the Saturday afternoon session.
Among the crowd are 13-year-olds Cruz Onorato, Cooper Stevens and Bentley Buenen. The friends said they were aware of recent tragedies and wanted to learn how to fend off similar attacks. Mr Phillips doesn't pretend fighting off a knife attack is easy or a good idea. In fact, his main message is to get away if you can."We give them the tools to be … situationally aware so they can detect something that's not right, to remove themselves, if they're forced to stay there to try to pick up something to utilise to help them out and if all else fails, just some knife defence techniques," Mr Phillips said.
"There's shocking events, and they always receive a lot of publicity and a lot attention and that's absolutely warranted," BOCSAR chief executive Jackie Fitzgerald said. Youth workers build relationships with children and teens using the motto "on their turf, on their terms".