ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - July 31, the Roanoke Police Department’s RESET Team celebrated the opening of the new Champions of Change Boxing Program.

“The goal is to allow youth and young adults a safe space to come out and work out, to get rid of some of this stored up, pent up energy,” RESET Coordinator Lloyd Merchant said.

The project. years in the making, is finally taking off.

“Inspiration came several years ago, talking to one of the coaches, one of the local coaches. He had an idea about, let’s go in and see if we can have a space for boxing,” Merchant said. “So we actually started out in the YMCA, where we would go down there one night a week and practice in their space, and it eventually evolved to this.”

The program is an escape from the dangers some of the participants face in the

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