Case Studies

Project: Movement, Mentoring & Belonging

Location: Rushmoor/ Hampshire – Supporting young people from VIVID properties and wider communities

Charity: Turnstyle CIC

Amount secured: £5,000

About the Project

Turnstyle CIC exists to reach young people who are disengaged from school, struggling with emotional regulation, or facing social exclusion. Many are living in temporary or social housing, experiencing unnoticed adversity. This project focused on running accessible, group-based movement and mentoring sessions for young people across VIVID housing areas in Rushmoor.

LHC’s Community Benefit Fund allowed Turnstyle to deliver weekly group sessions combining boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and movement-based games with trauma-informed mentoring and guided conversation. Sessions took place primarily at Bohunt School as well as local community spaces, including boxing gyms, church halls, and parks - wherever young people felt safe and willing to meet.

Turnstyle’s approach meets young people where they are, literally and emotionally. Movement often opens the door to trust. Once they’re moving, young people begin to talk, reflect, and engage in discussions about their challenges and choices. The group sessions incorporated relatable topics like anger, fear, respect, and loyalty and created space for open debate. They delivered Turnstyle’s unique mix of lived experience, compassionate challenge, and deep cultural awareness.

Creating Social Value

Turnstyle’s mission is simple but thorough: to walk alongside those the world often walks past. They create safety through relationship building and use movement as a tool to unlock the mind, body, and heart.

Social Value Impact

The contribution led to considerable change for a number of participants, including:

• Over 70 young people engaged across a variety of weekly sessions, with 15 to 18 regular core participants. Attendance was voluntary. No incentives, just belonging.
• Young people described the sessions as a “safe place to breathe,” with observed reductions in agitation, verbal aggression, and isolation.
• Several participants re-engaged with school or college, citing Turnstyle as a key influence. One young man, previously excluded, is now back in mainstream provision.
• The sessions fostered connection and support among young people who often feel misunderstood or mislabelled.

This grant didn’t just fund a few sessions; it shifted a mindset. Schools now see the value, parents are reaching out, and  young people are turning up.

Benefits Delivered

• Educational re-engagement: Enabled several participants to re-engage with education.
• Improved mental wellbeing: Built a supportive network for young people who often feel misunderstood.
• Catalyst for funding: The impact of these group sessions has led to further investment from Bohunt School and others, who have now commissioned one-to-one mentoring for specific students. In this way, the LHC funded work became the bridge to more profound, sustained change.

Legacy and future plans

With further funding, Turnstyle aims to establish a physical base where movement, mentoring, creativity, and food come together under one roof. A home for those who have never truly had one. A place where young people can walk in and feel safe.

Turnstyle CIC’s vision is growing, and the LHC grant helped lay the first stone.

As Turnstyle grows, they are seeking new partnerships to extend this work into other LHC communities and VIVID properties. They welcome conversations on how they can continue to transform underused spaces into places of community, growth, and belonging.

Turnstyle’s founder, Pete O’Shea, leads much of the delivery. He has no formal qualifications but brings a lifetime of experience and over a decade of street-level mentoring. His voice resonates with young people because it’s real. His expertise is not just in theory, but in practice, shaped by walking with those suffering, not talking at them.

This project, like all of Turnstyle’s work, is not just about sport or youth work. It was about soul work. About being there, consistently, when others aren’t.

If you would like to learn more about our Community Benefit Fund, please get in touch with our team.