Roy Flowers started Flowers Fitness Club at Austin Boxing Club last August, but the idea for a program “to help the inner-city youth to get off the street,” Flowers said, started much earlier than that.
Flowers, who was born and raised in Austin, registered Flowers Fitness Club in 2021 after opening Flowers Unisex Salon, 5106 W. Chicago Ave., and hearing his community discuss aspects of physical and mental health that he wanted to work toward addressing.
“There’s a lot of high blood pressure, undiagnosed mental health and undiagnosed pre-diabetes in the community,” said Flowers, a licensed barber of 22 years. But he also listened to his clients talk about violence in Austin. “We discuss how to be part of the solution because a lot of people are a part of the problem, some are a part of the solution, and some just move away.”
On Tuesday, the Flowers Fitness Club program hosted State Rep. La Shawn Ford at Austin Boxing Club, 5915 W. Division St., as he presented the program with a $500,000 grant for its mentoring and violence prevention. To celebrate, the boxing gym hosted at least 100 people, but continued “business as usual,” Flowers said, with trainers coaching boxers, before Ford took a few minutes to present over a dozen boxers with achievement certificates for participating consistently since the business opened.
“People were walking in to sign up,” Ford said in an interview with the Austin Weekly News. “I want to do everything I can to help fund it because, for a long time, most of the push in the Black community has always been basketball.”
“We thank State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford for being supportive of the program,” Flowers said.
The grant will go toward Flowers Fitness Club’s rent, staff salaries, equipment and programs. Flowers and his wife, Nina Flowers, who handles the business’ paperwork, hope to start monthly financial literacy classes for young adults who attend the gym.
“You’d be shocked by the number of people, not only in the Austin community, I’m sure there are other communities as well, who don’t have life insurance or know how to start buying a house or even have a savings account,” Flowers said. He also has goals to bring in doctors to hold classes to talk about health.
Ford said Flowers Fitness Club plans to connect with schools, many of which he said have grants for after-school programs. Instead of playing board games and video games or having free reign of the gym, a boxing trainer could come to schools and teach students some of the basics.
Flowers Fitness Club currently has around 200 people enrolled, including children as young as five years old, teenagers and adults. Some of the older participants have fought in the Golden Gloves. The program offers free classes for children every Tuesday through Thursday at 6 p.m., and at 7 p.m. for adults.
But “it’s more than just boxing,” Flowers said. Flowers Fitness Club has a policy where its visitors can’t use their phones and requires students to have grades above a certain level. If grades slip, Flowers Fitness Club addresses the issue, talking and working with kids to solve it. This mentoring has improved many students’ performance in the classroom.
“They have the full attention of these young people,” Ford said of Flowers Fitness Club.
“They’re more focused in school, according to some of the parents,” Flowers said of his participants’ growth. One teenager, he added, stopped smoking marijuana because it hindered his cardio. “A lot of times when people take care of themselves from an emotional health and mental aspect, they tend to do a little better in life,” Flowers added, citing himself as an example.
“I made some mistakes in my younger days,” he said. But Flowers started recreationally weightlifting in the 1990s and, at age 51, has been an amateur boxer for nearly a decade.
“If we want to address violence in our community effectively, we have to make sure our youth have healthy outlets to expend their energy,” Ford said in a statement. “This boxing program allows them to learn the sport, meet new friends, and develop healthy living habits. I look forward to seeing them and the coaches working hard to help them and our community.”