The story of Dr Marcellus Baz BEM is stuff of Nottingham legend. From a kid weighed down by poverty to the leader of an internationally recognised social enterprise, he’s lifted countless people out of disadvantaged backgrounds while inspiring others along the way. Having started collaborating more often with businesses and charities across the city, he made time in his busy schedule to chat with us about the credo behind his long career.
As a young man, Marcellus Baz constantly struggled with mental health issues, substance problems and clashes with the law, until one day, while running from police, he discovered a boxing gym, which changed his life.
“It was a level playing field where you could speak to people who you would never meet in your normal life. Teachers, lawyers and doctors would all come in and train,” says Marcellus. “I can remember doing sit-ups and learning about people who had jobs, went on holidays and could walk down the street without carrying a weapon. I was astonished and thought ‘Wow, I want to be like that’. Then your mindset starts to change and you want to be a different person.”
Marcellus has well-and-truly turned his life around today. Having founded and led social enterprise Switch Up along with the associated Mansfield and Nottingham Schools of Boxing, he’s one of Nottingham’s most successful and internationally recognised public figures, sought after for his expertise on social action and poverty alleviation.
I was first introduced to him at Uniting Nottz: a community event organised in collaboration with actor Vicky McClure, during which he brought together public figures to discuss Nottingham’s leading social issues. For me there were similarities between that event and the way by which he describes that boxing gym of his younger days. When I bring this up in our subsequent conversation, Marcellus agrees.
“I’ve seen the power of collaboration,” he says. “I’ve seen how magic happens when you bring people together from different walks of life to think about the same thing, and look at how we can make meaningful change in our communities. That’s how the magic happened in that gym, and it must have been a strong factor in giving me the confidence to do events like Uniting Nottz.”
Marcellus felt that the more times he attended the boxing gym, the more that magic emerged, as the sport became an outlet for internal struggle and a source of mental discipline. Then, on the verge of going professional, he was sent to hospital at 23 by an attack by four local gang members. Recovering from a near death experience, he was told that he might never box again.
His main desire then, he says, was to break the cycle and do something different with his life. After getting a sports therapy qualification from South Notts College and later volunteering at a sports centre, the nascent seeds of Switch Up as a social enterprise were sown.
“My manager put in a good word for me so that I could get a job at a sports centre on Carlton Road. I eventually became the manager there, because I understood the people there, and spoke their language: it was an area of deprivation, with a lot of people who were traumatised. I can remember looking at them thinking, ‘These kids remind me of myself’. They were asking me questions like ‘What’s it like to get a job? When do you get paid?’ - simple things, but they were intrigued. I thought to myself ‘What helped me?’ and tried to create an environment that would help them. That was the birth of Switch Up.”
I’ve seen how magic happens when you bring people together from different walks of life to think about the same thing, and look at how we can make meaningful change in our communities
Since founding Switch Up Marcellus has certainly got his flowers. In 2016, he was named Unsung Hero at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. In 2017, he received a British Empire Medal for his services to Nottingham. In 2022, Invest in Nottingham named Switch Up their charity of the year, after it supported 559 people in only a year. A big factor in this success was Switch Up’s Five Pillar Model, used to bring young people out of disadvantaged backgrounds.
“When people are referred to us, we look at five areas: first, have they got food, shelter, and do they feel safe at home?” explains Marcellus. “The second thing is beliefs and perceptions. If they believe that they can beat their girlfriend because they saw it happen to their mum, or if they have an altercation they’ll stab somebody, we need to challenge that. Third is therapy and support, supporting them to deal with trauma and providing support networks so that they can bounce back without relapsing. Fourth is skills and training, and fifth is employment training. If you don’t address the first three areas, then skills, training and employment won’t be sustained. It’s about addressing root causes. Not symptoms.”
The success of Switch Up’s Five Pillar Model has drawn international attention, with Denmark, Norway, Brazil and California asking for Marcellus’ views on similar programmes. For him this shows that tackling poverty from the grassroots, like he has, is the way to go in most locations.
“We need to address poverty and inequality. We need to look at the education system, the judicial system, the health system… there’s lots of things, and we need to look at how we support people with trauma; how we can nurture and cultivate lived experience and to be able to drive meaningful change. It’s important that Nottinghamshire starts to thrive, rather than survive, but these root causes need to be addressed.”
With his decades of experience in social action drawing his attention to these wider, large-scale issues, Marcellus felt driven to start organising events like Uniting Nottz, which have put him in dialogue with business and charity people from across the county. That particular event also kickstarted a new venture for him, as he launched a new, upcoming podcast, alongside his longtime mate Vicky McClure, called Under the Hood. The podcast, he hopes, will help the public to feel more connected with leading figures in Nottingham.
“We want to speak about certain issues. It might be mental health: I know a few people whose kids are on suicide watch, but with long waiting lists. If we’re talking to a parent who will be telling us about it, we can bring on someone from the health sector to advise them. That can give our community hope, and a light.”
Finishing my conversation with Marcellus, it becomes clear that, however much national and international attention his work might get, serving the local community stays at the forefront. He’s a very public figure, that much is clear, but still someone enduringly connected to the grassroots of social action, a rare quality nowadays.
“Nottingham’s a great city, a resilient city, a vibrant city, a creative city. When the going gets tough, we stand together. We are a city of social justice and moral compasses, which you see with Switch Up, which came from resilience, courage and strength,” he says. “I never thought that I could do this; I thought that I would be dead by 21. I had a criminal record, I couldn’t read or write properly. I never thought that this was possible, but anything is possible. And that’s what makes Nottingham Nottingham: when something needs to happen people come together and make it happen.”
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