A project offering disadvantaged youngsters the chance to learn sailing skills has received a £70,000 boost.

The National Lottery will today announce the Community Fund grant for the Adventure Youth Sea Training Trust, in Hartlepool, which works with Sea Cadets and other young people between the ages of ten and 16.

Instructors will use seamanship training to give the youngsters, many of whom come from deprived backgrounds, a sense of team-working, discipline and leadership during a three-day course.

Trainees will use yachts and motorised boats, which can also accommodate people with disabilities.

The Community Fund grant will mean the Trust can employ a skipper who will be responsible for training the youngsters as well as adult volunteers who will have the chance to become qualified instructors.

Chairman of Trustees James Atkinson, said: "This support from the Community Fund will be put to the best possible use in stimulating the ambitions of young people throughout the North of England using the techniques of sea-going training and activity."

The grant is one of 14 awarded to groups in the North-East totalling more than £1.6m.

Other Teesside groups to benefit include The Shaw Trust, which works with disadvantaged and disabled people in Middlesbrough and Stockton to access employment opportunities; the Child Deaf Project, supporting deaf and hearing impaired children and their families in Tees Valley; and the Boosbeck Community Centre, Boosbeck, east Cleveland, to renovate and refurbish the centre.