A HUSBAND-and-wife team are celebrating their tenth anniversary at the helm of a youth charity which has helped thousands of young people in Darlington and the surrounding villages.

Martin and Mel Stand moved to the area from the West Midlands ten years ago last month to run the newly-formed Darlington Area Churches Youth Ministry.

They became the town’s first all-denomination Christian youth workers and since then have worked with children in Darlington’s schools, providing lunchtime clubs, student support, and mentoring, developed numerous projects, run youth clubs, self esteem workshops, and are currently setting up a scheme called the Listening Post which enables young people aged 11-18 to have someone to talk to.

They do a lot of work with young people facing challenges at school and at home.

The pair have 50 years of experience in working with young people between them and as well as bringing up their two sons, they have become foster parents, taking in eight children at different times over the last four years.

Mr Stand is well known among pupils in Darlington for his entertaining assemblies, particularly during the Christmas and Easter celebrations.

The couple worked on a small youth project in the Midlands before making the move to the North-East.

“I always wanted to live in the North-East,” said Mrs Stand. “I had this idea of living on a council estate in Sunderland. We saw that this new project was being set up involving representatives from the Catholic, Methodist, Anglican and Baptist churches and that is how we came to Darlington.”

The couple work from a base in Bondgate Methodist Church and their numerous projects under the Ministry, which became a registered charity in 2010, include the Village Seeds Project, which employs a children’s worker who works alongside village schools in Barton, Croft, the Cowtons, and Hurworth, serving the local communities.

A Friday night drop-in for youngsters also takes place in Hurworth each week.

Mrs Stand said: “I love Darlington – it feels like home. It is such a privilege and very humbling to have worked with so many young people. We often bump into them now as adults and it’s so good to see them again, and to see them doing so well.”