A SCHEME which encourages young people to give a helping hand in the community has been awarded a major Government grant.

The Millennium Volunteers project, based at Northallerton College, was given £178,000 to allow it to continue for another two years.

The cash means the project can be expanded to cover the Hambleton district, stretching from Great Ayton to Easingwold, and double its staffing to three full-time posts.

Set up two-and-a-half years ago, the scheme became so successful that organisers eventually ran out of places and had to turn away people wanting to volunteer to help.

Millennium Volunteers was set up by Roz Elders, who is leaving the college this week to prepare for her summer wedding.

Miss Elders, together with Andy West, lifelong learning manager at the college, put in the bid for extra funding. "We pointed out that if the 280 volunteers had been paid for all their hours at the national minimum wage, that would have been more than £100,000. In the end they gave us all we asked for," she said.

College principal Jennifer Slater said: "The renewal of the scheme is a tribute to the way Roz organised the project. Her approach has made the scheme one of the more successful of its kind in the country."

Miss Elders' successor, Mary Dodman, from Durham City, takes up the post after Easter.