Sports charity gets £1.2m to help young people into work

Street League, which offers sport and work skills programmes to 16- to 24-year-olds, has been handed the money by the People's Postcode Lottery.

It aims to use the money to increase the number of young people it supports through its football, fitness and dance programmes to 1,685 this year, around 200 more than it supported last year.

People's Postcode Lottery head of charities Clara Govier said Street League's focus on combating youth unemployment "while improving their health" was a key factor in the grant award. 

Street League chief executive Matt Stevenson-Dodd said the money will help launch a new programme in Dundee, which has the highest rate of youth unemployment in Scotland. It will also help create a new fitness programme focusing on one-to-one support.

He added: "This generous funding from players of People's Postcode Lottery will allow us to increase our impact significantly."

Courses cover CV writing skills, interview training and work placement opportunities as well as support in gaining access to college courses and apprenticeships.

In 2015/16 more than half (55 per cent) of young people who found work stayed in their job for more than six months.

This grant follows £600,000 funding from the People's Postcode Lottery in December last year. And in 2014 Street League was awarded £600,000 by philanthropic organisation Impetus-PEF as part of a two-year investment in the charity.