UNEMPLOYED youngsters in Wyre Forest have the opportunity to gain valuable work experience while volunteering for a local charity.

Wyre Forest Nightstop’s Volunteering for Success programme works with unemployed young people aged 18 to 25 and aims to help them acquire vital skills to improve employment prospects.

Workshops take place each Monday from 11am at Stonham young person’s drop-in centre, Stonham Park Lane, Kidderminster.

Nightstop project co-ordinator, Judith Ford, said: “We are a local charity working with young people and the grant gives us the opportunity to offer them work as a volunteer which will improve their employment prospects in the future.”

The charity was awarded a grant of £12,000 from the European Social Fund to spend on making young people more employable which will help fund the sessions.

In order to be considered for the grant, the charity was interviewed by representatives from Worcestershire Community Foundation.

Service user Dean Halford, 19, also attended the interview to explain what Nightstop has done for him.

He said: “If it was not for Nightstop I would be on the streets or in prison. They helped me when I needed it and now I want to give something back.”

The charity works with homeless young people to provide emergency accommodation and advice. It is based at Connexions, in Kidderminster Youth House on Bromsgrove Street.

For more information, contact Judith Ford on 01562 820110 or email wfnightstop@btconnect.com