PUPILS from schools across Darlington yesterday kicked off a new anti-racism campaign targeting the town's youth.

Youngsters joined Darlington FC players at the Williamson Motors Stadium for the launch of leaflets aiming to help eradicate racism.

The borough council initiated the scheme, which will eventually see 5,000 leaflets delivered to secondary school pupils in the town.

The project involved a member of staff and two pupils from each school taking part in an anti-racism workshop.

The group developed ideas that were taken back into schools. Pupils then design the layout of the published leaflet.

Website details and contact telephone numbers for pupils who have experienced racial harassment were included.

Chris McEwan, the council's cabinet member for children's services, said: "The project enabled us as an education authority to make sure that the important anti-racism message was delivered to all schools.

"By involving the pupils in designing their own leaflet we also ensured that each school would have ownership of the message and that it would have the identity of the school strongly imprinted on it."