AN innovative multi-million pound initiative has received a huge boost with the appointment of ten mentoring co-ordinators.

Hundreds of people from Teesside applied for the posts with the Connexions Tees Valley's Kick Start project, which are designed to help drug users, prostitutes and young offenders get their lives back on track.

The £9.7m project, including £4.3m of European Social Fund (ESF) money, is designed to encourage and support young people in the Tees Valley's most deprived communities and will create a total of 52 jobs.

The mentoring co-ordinators will be working with a team of personal advisors to identify and work with young people who are not in education, employment or training, and those who might be at risk.

The five main districts of the Tees Valley: Darlington, Stockton, Redcar and Cleveland, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, will all be covered by the scheme, which will last for two years and is expected to reach 2,400 people.

Jen Butters, mentoring manager, said: "They play an important role in the delivery of the Kick Start project. Selected from a vast number of applicants, they are the key to really changing the lives of young people from some of the most deprived parts of the Tees Valley.

"Mentoring is all about helping someone to make positive changes in their life, which will aid them to form and achieve aims and aspirations. We like to think of the Kick Start project as a type of scaffolding that we build up around these young people, which we gradually remove as the individual becomes more able to move forward alone."

Chief executive, Fiona Blacke, said: "There are a great many talented youngsters in the Tees Valley and this project will go such a long way towards nurturing that talent."