ORGANISERS of a project which has helped reduce youth reoffending on Teesside need more people to support its work.

The Justice Support Project, set up in 1993, uses volunteers to help young people move towards a brighter future.

Although it originally targeted young offenders, its work has spread to improve the "social health" of all Tees schoolchildren.

As well as reducing juvenile reoffending by 12 per cent every year, the project has advised other organisations, throughout the UK and abroad, how to set up similar projects.

The project is bidding for funding to extend its work for another five years, as well as introducing new schemes.

Since it began, the Justice Support Project has brought more than £1m to Teesside and has created jobs and trained volunteers to go into schools and to talk to youngsters on a one-to-one basis.

It has supported more than 2,500 young offenders to help them stay away from further crime and has worked with 25,000 secondary school pupils - but it is still reliant on external funding to survive.

Project coordinator Lynn Larner said: "There is always so much work to do and so much uncertainty around raising enough money to survive.

"Even after seven years of demonstrating our worth and justifying our achievements there are still those who appear unable or unwilling to accept that the Justice Support Project is a valuable local resource."

Among the services that the project wants to introduce are health, education and social development initiatives, as well as crime reduction and prevention programmes.

Ms Larner said: "Initiatives will provide guidance for young people leaving care, help young runaways to address their problems in a safer environment and support young people suffering emotional distress.

"Other programmes will help reduce ethnic tension, increase responsible decision-making, tackle anti-social behaviour and promote and provide recognisable benefits to young people who stop being, or do not become involved with, irresponsible or nuisance activities."

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