£700,000 for teenage volunteer groups

York was selected as one of five national pilot areas to develop Community Action and volunteering among 14- to 16-year- olds until March 2011, and was awarded 1.38m to develop the project in the city.

Half of the funding will be distributed directly to a wide range of organisations and individuals in three rounds.

York Council has already handed out the 276,000 available from round one to a number of city-based organisations which applied for support for specific projects.

Eleven groups were allocated money, including York Boxing Club, Friends of St Nicolas Fields and the Princes Trust.

The second round has also closed for entries, though a decision on the successful candidates has yet to be announced.

Now other organisations are being offered the chance to bid for money in the final round, which will be open to applications until late August.

The assistant director for adults, children and education at City of York Council, Paul Murphy, said: "We were delighted to receive such a large number of high quality applications for the first round and hope to receive bids of a similar quality for the next two rounds."

Round three, which is the final round, closes on August 27.

To qualify for consideration, groups seeking funding must have activities which involve children aged 14 to 16 either living or going to school in York; engage with young people from hard-to-reach groups; have appropriate safeguarding arrangements and abide by equality and diversity principles.

More details are available from project manager Mik O'Connell, at mik.o'[email protected]