Children In Need: Black Country and Staffordshire fundraisers go spotty

Last year's charity spectacular raised nearly £2.9 million for 57 good causes and charities based in the region, which improve the lives of disadvantaged children.

Showing charity can make a real impact on people's lives, in Wolverhampton the New Park Village Tenant Management Co-Operative Limited was given a whopping £90,198 to provide an after school club for young people.

Activities there have helped young people's communication skills, confidence and life skills.

Nearby, New Park's Village Football Development was also boosted by donations in 2015.

A total of £56,270 was pledged so it could provide football sessions to children and young people.

All such charities and good causes were given a chunk of the £35.1 million raised across the country last year.

The Wolverhampton Youth Zone, also known as The Way, which received the most money of 14 groups from Children in Need, was given £91,521.

Based on School Street, it was given money to help disabled children try out a range of sporting and creative activities.

Good causes in Sandwell received the most money of all the local authority areas in the region.

There were 18 groups given a share of £975,552 last year.

Totals ranged from £5,474 given to Oldbury-based Paul & Barney's Place, which provides arts activities for children who are living in a refuge, to the £113,492 provided to boost the Murray Hall Community Trust.

The trust used the money to provide counselling to young people who were self-harming and improve relationships with their families so they could cope better.

The service helps people from Tipton, Wednesbury, West Bromwich, Oldbury, Smethwick, Rowley and Birmingham.

And showing the breadth of the projects which receive funding, the Skills Work and Enterprise Development Agency received £85,145 to help with funding for training and skills support to unemployed youngsters to get them back into training or work.

Another four charities were rewarded with funding in Dudley.

The What? Centre was given nearly £98,000 to provide counselling for young people so they could manage their mental health.

The Top Church Training Project was given £10,000 to help young people who had been homeless and another 21 charities benefited across Staffordshire and Walsall.

In Walsall, the Street Teams project works, which with boys and young men who have been victims of child sex exploitation in the past, was given £97,704.

The Frank F Harrison Community Association, one of eight projects to win funding in Walsall, was given money so young people could go out and have fun.

The association was awarded £97,477 to provide motocross riding and workshop sessions to help people in the area develop their confidence and help them get back into education. Stafffordshire Women's Aid was the largest recipient of help from the 13 good causes helped throughout the country.

The charity received £123,902 of the money pledged by Children in Need to provide help for youngsters living in a refuge, as well as supporting outreach and raise awareness programmes in their communities.

This year's telethon will start on BBC One at 7pm, without its long term and popular presenter, Sir Terry Wogan, who died in January.

He had been on its first broadcast 36 years ago and will be replaced by Graham Norton.

Fellow presenters Greg James, Ade Adepitan, Tess Daly, Rochelle Humes and Marvin Humes will also appear on TV alongside him. The charity's single this year has been sung by Craig David, who will release his ballad All We Needed from his album Following My Intuition to raise money.

The single is out now and is available to download from Amazon, Apple Music, Google Play Music, iTunes and Spotify. All profits from the single will go to the charity, with a minimum of 50p from each sale.

All We Needed features on David's latest album, which recently reached the peak of the official album chart in the first week of its release.

Other stars including Ricky Gervais, who will perform as David Brent, Eddie Redmayne and Little Mix will all be asking people to pledge more money.

For more information about Children in Need, visit www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/fundraisinghub