Commissioner's fund to help youth group

Lichfield Christian Church youth group has been given £887 to provide games and activities to youngsters aged nine to 19 to help reduce anti-social behaviour and improve safety.

The commissioner Matthew Ellis is providing £500,000 in 2015/16 through the fund in the form of grants of between £100 and £3,000.

The fund is supporting locally-driven community safety activities in areas throughout Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.

Mr Ellis said: "The youth club offers a way for young people to keep off the streets by making new friends and being part of the community.

"It is important to engage with young people which mean we can intervene early to tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour."

Jeff Fry, youth group leader, said: "Lichfield Christian Church is grateful for the money provided from the people power fund. It has enabled us to purchase games equipment and fund events such as family Christmas parties and litter picks.

"We can see how the youth group has given youngsters a safe environment for physical exercise, helped relieve boredom and given them a welcome break from what can sometimes be hours of sitting inside.

"The faith talks have challenged them to consider what kinds of values they want to integrate into their lives and the money we have received has given the older youths the opportunity to volunteer at the youth group to go towards their Duke of Edinburgh award."

The people power fund is one part of £2.5 million of commissioner's community funding for 2014/15.

The commissioner's locality deal fund has allocated money to local areas through working in partnership with local district and borough councils.

Meanwhile, the commissioner's proceeds of crime fund is seeing 100 per cent of funding received by Staffordshire Police going back into local communities, through grants of between £3,000 and £15,000.

It is made up of money seized from criminals as Staffordshire Police continue to strip offenders of their assets.