HARLOW Charity Rainbow Services has received a grant from The National Lottery for £200,000 to help run their Youth Project for the next five years.

The project, which is run at the Rainbow Centre in Harlow, works with young people aged 14 to 18, who are not attending full-time school or are at risk of exclusion.

The project aims to reengage these young people with positive role models, whilst teaching them skills in carpentry and helping them to gain Gateway Qualifications.

They also reconnect the young people with their community, through activities and building woodwork projects for local charities. By doing this the young people learn useful skills for the future such as running their own small business, and can get involved with work experience, and apprenticeships.

Suhan Suleiman, Funding Officer at The National Lottery said: ‘It was a great honour to be invited to the Rainbow Youth Project launch! I got to meet some fantastic children already taking part in the project. I am confident that the grant from The National Lottery Community Fund will reach the young people intended and will be a huge success. Well done to Jason and the team over at Rainbow!’

Sharon Summerfield, CEO of Rainbow Services said: “We are hugely grateful to The National Lottery and its players for this very generous grant. This will help us to further develop our Youth Project to offer more young people more opportunities to build a better future.”

If you think the Rainbow Services Youth Project could help a young person you know, if you would like to volunteer with the project, or you are a local charity looking to have a woodwork project built, please contact [email protected] or visit our website: rainbowservices.org.uk.