A NEW project to support vulnerable young people with mental health difficulties will be launched thanks to an ‘amazing’ funding boost.

Bolton Young Persons Housing Scheme has been awarded £10,000 by UK Healthcare Foundation after impressing the organisation with its work to help the homeless.

The foundation, which is based in Folds Road, has previously approved funding applications from BYPHS.

But the latest grant was signed off by trustees, who were keen to support a Bolton charity carrying out valuable work in the borough.

Maura Jackson, the CEO of BYPHS, said she was delighted by the donation.

She said: “The trustees had a meeting and wanted to support a local charity – and we were selected. It was as easy as that, which was amazing.

"They just wanted to contribute to what we are doing and said they had been following our work for a few years, since they last funded us.

“Their chief executive Stephen Pugh wrote to me to say they want to continue to support a local charity and they were really impressed with the work we have done and are doing for young people.”

And Ms Jackson says the cash will now enable BYPHS to address youngsters' mental health needs in a way they have not been able to before.

She said: “We are going to be using it to support a mental health project, as mental health is clearly a huge issue at the moment and is linked with homelessness, either as the cause or the result.

“It’s a huge issue for young people and we are using it to fund a project with mental health issues, which is about 60 per cent of the people involved with us.”

The help will include counselling, one-to-one support and group work, as well as some therapeutic activities such as art, gardening and cooking, to reduce isolation.

Ms Jackson added that there will also be a lot of ‘hand-holding’ to help clients access statutory support, for example through hospitals, and ensure they keep appointments and take prescribed medication.

“It’s all right getting services involved but they have to actually use them and engage with them and that can sometimes be a worrying thing for a young person,” she said.

And Ms Jackson added: “It’s unbelievable, to do this sort of work has been on our wish-list for about five years.

“We’ve wanted to do it for a long time and this has given us a chance to do it.

“We’ve been looking for funding for mental health support work for three or four years and at last this is it, it’s going to open the door to that.”

She continued: “We pride ourselves that we are not just a warehouse, it has to be more meaningful than that.

“And we want to make real progress – if we’re not tackling the issue we might as well just give them a bed and leave them to it.”

There will also be a lot of preventative work going on as well, to make sure young people don’t go into decline because they’re homeless.”