A CHARITY for homeless young people has annouced plans to develop its services in Darwen after receiving a £22,000 cash boost.

Nightsafe is planning to closes its Woodvale flats facility and open four new premises in the town.

The charity, which has its main base in Jubilee Street, Blackburn, is bidding to improve support and services offered to help people aged 16 to 24 live independently.

The move, which is still in early planning stages, has been helped by the injection of a £22,500 grant from Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales through its Community Programme for salary costs, which guarantees the survival of Nightsafe until the end of the year.

Nightsafe manager Paula Kaniuk said: "The grant gives us some breathing space from fundraising to cover salaries.

"Instead we can devote our time to developing a new service in Darwen. Our aim is to provide semi-independent living to young people so that they can develop life and social skills prior to living independently."

The charity plans to close its Woodvale site, which has 16 flats, and open up four new premises including a property in Corncliffe Street for six tenants, with 24 hour support staff.

Paula said: "Some of the people we help need that little bit more support and guidance, and this move means we can provide that for them until they feel a bit more independent."

The charity's provision in Blackburn will continue unaffected.

Linda Sharratt, operations manager at Nightsafe said: "It's fantastic to get this money from Lloyds TSB. They've supported us before and the money allows us to carry on doing our work by plugging a hole in our budget.

"We're always looking for support and this money will allow us to definitely continue our services for the rest of the year."

The charity has provided an essential support network for young people in crisis since 1990, employs 11 full-time paid staff, six full-time volunteers and have many part-time volunteers from the Blackburn area.

The staff are needed to man 24-hour emergency shelters and projects including resettlement.

The charity receives the bulk of its funding from the Supporting People Grant issued by central government, and every year supports about 350 young people through the Nightsafe hostel, the Fusebox day centre and other training and activity programmes Yvonne Taylor, North West manager for the Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales, said: "When I visited Nightsafe, it was clear there is a real commitment to continued support to young people in Blackburn and helping them find effective solutions for their lives."