Olympic boxing silver medalist Amir Khan was at Ewood Park, Blackburn to support a new project for black and Asian groups.

The 17-year-old wonderkid was in town to launch Blackburn with Darwen's community leadership project .

The project aims to help the borough's minority groups have a voice by creating new community leaders who will work with the council to put across the views of their group.

The government-funded project will be spent teaching black and Asian volunteers how to take on the role of community leader. Cash will also be handed to community groups in the form of grants.

Amir said, "I think community leaders are a good idea because they will give us all a good push.

"The reason I got so far was because I had such good support from my family and from the community.

"If everybody can be so supportive to others in the community then we could achieve a lot."

"Leaders can help get our message across and they might just bring us together as a community."

More than 20 people have already signed up to be groomed as new community leaders. Their aim will be to work alongside elected members and not to replace them and complement the work of councillors.

They will be working on specific issues affecting borough residents including regeneration, crime and health to residents.

The new leaders will represent the views of their community group and will be asked their opinions by the council when making big decisions.

Coun Dave Hollings said, "Skills development will be anything from financial skills to business planning or leadership skills so they can act as consultants to particular groups.

"The aim is to bring in new thinking, challenge ways of working and enable these leaders to pull groups together to be effective and efficient."

To find out more about the community leadership project call team leader Iqbal Patel at Blackburn with Darwen Council on 01254 585286.