A £60 million package is set to help young people in Blackburn and Darwen who have lost their way in life to get back on track.

Education and Employment Secretary David Blunkett announced the government funding for training in the 40 areas which have been identified as the most deprived areas in the country and which include the borough.

He said: "I am determined that no young person will be written off and no-one is beyond reach. If we lose young people at 16, we risk condemning them to a life of unemployment and poverty, with all the consequences of crime and fractured communities."

The cash will provide resources for local education authorities and voluntary community organisations to try out innovative ideas geared to getting young people back into learning and jobs.

Local authorities will bid for the cash for projects designed to appeal to young people, based on music, videos, computers, the Internet and sport.

Mr Blunkett said: "We will be providing help to those young people who really need it to make something of their lives - those who have truanted, been excluded from school, those who lack the support of their family, whose lives have been blighted by drugs or who simply did not get enough out of school and are disillusioned with learning."

Blackburn with Darwen's education and training chairman Bill Taylor, welcomed the move.

He said: "We cannot deal with educational needs in isolation from social and personal needs. They also need to be dealt with to tackle poverty and social exclusion.

"We welcome the extra government money which will help us achieve this." Father Jim McCartney, who runs a drop-in centre at St Anne's House, Blackburn, said he was pleased the Government was tackling social exclusion, highlighted by his charity THOMAS - Those on the margins of a society.

He said: "It's a positive response but I'm concerned that some people have not got the motivation to join projects like this.

"Some are so severely damaged in their childhood they take drugs to block the pain and it's very difficult to deal with that by the time they are approaching adulthood. We need to identify exclusion early on, from the nursery upwards."

The Neighbourhood Support Fund will be spent over three years from next month through local voluntary community organisations such as Community Service Volunteers.

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