A CHARITY which involves young people in the arts has been awarded almost £100,000 over three years by BBC Children in Need.

The money will enable AIMCommunity to run a range of creative arts programmes to make a difference to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people.

The charity, based in Bournemouth and Poole, was awarded £99,809 over the three years after BBC Children in Need raised £32.6million last November.

AIMCommunity began eight years ago as a Salvation Army project in partnership with the Borough of Poole, providing music and mentoring projects for young people.

Since then, it has grown to support more than 400 children across 15 schools and in communities. In 2013, it became part of Frontier Youth Trust, the national youth work charity that also runs StreetSpace Bournemouth.

The BBC Children in Need grant, together with funding from the Valentine Charitable Trust, will provide eight targeted music, dance and theatre projects each week, alongside three full weeks of activities during the school holidays.

Richard Newland, founder and project manager of AIMCommunityFYT, said: “We could not create such a wide ranging creative arts programme for young people in the towns without the support of BBC Children in Need. This grant will go on to change the lives of so many young people and give them the support they need.

“Our hope is that this programme will enable young people to not just not fail, but to flourish and succeed; creatively, academically and in all areas of their lives. With this fantastic new programme coming into life, we are looking for volunteers to join us for an hour a week to help transform the lives, hopes and dreams of young people in our community.”

Anyone interested in supporting the new BBC Children in Need programme or the wider work of AIMCommunityFYT in Bournemouth and Poole is welcome to email the project via aim.community@fyt.org.uk

BBC Children in Need is currently supporting around 2,600 projects that work with children and young people facing disadvantages or challenges such as poverty and deprivation, abuse, neglect or any kind of disability.