A YOUNG community worker is among a handful of people shortlisted for a prize in a major new awards scheme.

Afrasiab Anwar, 23, is among 36 people to be nominated under the Whitbread Young Achievers (WYA) project.

The awards are run in partnership with the Home Office, National Centre for Volunteering, Sport England, CSV Environment, YouthNet UK and the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and aim to celebrate the achievements of young people nationwide who have made a difference to their community.

But Afrasiab will have to wait until the end of this month to find out whether he has made it on to the final shortlist as judges meet over the next two weeks to whittle the list down to four finalists in each category. The awards are for a Young Community Achiever, Young Environment Achiever and Young Sports Achiever.

Afrasiab, who lives in Burnley, was nominated in the sport category by Millennium Volunteers Co-ordinator Kay Lingley for his work coaching children as part of the Young Asian Children in Burnley project.

He began volunteering in June 2002, originally committing eight hours per week to the project, which focused on football coaching. When it ended last summer due to a lack of funding, Afrasiab decided to charge each child £1 and subsidise the rest of the costs himself. He has since built on numbers with the group growing from just five children regularly attending to over 30 children across three age groups.

The sessions are now a mixture of football and basketball coaching, since Afrasiab completed his basketball coaching qualification earlier this year. He has brought in the support of six other volunteers and linked into the Prince's Trust for funding to buy kits and pay for facilities.

If he doesn't make it on to the shortlist, he will receive congratulatory leisure vouchers worth £100.

The overall winner in each category will be announced at a special awards lunch in London on Wednesday, June 11, where they will receive £2,500 for personal and project development as well as £250 in leisure vouchers and 12 months' follow-up support. Three runners-up in each category will all receive £250 cash and £250 worth of leisure vouchers.