YOUNG offenders released from prison are set to receive one-to-one counselling from professional people, to help them get their lives back on track.

Father Jim McCartney, who runs a Blackburn drop-in centre for drug addicts and the homeless, hopes to organise a volunteer mentoring scheme with the police, probation service and Blackburn College next year.

He said: "People often leave prison with lots of motivation but when they come back into the community the support isn't there for them."

Blackburn College will train the volunteers, who will then be paired with ex-offenders aged 18 to 24 for weekly meetings and advice at the St Anne's Centre, France Street, Blackburn.

Kerry Kirkwood, of Blackburn College, said: "Volunteers will be trained in counselling skills, listening skills and understanding the issues involved, such as drugs. We don't want people to start on something and then feel out of their depth, we want to train them fully so they feel confident." She said ex-offenders, referred through the probation service, may also be offered training as part of the lifelong learning programme in skills such as basic literacy and numeracy to help them gain jobs.

Father Jim said: "We want to stop them re-offending and build a new life. We have been working in this area for six years and we already have successes with people on drugs. Now we want to open it to a wider group.

"People do slip back but when that happens we want them to feel that it's not the end. We go the extra mile because it's often then that they start to feel hope and see new possiblities."

The first volunteers will begin training early next year on the unique Blackburn project run by the THOMAS charity (Those On The Margins of Society), set up by Father Jim six years ago.

The project will be funded as part of the THOMAS Reconcile project, which works with drug users trying to quit. Reconcile recently received £25,000 from the Salford Diocese' Church and Urban Tudor Trust and charity workers are preparing a bid for match-funding from Blackburn with Darwen council's Single Regeneration Budget.

Father Jim hopes to eventually expand the programme nationwide.

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