A KEIGHLEY group has won a £120,000 Children in Need grant for holiday and after-school activities across the town.

Highfield Community Association will spend the cash on disadvantaged youngsters in deprived neighbourhoods over the next three years.

BBC Children in Need this week announced a grant totalling £119,822 for the association, which is based in the Highfield Community Centre on Drewry Road.

The association will provide children and young people with creative play activities in a safe environment to help reduce anti-social behaviour, improve emotional and physical well-being, and increase the youngsters’ confidence and self-esteem.

Children in Need said Highfield had benefited from the first funding round of the year, which brought the total money invested locally by the charity to more than £2.2million.

Fazeela Hanif, Strategic Development Manager at the Association, said: “We’ve been funded by BBC Children in Need now for the past 10 years and it’s fantastic news to hear that this funding will continue and enable us to reach some of the most vulnerable young people in our community.”

Highfield Community Association recently won a £200,000 Big Lottery Fund grant to spend on projects to improve the life chances of young people across Keighley Central ward.

It also won a £9,000 lottery grant to support local women experiencing isolation or mental health issues.

Isabel Farnell, northern head at BBC Children in Need, hailed this week’s grant awards to groups such as Highfield Community Association as “fantastic”.

She added: “Over the coming months, these projects will work with disadvantaged children and young people in local communities to make a tangible and lasting difference to their lives.”

The Children in Need’s Chief Executive, Simon Antrobus, thanked the charity’s supporters, whose fundraising had enabled it to provide cash for projects working with disadvantaged children and young people in communities across the UK.

BBC Children in Need awards grants at seven points during the year and funds two types of grants, both of which are open to new or existing applicants.

A Main Grants Programme is for grants over £10,000 per year to support projects for up to three years, while a Small Grants Programme supports projects for up to three years, and includes grants up to and including £10,000 per year.

Both of these programmes are currently open to applications.

Also running this autumn will be Curiosity, a new partnership with Wellcome, which awards grants to organisations using inspiring science activities to create change for disadvantaged children and young people.

Visit bbc.co.uk/pudsey/grants for information on how to apply for any of the grants.