The kindest deed spoke volumes for Adam Woodhouse.

When 13-year-old Conor Lister emptied the contents of his pockets on to Adam’s desk, it brought home the importance of the young people’s project he coordinates on Bradford’s Holme Wood estate.

Conor’s kind deed kick-started the campaign ‘Conor’s Coins.’ The aim is to raise sufficient cash to keep The Edge project going into the foreseeable future.

While The Edge has secured funding for another year through the Rank Foundation, their bid to Children in Need, the charity which funds Adam’s post as a senior youth worker, was unsuccessful.

In two weeks, Adam will learn whether his role will continue, but he’s certain he’ll stay as long as his savings will allow him.

Conor’s £1 pocket money, along with donations from the Holme Christian Community – the nearby church where the now retired vicar, the Rev Alan Evans, came up with the idea to launch The Edge more than a decade ago – are much appreciated.

Ideally, though, they need a long-term investor to secure the project’s future, otherwise the services they offer could be ‘severely affected’ according to Adam.

He recalls Conor coming in to the project. “He knows me because his brother and cousins attend quite a bit and he attends the drop-in occasionally.

“It is unbelievable and it makes you understand why you are doing the work.”

Conor’s proud mum, Gayle, says Conor earns his pocket money helping around the home.

“I did it because I don’t want it to close down,” says Conor. “It’s a good place to go and it was to help Adam keep his job. If it closes down young kids won’t have a place to go.”

Located in a parade of shops in Broadstone Way, the project is visited regularly by the young people. Like many of the Holme Christian Community’s projects, it also brings Hope.

A group of young people chat around the snooker table; others tap away on computers demonstrating how the Edge affords them leisure opportunities they may not have at home.

Young people can also seek advice here and support whether it be relating to school or preparing them for employment.

“They can do their CVs or go on Facebook because a lot of them haven’t got the internet at home,” explains Adam.

“Apprenticeships are big at the moment and we help them fill in application forms and do references for them.”

The Oxley family, 15-year-old Coran, 13-year-old Billy and 12-year-old Courtney, receive help and support through the young carers’ service The Edge runs in partnership with the childrens’ charity Barnardo’s.

The siblings help to look after their mum, Michelle, who has multiple sclerosis.

“We go to the shop, to the post office and tidy up,” explains Coran, winner of last year’s Outstanding Achievement Award in the Young Citizens Awards supported by the Telegraph & Argus.

Billy says The Edge is not only important to them, but to the estate. “It is very important because it helps the community and it helps people out.”

Fifteen-year-old Blake found friends through The Edge. “It’s good because I’m not from around here,” he says.

Adam hands me hand-written testimonies from other young people who have benefited from The Edge.

“I don’t know where I would be without The Edge and Adam,” writes one young man. “I am sure I would have gone the wrong way in life if it wasn’t for Adam. He showed me the right path in life and it’s fair to say he has put himself through a lot to help youths in the area.”

For many young people, The Edge has given them a diversion from crime. For those excluded from school for fighting or other incidents, it’s a final chance when everything else has failed.

Adam talks proudly of one of the young people who came here through exclusion from school and is now a straight ‘A’ student. For him, the project unlocked his true potential.

“We work with 130 young people. This year we have had 600 visits to our centre. Although compared to the estate as a whole, it is not a big percentage, but it is a percentage that would have been on the street corners getting involved in things they shouldn’t have been if they had not been able to access our services,” says Adam.

The Edge opens from 2.30pm until 4pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The Young Carers group meets from 2.30pm until 4pm on Fridays.

For more information, or to support the project, call (01274) 689306.