A charity that gives vulnerable homeless youngsters a bed for the night hopes to attract more multi-cultural volunteers from the city, thanks to a cheque from the Telegraph & Argus's parent company Gannett.

Bradford Nightstop will use the £900 it was awarded from Gannett's Charity Foundation to reach across the city's ethnic communities - especially Asian and Afro-Caribbean - and spread the word about its good work.

The charity's support, development and education worker Mary Hatcher said part of the cash would be used to print new leaflets encouraging more hosts from ethnic backgrounds to come forward.

This year, Bradford Nightstop has seen an increase in the number of young people from different ethnic backgrounds, but predominantly Asian, seeking its help.

Out of the 297 requests for beds it received, 30 of them were for Asians. The charity is in constant demand but only has 12 host families at the moment willing to open their homes to young people, aged 16 to 25, who have been vetted by support agencies.

The hosts, who are given training and are paid expenses, provide one night's accommodation, a meal and a listening ear. Bradford Nightstop also plans to use some of its Gannett cash to provide each host family with a prayer mat for Muslim stop-overs.

The Bradford charity is one of 44 nightstops in Nightstop-UK's national network. The Shipley-based head office has also just helped set up a similar project in Australia. Miss Hatcher said: "Getting the cheque is absolutely brilliant. It will help us reach across Bradford's whole diverse community and hopefully bring in more volunteer hosts."

T&A editor Perry Austin-Clarke said: "Nightstop do a fabulous job and they deserve their work to be more widely known.

"I'm really pleased that our charitable foundation was able to support their efforts and I hope it will help them to go from strength to strength."

Gannett has awarded nearly £2.5million to charities across the UK since it was established three years ago.

The cash is awarded twice a year, in March or April and again in December.

The Foundation supports projects which take a creative approach to issues such as education and neighbourhood improvements, youth development, cultural enrichment and support for disadvantaged people.

Anyone interested in finding out more about Nightstop should ring (01274) 776888.