Hundreds of children will be taught essential skills for life like dealing with bullies and domestic abuse over the next two weeks.

Spearheading the Crucial Crew project is North Yorkshire Police, and up to 700 youngsters in their final year at primary school are expected to take part.

The project is in the Craven district and will include children from Skipton and the Cross Hills area.

It forms part of the Government’s Every Child Matters programme and brings together organisations to help the youngsters deal with life challenges as they get older and become more independent.

The project challenges the children to get to grips with real-life situations with issues such as drugs, bullying, domestic abuse, road safety, truancy, healthy eating and open water and fire safety.

It will also look at chat room and internet safety and crime and anti-social behaviour.

Chief Inspector Nick Warnes, of North Yorkshire Police’s Safer Neighbourhood Development Team, said: “This is a great way to educate young people on how to stay safe and what to do if they find themselves in a difficult situation.

“The sessions are fun and engaging and capture the children’s attention at an age when they are young enough to soak all the information up and old enough to understand the dangers.

“Our thanks go to our partner organisations and local sponsors who have made the events possible.”

Stacey Mitchell, community safety co-ordinator for Craven Community Safety Partnership, said: “This event is very much about close multi-agency working. We are very fortunate to have staff that are allowed to dedicate time and resource to this.

“In an area of low crime, we hope that this event contributes towards making our young people better citizens and becoming more respectful and thoughtful of the various experiences they will have throughout their lives.”

In addition to the police, the organisations involved include Craven Community Safety Partnership, Yorkshire Dales National Park, Craven Council, North Yorkshire Council, 4Youth, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Group, North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service, Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Craven Domestic Violence Service, YMCA, Northern Rail, British Transport Police, North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust.