A youth group has received more than £100,000 from the Big Lottery Fund's Young Peoples' Fund to develop its services.

SURF (See Urself Reaching Further) works with young people in the Lidget Green and Horton Grange areas of Bradford.

It helps teenagers to access advice and guidance which helps them overcome barriers and increases their prospects of employment or reaching higher education.

The £118,433 Lottery grant will fund a two-year project to offer activities for young people to provide support and mentoring, training and education, homework and IT support.

SURF project co-ordinator Sirferaz Saddiq said he had noticed a gap in mainstream education for young people and some of the money would be used to employ a training and education co-ordinator to help improve young people's literacy, numeracy and IT skills. SURF was set up in 2002 by a team of young people.

Mr Saddiq said: "The Young People's Fund has given SURF the means to provide a comprehensive and important service to young people in an area of Bradford which has multiple levels of deprivation.

"SURF will continue to support and assist young people by removing barriers and creating opportunities to unlock their potential, so that they can make a positive impact on the local and wider communities and further contribute to active involvement, development and employment in society."

Councillor the Reverend Paul Flowers (Lab, Great Horton) has been involved with the project.

He said: "I think this is one of Bradford's more interesting youth groups, because it specifically tries to help to reach members of the community.

"It attempts to break down all the barriers that divide the city, with energy and creativity."

Richard Corbett, a Labour MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, said: "When I visited SURF I had no doubts that the scheme would go further. This grant will enable it to take forward a very worthwhile project which will be of great benefit to the community."

The Big Lottery Fund's Young Peoples' Fund awards cash to schemes helping to give young people a better future by developing skills and boosting self-esteem.

In Yorkshire four projects, including SURF, received a total of £411,963.

The other beneficiaries were Barnardo's Signpost Leaving Care project in Wakefield, Friends of Bent Green School in Sheffield and Talem Youth Forum in Dewsbury.

Vanessa White, Big Lottery Fund's head of Yorkshire and Humber, said: "All these projects are about giving young people a better start in life and providing the opportunity for them to go on and reach their potential."

e-mail: ali.davies@bradford.newsquest.co.uk