The Clothworkers Foundation has made a £300,000 to Catch-22 and a £290,000 grant YMCA to roll out programmes targeting young people at risk of falling through the cracks.

The Catch-22 grant will fund a project called 'Engage in Education', which will provide intensive support for secondary school students who are considered at risk of exclusion. The project will be run in Manchester with an aim of working with 600 young people.

The YMCA grant, meanwhile, will fund three ‘Streetwise’ projects in areas of inner city deprivation – the North East, Midlands and South East London – and will target 10 to 25 year-olds who are not yet known to be ‘at risk’.

YMCA already runs a ‘Streetwise’ outreach programme in Sutton Coldfield which sees youth workers focus on known hotspots for young people to hang out and engage in anti-social activity.

YMCA England chief executive Denise Hatton said: "Many of our young people tell us that they have felt shut out from society or denied the opportunities which should be available to all – education, relevant training and skills suited to their individual aspirations.”

News of the grant follows comments made by minister for youth policy Nick Hurd who suggested that many schools were failing to give young people the necessary skills to succeed in the labour market. It comes in the same week as civilsociety.co.uk revealed that police had to be called to incidents at two separate National Citizens Service projects.