A FULL-TIME youth worker has been appointed by the Bere Alston Regeneration Partnership (Beregen).

Jen Potts will work in partnership with the Youth 2 Youth group in the Bere Peninsula.

The appointment follows the winning of an £87,000 grant from the Rank Foundation. It will enable BARP to fund her appointment for three years, working with the under 19s.

The grant also provides formal training for her in the form of a degree in youth and informal education from St George's YMCA College, based in London.

Jen Potts, who lives in the village, previously worked at the City College, Plymouth, as a training officer in entry into employment and had been helping run Youth 2 Youth part-time for the last three years.

The youth group is currently operating in the former St John Ambulance hut in the centre of Bere Alston and has around 20 young people aged between 13 and 19 involved.

It runs activities on Monday and Thursday evenings and hopes to include extra meetings on Tuesday evenings soon.

One to one sessions are provided by Jen Potts, giving help in issues such as housing, drugs, alcohol, sexual health, job hunting and CV development.

Throughout the summer holidays Youth 2 Youth will be providing trips including quad biking, surfing, climbing, break dancing, T-shirt design and more.

Work is soon to begin on construction of a two storey annexe to the parish hall after five years of fundraising by Beregen and when complete this will enable the youth group to conduct many activities in the purpose-built development.

On top of the childcare centre, there will be an IT suite and meeting rooms as well as the hall with a new kitchen available.

For more information see http://www.beregen.org.uk">www.beregen.org.uk or Facebook or Twitter as BeregenUK.