A BRADFORD-based family support service has landed a lottery grant of more than £300,000.

Home-Start Bradford has its headquarters in Thornbury but will use the £309,838 award to carry out a five-year programme in and around Keighley.

It will provide a family support service for parents with children under five years of age who require emotional and practical support.

Melanie Roberts-Saunders, scheme manager at Home-Start Bradford, said: "This funding is extremely important for us.

"For a couple of years we've been working on establishing what needs to be done in Keighley but we didn't have the funds to cover the Keighley area.

"Our trustees committed to finding this money to enable us to support families in Keighley and luckily this has paid off."

She said the cash would be used to recruit and train volunteers from Keighley district who will go on to help vulnerable families with young children.

"These are families who may be undergoing all kinds of personal issues such as illness and disability," she added.

"The volunteers will work with the families within their own homes and also help them gain access to local facilities.

"The work will take place over the next five years. We want it to be more than just a flash-in-the-pan type of initiative.

"It will be conducted within Keighley constituency. There is a lot of need in Keighley Central and Keighley West but there are also pockets of need in more rural areas."

Other awards in the Bradford district include:

Keighley Area Sports Association which has received £10,000 to fund maths-based learning sessions for young people and parents based around playing the game of cricket.

Longroyde Junior School in Brighouse hopes its £10,000 will help reduce hostilities between pupils from different cultures by paying for sports activities at lunchtimes and after school.

Albion Sports Juniors has £9,900 towards children's holiday activities and Cafe West in Bradford will use its £7,470 for similar events.

Pakistan and Worldwide Community Link Limited, also based in the city, received £10,000 for to provide advice around disabilities.

Cloudsbridges, which works with hard to reach communities, has been given £9,950 to deliver mental health therapy workshops and physical activities for local BME women.

Get2Gether (Mil Jul), a group set-up to tackle loneliness, will use £10,000 to pay for events aimed at all communities within the Bradford Moor, Bowling and Barkerend areas with activities focusing on social activities, peer mental health support and skills and support sessions.

SCARD, based in Brighouse, will use its £2,250 to provide a counselling service, for those who have been affected by road death or injury.

The BD10 Good Neighbours Project has £9,900 to implement a good neighbour scheme for older people.

Bradford's Woodfitness C.I.C has £10,000 towards making the company sustainable and appoint a session outreach worker.

BD4 Community Trust Limited has £9,378 for a series of reminiscence activities.

Lyn Cole, Big Lottery Fund deputy director for England, said: “These awards are all about supporting people to take the lead and make a positive change in their local areas.

"These excellent projects will help improve communities in the Yorkshire and Humber region through National Lottery funding.”

The awards have been made through the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All and Reaching Communities programmes, which supply cash to people most in need in England.