A city charity offering emergency accommodation for homeless youngsters is the first entry in a prestigious community awards scheme.

Bradford Nightstop has been nominated for this year's Community Harmony Awards which highlight the district's most courageous individuals and organisations for their unflagging community work.

Nightstop project co-ordinator Bev Johnson put the charity forward for its dedicated drive to provide homeless youngsters with safe overnight accommodation.

Homelessness is a key problem in Bradford and Miss Johnson hopes the awards will raise the profile of the charity's work and boost awareness of youth homelessness in the district.

In the scheme, 16 to 25-year-olds are placed with one of Nighstop's ten volunteer families for a night until they find temporary or long-term accommodation.

In 2004 volunteers took 775 referrals from different welfare agencies and all but two were successfully moved on to temporary homes.

Miss Johnson said: "We provide a safe and secure place for them to stay that night. Many have fled violence so it's about giving them that safety gap. They get to have a bath, a meal and get to talk to someone too."

The hosts go through a selection process before young people are placed with them, and the young people are also risk assessed to ensure the placement works.

She said: "Youngsters of all cultural backgrounds stay with trained hosts. Therefore there is a cultural swapping of lifestyles going on. We also have hosts aged between 30 and 80 so a lot of intergenerational opportunities occur. Our host who is 80 started hosting last year and has just had 100 visitors so far."

The project, which operates from the Carlisle Business Centre, is one of 45 schemes across the country working under the umbrella of the national charity, Nightsop UK, which has its headquarters in Shipley.

The deadline for the Community Harmony Awards is March 31 and nominations are already streaming in.