Empty homes could be renovated to house the increasing number of homeless Asian youngsters in Keighley.

Young people from ethnic minorities would be involved in rebuilding and managing the eight houses.

Mera Makhan, which means 'My Home' in Punjabi, is being set up by local agencies including the housing advice service Key House. The Single Regeneration Budget has been asked to provide more than half the £612,000 cost of providing homes for 16 youngsters over the next four years.

The SRB partnership board this week deferred a decision on the proposal to hear more details of costs and what training would be provided.

The current plan calls for Keighley College to train up to 36 young people, and extra funding to come from charitable trusts, rental and the government's New Deal.

Key House has seen a steady rise in the number of Asian youngsters declaring themselves homeless - 21 in the last year. Co-ordinator Jackie Coutts says: "This represents an increasingly pressing need, especially in the context of a community that often seeks to resolve such issues from within."

Jackie says participants would receive training in building and housing management skills, improving their job prospects, and some will be employed by the project. Others will pick up office skills.

Agencies involved in the project include Keighley Asian Women and Children's Centre, the Racial Equality Council, Bradford council's youth service and Manningham Housing Association.

More teenagers on council-housing estates and Asian girls are to be urged to join the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.

They will join dozens of other young people in deprived areas of Keighley who start new hobbies, do community work, and take part in outdoor pursuits. SRB bosses have granted £29,000 so the award scheme can be extended for the next three years in Keighley. The scheme has proved particularly successful among young Asian men living in the central areas of town. Organisers say it helps young people aged 14-25 improve their quality of life while getting involved in their community.

The scheme, with its personal development programme and range of opportunities, helps improve participants' self-confidence and increases their job prospects.

SRB cash will enable neighbourhood Duke of Edinburgh groups to be co-ordinated from a central office and training centre at Holycroft. Other groups will be encouraged to help the centre develop by using it as a theatre and workshop for art, drama, music and dance. The Girls' and Young Women's Project in central Keighley will link up with the award scheme to cater for young Asian women.

A bid by the Children's Society for £100,000 to fund parenting and anti-bullying work with Asian youngsters has been turned down.

SRB board members were concerned because the society had not secured matching funding from other agencies.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.