THE Hive youth zone in Birkenhead has launched a campaign to raise more than £12,000 for a dedicated mentoring project to help its most vulnerable and disaffected young clients and need Globe readers' help.

The ultimate goal of the proposed project is to help mentees to take control of their lives and achieve their potential.

It will focus on engendering increased confidence, increasing school attendance and attainment, improving behaviour, boosting emotional resilience and reducing self-harm, along with helping youngsters to develop aspirations and motivation.

As part of The Big Give's Christmas Challenge, the UK's biggest online match funding campaign, The Hive is appealing to businesses and individuals in the region to help it raise £12,500.

Anyone donating to The Hive’s cause during Christmas Challenge Week will see their donation match-funded, giving them the opportunity to make twice the impact with the money they pledge.

The Hive has set itself an overall fundraising target of £25,000 to support its mentoring project and has already raised half of this amount thanks to donor pledges and a 'Champion' funder secured via The Big Give.

Appealing to the public to help support The Hive's mentoring project plans, chief executive, Stuart Barnes said: "We understand that, at this time of year, there are a lot of good causes competing for support and we are very grateful for any donations we receive.

"What we can guarantee is that by supporting our mentoring project through The Christmas Challenge campaign, people will be actively improving the lives of young people who are facing a range of issues, right on their doorstep.

"We have already identified more than 30 young people who attend The Hive and are in immediate need of mentoring.

"Some of these young people have complex additional needs including autism and anxiety, and the current ratio of staff and volunteers to young people will not adequately meet their needs, as they require more one-to-one support in order to overcome these issues.

"The funding would enable us to provide a far more bespoke system of support for our most vulnerable members and would be a wonderful gift for us to pass onto young people here this Christmas."

The Christmas Challenge 2017 goes live at midday on #GivingTuesday November 28 and runs until midday on Tuesday December 5.

The minimum donation is £5 and all donations made during Christmas Challenge Week will be match-funded, effectively doubling the donation.

Online donations to The Hive's mentoring project can be made during this time via: https://secure.thebiggive.org.uk/donation/to/65247/26852/the-hive-wirral-youth-zone/mentoring-for-young-people