Royal visit to young people's project

Thursday 29 January 2009

On Friday 23 January, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal visited the Life Routes Centre of Excellence at Pit Stop, Halifax to meet with young people from the center's alternative education and youth work projects.

Founded in 1991, Pit Stop aims to motivate young people from all walks of life to increase educational attainment, job opportunities, self-esteem and confidence, and develop social skills.

HRH Princess Anne was given a guided tour of the centre and presented young people with their Life Routes certificates of achievement. One of the young people she met there was 17-year-old Keeley Ennis who was referred to the programme to avoid permanent exclusion.

Keeley said:

 "Life Routes showed me a new way to learn ,  a way I could not learn in school ,  and the Life Routes award helped me to get into college, where I am now studying sports science and public services.

"I have a job set up for when I finish college, working at an outdoor centre near where I live, so things are a lot better for me."

The Life Routes programme is managed by NCB with funding and support from Nokia.