A TOWN youth project that works to help keep teenagers off the streets has been shortlisted for a national award.

The Club 4 Teenz group, based at Gainsborough Community Library in Clapgate Lane, is up for an award at the Edge 2013 conference in Edinburgh for library and information services.

Set up by Olympic torchbearer Ryan Jay, who has volunteered at the library since the age of 14, the group was established as a place for young people in the Gainsborough area to meet.

After years of voluntary work, Mr Jay, who is now 19, has a regular job with Suffolk Libraries.

The club has tackled anti-social behaviour in the area and also won a Stars of Suffolk award at a ceremony this month.

The group is up for a gong in the social category of the awards, with Northamptonshire Library Service the only other finalist in category. The libraries will find out if they were successful next week.

Alison Wheeler, general manager of Suffolk’s Libraries IPS – the new body managing county libraries – said she was delighted by the nomination.

She said: “We’re thrilled that the Club for Teenz project has been shortlisted so soon after winning the Stars of Suffolk Award. It’s great recognition for the project which is positive in so many ways.

“It shows the variety of activity which goes on in our libraries and what can be achieved by working in partnership with the local community.

“It’s also a great example to young people everywhere as Ryan is an asset to the library service, having started as a volunteer and now working for us.”

Has the Club 4 Teenz helped you? Write to Your Letters, Ipswich Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN.