KIND youngsters are reaching out to help people who have suffered trauma through a £3,000 cash boost.

St Columba's High School in Gourock received the award for a project through the Wood Foundation's Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) in partnership with ferry firm CalMac.

The money was given to Mind Mosaic, which provides counselling and therapy session for couples, employees and individuals.

Third year pupils from participating schools formed teams to research social issues in their area, and the charities working to address them.

St Columba's picked Mind Mosaic and delivered a presentation giving reasons why they should receive help to continue their good work.

Pupils Isla Rodgers and Rebecca Jess made the winning presentation.

Isla said: "We decided to make our social issue mental health in adults and kids.

"The reasons we think this is so important is the amount of pressure that youth and younger adults experience nowadays.

"We have seen first hand how pressure affects our generation both in school and out so it really wasn’t a hard decision for us since we’ve had it on our minds for quite a while."

YPI is an active citizenship programme that gives young people a chance to make a difference in their local communities while developing new skills.

Christine Roberts, director of human resources at CalMac, was one of the competition's judges.

She said: "This was an extremely difficult process as the quality of the submissions were extraordinary, from all the S3 pupils involved.

"All the charities were worthy causes but the clarity of thinking behind the case put forward from the winning team just clinched it for the judging panel."

Ferry operator CalMac has committed to partnering YPIs in 11 schools across its area of operations.

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Pic from left shows CalMac’s director of HR Christine Roberts and director of IT, Simon Hulme, presenting Isla and Rebecca with their winning cheque