Project to help our young rise to life's Challenge

"It was unbelievable," she says. "You can't imagine what it's like out there. It was five years ago now, but I can remember it like it was yesterday."

Miss Wright is a 'graduate' of Project Challenge, a truly inspirational charity scheme based in West Yorkshire which aims to re-engage disaffected young people by channelling their energies into a real survival expedition.

It is typical of the grassroots community schemes being supported by the Yorkshire Post through its Communities in Need appeal, which launched on Saturday. The newspaper is asking readers and businesses alike to make cash donations which will be distributed to charities across the region in the New Year.

"We get lots of young people in all sorts of situations," says Project Challenge leader Pete Dawber, who helped set up the scheme in Halifax almost 20 years ago.

"Many are estranged from their families, or have spent many years in care homes. We have young people with learning difficulties, or on the autism spectrum.

"Some have been living on the streets – some have even been in situations where they're selling themselves for gain. They're often clever people but who through circumstance are in a place they're struggling to get out of. They need some help."

The help which Mr Dawber offers comes in the form of what is, for many, the toughest challenge of their lives – a group survival fortnight in the unforgiving surrounds of the Alps, the Pyrenees or northern Norway.

An arduous 26-week training course precedes the final expedition, and the need for teamwork and discipline – as well as the tough physical programme itself – all play their part in the personal transformations that take place.

"The outdoors is the tool we use," Mr Dawber says. "But when we're out there it's really about relationship-building – all that walking and talking, sitting round the fire at night drinking coffee, chatting, singing."

The sense of achievement, he says, stays with the successful participants for years to come.

"They've done all the training and they've done a real expedition – carrying 50lb packs in all conditions, sleeping in a snow cave or out wild in the mountains," Mr Dawber says. "Some of these kids haven't been to school the past two years, so when we do a presentation evening at the end, it's a massive thing for them."

Miss Wright is emphatic in her agreement.

"You felt like you'd actually achieved something in life," she says. "I suppose up to that point I hadn't really achieved anything."

Now 23 and working as a care worker, she credits the project with turning her life around.

"When I first came here I was in a very bad place," she remembers. "I'd run away from home when I was 16. My adopted parents were good parents, really, but I just felt there were too many boundaries. I couldn't handle it. Looking back they were trying to protect me – but back then you think you know everything.

"I ended up in a hostel in Bradford. There were a lot of things going on in there – people doing drugs, people with mental health problems. Then I came to Halifax with an ex-boyfriend and he was very controlling, he used to lock me in the house and all sorts. I used to come down here crying, and they'd give me a shoulder to cry on."

She says her self-confidence grew throughout the project until she was leading large groups.

"I'm a different person now," she says. "Without the project, I wouldn't be confident like this. I probably wouldn't have a job – I'd probably be on benefits, with a couple of kids and all that to somebody I don't even like.

"Instead, I'm enjoying my life here. I've got my job, I've got my flat, I've got my friends. I've got my own life now."