THE leading light of a project which aims to get young people involved in community activities has been nominated for the 2010 Your Champions award scheme.

Chris Duffett has been nominated as Person of the Year while the Hoole-based Light Project is up for the Team of the Year accolade.

The Light Project helps run schemes ranging from homeless outreach to drama and youth clubs.

The group and Mr Duffett were nominated by project donator Peter Moore Dutton.

He said: “It is very good for getting young people off the streets which is most important in Chester and everywhere else.”

The team, who recently celebrated their 10th birthday in All Saints Church in Hoole, meet to worship each Monday. They pray and receive teaching at St Anselm’s Chapel on Chester Cathedral’s grounds.

Over the years the Light Project has worked with more than 20 churches and 30 projects in Chester and its surrounding areas. As well as collaborating with local churches, it has an involvement with the University of Chester and training can be accessed via a gap year or on their foundation degree in community evangelism.

The team does hands-on work as well as academic studies, helping the community by gardening and improving urban spaces, helping the homeless by assisting in a weekly soup kitchen and maintaining links with emergency accommodation in Chester.

Alongside academic training and church placements, there is an array of projects which aim at demonstrating the Christian message in a variety of different ways including community work, street performances and running theatre company B-It.

Staff and students will be supporting the event Engage 2010 starting on Monday - a week of community mission in Chester involving churches from all over the city.

Engage is a 12-year project which is built on the success of a one-day event in Hoole which then developed into a week-long Hoolefest which then became Chesterfest in 2007.

According to Peter Moore Dutton, Chris Duffett has been 'the driving force behind the project and is largely an inspiration for it'.

The Rt Rev Keith Sinclair, Bishop of Birkenhead, said: “The network of churches, the scale of the project, the atmosphere within the building and the clear commitment to excellence, godliness, evangelism and mission were really outstanding in my opinion.”

For further information, visit www.lightproject. org.uk.