A COMPETITION to encourage young people in York and North Yorkshire help their communities will be held again this summer.

North Yorkshire Police's Lifestyle Challenge is aimed at young people aged between 10 and 17, and encourages them to create positive team projects over the summer holidays to improve life for their communities.

Teams are urged to consider community safety, conservation, safety and security, sports challenges or fitness, and the main award in the Lifestyle Challenge is the Dream Come True Challenge, in remembrance of and in tribute to the late PC Suzanne Asquith, who was responsible for the awards for several years.

Sergeant Neil Northend of North Yorkshire Police said: "The Lifestyle Challenge is a fun and productive way to spend the long summer holiday and, as we have seen in previous years, can bring some truly inspirational results.

"These projects benefit not only young people, by giving them an activity to get stuck into over the summer holidays, but also our communities as well. I’m looking forward to seeing what projects North Yorkshire’s young people come up with this year."

The main prize on offer this year is an adventure holiday for the whole team, and winners in last year's event included Team ‘TBJ’ from Northallerton, who collected food and supported Hambleton FoodShare, the ‘Northern Ninjas’, who held a vintage afternoon tea party and events at a care home in Ripon, Team ‘Random’ from Scarborough, who helped to improve an open space by creating dog fouling posters and a fairy door trail to encourage people to exercise, and the ‘Clifton Crew’ in York who received a prize for working together to improve the environment at an area that has attracted a lot of dumping of rubbish, graffiti and fire.

Neighbourhood Policing Teams will be visiting schools around North Yorkshire in coming weeks to promote the challenge, and teams wanting to take part can register online at northyorkshire.police.uk/lifestyle

All participants will be sent a registration pack, including a log book to record all their work, a handbook with help and advice, and a list of challenges.

Registration closes on July 8, work can begin on July 14, and entries must be submitted by September 22.

To find out more go to northyorkshire.police.uk/lifestyle or email LifeStyle@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk

You can also follow Lifestyle on Twitter @NYP_Lifestyle or North Yorkshire Police’s Youth Team on Twitter at @YouthTeamNYP.