THREE of York's voluntary organisations have teamed up to provide new services for the city's front line groups.

York Council for Voluntary Services (York CVS), York Cares and York Consortium joined forces to secure a grant of £258,000 over 18 months for the "Making Infrastructure Everyone's Business" scheme, launched today at the Priory Street Centre.

The project aims to improve the way local charities work together, and York CVS chief executive Angela Potz said she hoped it would also help ease the burdens on voluntary schemes, which are seeing an increase in demand for their services.

She said: "At the moment, with the economic times being quite difficult, some charities have seen an increase in demand for their services, but at the same time finding that a lot of their funding is drying up.

"The whole point is to be able to enable charities to be as robust and as strong as they possibly can be."

The project aims to open York's talent pool to voluntary organisations through a range of schemes, including one with the University of York which will engage students with local charities.

Launching the project at the Priory Centre yesterday was Sally Burns, City of York Council's director of communities and neighbourhoods.

She said: "This is fantastic for the charities. It provides the backbone for voluntary organisations that is much needed.

"Obviously the council are really keen to support a strong voluntary sector, but when times are hard, we have got to be more creative. That's what this is really about."

For more information, visit the York CVS website on www.yorkcvs.org.uk