THE Duke of York has personally commended a York charity for its work with children.

Representatives from The Island, which provides mentoring services to children and young people struggling with their mental, emotional and social wellbeing, were presented with the Duke of York’s community initiative award at a private ceremony last week.

The York charity, based on Priory Street, won royal recognition for its high rate of success in transforming the lives of vulnerable children, contributing to a decrease in anti-social and criminal behaviour.

Mentoring services manager at The Island, Nigel Poulton, who was at last week’s ceremony at Catterick Garrison, said: “We are proud to have received this prestigious award once again for continuing to offer high-quality mentoring services.

“We look forward to developing our services further to help even more children in need.”

The charity was founded in 2008 by Bob Purrington, a social worker at City of York Council.

He said: “I am proud of what The Island has achieved and we are truly grateful to our incredible volunteers who give up their time to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children in the local area.”

The Island provides several vital mentoring services for isolated children, including one-to-one mentoring, group-based work, youth clubs and school-based mentoring, which will be taking place at Tang Hall Primary and Archbishop Holgate’s secondary school in the next academic year.

Prince Andrew said: “Some years ago I visited a housing estate in York, and saw what a real difference could be achieved by the community working together, identifying their own needs, and deciding for themselves the actions needed to find the answers to such needs.

"Today the Community Initiative is a great success story throughout the whole of Yorkshire with over 400 community schemes."