A Keighley Cougars youth project will be showcased at a national conference in Northern Ireland today. (March 26)

Mary Calvert from Your Sporting Chance is among keynote speakers at the Sport Changes Life conference in Ulster.

She will tell how the project, based at Cougar Park, uses the power of sport to engage and inspire young people.

Mary's invitation was arranged by one of the conference partners, Sported, which works with community-based groups across the UK to use the power of sport to transform the lives of disadvantaged young people.

Your Sporting Chance was set up in 2009 and is supported by Keighley Cougars whose players work with young people and act as positive role models.

The project is funded with the help of Incommunities Foundation, the charitable arm of Bradford district housing group Incommunities.

Your Sporting Chance with young people who are involved in, or at risk of being drawn into, anti-social behaviour and low-level crime.

Over the past six years Your Sporting Chance has helped more than 500 young people across the district. They were are referred from a number of partner organisations including Incommunities, schools, the police, Bradford Council and the Families First programme.

During the past year Your Sporting Chance staff have run 350 group sessions and organised 60 outdoor activities.

Ten young people who have been helped by project workers have also gone on to become mentors supporting other youngsters.

Mrs Calvert, the project manager at Your Sporting Chance, said: “Taking part in this major conference offers a great opportunity to share with delegates how this partnership has made a positive difference to the lives of young people in Keighley and beyond.”

Alison Herbert, Interim Chair of Incommunities Foundation, said she was delighted to see Your Sporting Chance taking the spotlight at such a prestigious conference, and sharing the organisation’s ‘best practice’ intervention work.

She said: “Your Sporting Chance is an excellent example of how sport can be an excellent ‘training ground for life’.

“Through the support of Keighley Cougars and Incommunities the project has been able to turn around the lives of young people in our communities.”

Early in 2014 Your Sporting Chance received a £16,000 grant from the charity Sported to enable the project to continue for another two years.

When he visited the project last year, West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson highlighted Your Sporting Chance’s success filling and people a path away from anti-social behaviour or crime.