THREE years ago, Banbury Young Homeless Project was given a grant by the Gannett Foundation for £3,140 for its five-a-side football team.

And it urges other organisations to apply for cash in this year’s award round.

The Gannett Foundation is the charitable arm of Gannett, the parent company of Newsquest, which owns the Oxford Mail. Twice a year it provides grants of between £5,000 and £10,000 to charitable projects.

The money allocated to BYHP was used to pay for kits, training equipment and match expenses.

At the time, the centre was based in Castle Street, but it has recently moved to Chandos Close, Grimsbury, and is about to launch new football training sessions.

Project worker Justin Don-ovan said the five-a-side team ran for 12 months, played other local sides and was a great success.

He added: “Football is always a winner when it comes to engaging young people and it would be great if we could do something similar in the near future.”

Clare Norton, chief executive officer of BYHP, added: “The grant from Gannett was very useful and I would encourage other organisations to apply.

“We moved to our new base in Grimsbury in the summer and now we are planning to start some new sports activities including football.”

The deadline for applications for the latest round of grants is 5pm on Friday, October 21. Oxford Mail deputy editor Sara Taylor said: “We would like to remind charitable organisations across Oxfordshire that now is the time to make an application for a Gannett grant.

“It could make a big difference to important projects in the community.”

The foundation is looking for imaginative projects to apply, but organisations must be registered charities.

National charities have been ruled out and an organisation cannot apply if it has received a Gannett grant in the past two years.

Also ruled out are state and private schools, hospitals, animal charities, political causes and bids to cover day-to-day running costs.