A PROJECT supporting Islanders back into work needs your vote to win thousands of pounds in grant funding.

Trading Up For Change, a project run by Community Action Isle of Wight, has been shortlisted for the Skills and Opportunities Fund, from NatWest, which offers grants of up to £35,000 to projects aimed at helping people to help themselves.

If successful, the scheme would support 60 people living on the Island who are long-term unemployed, to become self-employed by giving them the skills, confidence and strategies to return to work or start their own enterprise.

Mike Bulpitt, from the charity, said: "Many of the participants of this course show by the way they manage their difficult lives that they could be very entrepreneurial: we want to harness this and empower them to create their own employment."

Community Action Isle of Wight supports voluntary and community organisations that work hard for the benefit of the Island and its residents.

People can support the charity by voting at http://skillsandopportunitiesfund.natwest.com/vote/ before April 20.