ASTO members The Swan Trust, based in Shetland, have won this year's Sail Training International award for Sail Training Organisation of the Year.
 

In the last 10 years the Swan Trust have become an integral part of life on Shetland. By the time they leave school, every young person on Shetland and the outlying islands will have sailed on board Swan. The vessel is a traditional Fifie herring boat and so the experience of Sail Training is combined with learning about the rich history of the Shetland Isles. During the Tall Ships Races this year, Swan brought Sail Training to a new audience by having on board the first ever 'Artist in Residence' on a Sail Training vessel. 

Congratulations from ASTO for winning this prestigious award.

A large fleet of Sail Training vessels will race to Portland in the summer of 2012. On the second weekend in June, 300 young people from Dorset and London will gather in West India Docks to prepare for the London to Portland Small Ships Race. 25 vessels ranging from 100 year old pilot cutters to modern ocean racing yachts are due to take part in an offshore race from London to Portland, and each boat will be crewed by young people from 12 years upwards.

The charities running the vessels use Sail Training to provide life changing opportunities for young and disabled people from across the UK. Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) is working together with the Association of Sail Training Organisations (ASTO) to organise this spectacular youth event.

The ships will depart London on 11th June, 2012 and race to Weymouth and Portland, arriving on 15th June, 2012. On the 16th June, HM The Queen's representative in Dorset, the Lord Lieutenant, Val Pitt-Rivers will start another race within Weymouth Bay by firing a cannon from the Nothe Fort. The races will be followed with a prize-giving at the Academy in the evening of the 16th.

Muirhouse Youth Development Group (MYDG) will today [Friday 28 October] welcome home ten young people as they complete the final leg of Project Northern Lights – a challenging eight-week adventure and personal training programme established to help disadvantaged young people to shine.

Set up to help young people escape the relentless cycle of crime and punishment, Project Northern Lights is the latest example of businesses stepping up to support grassroots organisations in one of Scotland's most deprived communities in North Edinburgh.

A YOUNG sailor has earned a national award after steering a whole new course away from a life blighted by drink, drugs and personal tragedy.

Kieran Maxwell, 21, beat 8,000 young people to win the Torbay Cup for outstanding individual achievement and personal effort during this year's Tall Ships Races.

The award marks a remarkable turnaround in Kieran's life.

He moved to South Shields at the age of seven, after his father was jailed for the manslaughter of his mother.

He lived with his grandparents in Harton and attended St Wilfrid's School, in Temple Park Road. He fell into a life of crime as a teenager, developed a drink and drugs habit – and eventually found himself homeless.

But taking up sailing in January this year has helped him turn his life around.