SCOTTISH Sports Futures (SSF), the charity organisation committed to enhancing the lives of young people in some of Scotland's most depressed areas, is aiming to raise £1m from businesses north of the border to expand its operations.

SCOTTISH Sports Futures (SSF), the charity organisation committed to enhancing the lives of young people in some of Scotland's most depressed areas, is aiming to raise £1m from businesses north of the border to expand its operations.

Ian Reid, the former head of retail investment at Royal Bank of Scotland and now SSF's chief executive, said the group planned to spend £3m over the next three years.

It already has £2m, some of which it was awarded through the Proceeds of Crime Act as well as through SSF's association with the Scottish Rocks basketball team in which Reid is a majority stakeholder. However, it plans to raise a further £1m through deals with corporate Scotland.

Reid said: "I'm extremely hopeful that we'll raise the money. I believe it is a question of pointing out the enormous benefits and opportunities that can come from an association with Scottish Sports Futures.

"Over the next three years, we'll be active in 450 schools across Scotland - and that means being seen by around 10,000 kids.

"That represents some powerful marketing for the companies that come on board and they also have the opportunity give something very valuable to young people and their communities."

By promoting the importance of attitude, fitness and a "Go For It!" outlook on life, its projects provide young people with opportunities that aim to encourage them towards achieving their ambitions and reaching their full potential.

In association with the Rocks - which provides professional role models and inspirational athletes - SSF runs the twilight basketball programme, which is designed to encourage "integration, self-efficacy, healthy lifestyles and good citizenship".

The programme, which is aimed at Scottish communities blighted by acute antisocial behaviour problems and which have been identified as areas of high deprivation, has been instrumental in combating territorialism, gang warfare and sectarianism.

Reid added: "Sport is a platform for engagement. Sport somehow gives young people the motivation to make positive life changes, and this is something we have seen happen time and time again."