A CHARITY which has delivered a multi-sport project in Blackburn has been named as one of three finalists for a prestigious national sports diversity award.

Blackburn-based Inter Madrassah Organisation has been nominated for the Sport England Community Sports Project Award.

The charity will be represented by a small team of volunteers at the Lycamobile British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards this Saturday (Feb,6) at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London.

The organisation was selected by a panel of expert judges including Rugby World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi MBE, former West Bromwich Albion favourite Brendon Batson OBE and retired international athletes Derek Redmond and Jason Gardener MBE.

The Inter Madrassah Organisation (IMO) has delivered a multi-sport project in Blackburn that has operated on a weekly basis since 2006.

They aim to provide a single platform for youth and the wider community to empower themselves.

IMO today successfully tackles misconceptions of the Muslim community and is a force for good by highlighting the positive contribution of the Muslim community in Blackburn.

IMO is now a well-established charity which reaches over 3,000 young people a year, most of which are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Operations manager at the Inter Madrassah Organisation, Bob McDonald, said: "We are a Blackburn-based charity and we work with about 3,000 young people from some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the borough.

"We run a range of activities for them especially sports and recreation."

The charity is focusing this year on providing sports for girls and also a peer support programme for disengaged women, he added.

As well as sports the charity also focuses on health and wellbeing and employability, he said.

The organisation was founded in 2006 by Mohammed Tayyab Sidat and became a registered charity in 2012.

"We have never been nominated as finalists for such a prestigious award so we are really excited about it. I think we are quite privileged to have been nominated," he said.

Arun Kang, chief executive officer of Sporting Equals who founded the British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards, said: "The Inter Madrassah Organisation have done outstanding work in the community in Blackburn, and we are thrilled to announce that they have been nominated for this year’s Sport England Community Sports project Award."