Award-winning charity, Skylarks, will be taking part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge where donations from members of the public will be doubled under a matched-funding pledge.

The charity's mission is to 'Help young people with additional needs to thrive', including conditions such as Down Syndrome, which has recently been in the headlines because new laws will provide a guarantee to lifelong care.

The small independent charity, which is based in East Twickenham, has over 2,000 families registered with them across the Richmond Borough and continues to grow every year.

The funds raised will support the charity's brand new access to work programme which will be launching in January.

It will work with young people with additional needs and disabilities to train and equip them with the skills, knowledge and confidence to make their transition into the workplace and take up their first jobs, work experience placements or move into higher education.

The Christmas fundraising activity opens at noon today – Tuesday – and will run through until December 7. Donations by members of the public will be doubled by two generous funders – the Richmond Parish Lands Charity (RPLC) and The Childhood Trust.

Skylarks aims to raise a total of £40,000 - the most they have ever raised from any Big Give Challenge.

A spokesman for the group said: "Everyone can remember their first day in their first job and how nerve wracking, yet exciting it was.

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"The programme will work with young people with additional needs and disabilities to train and equip them with the skills, knowledge and confidence to smoothly transition into the workplace.

"The young people taking part in the programme may be faced with obstacles which could prevent them from experiencing an easy or straightforward process.

"To assist with this, the project will also support local employers in identifying and eradicating these barriers, to ensure a fairer and inclusive process."

The Skylarks Development Manager, Amy Crichton, said "This is a great opportunity for Skylarks to raise awareness of our access to work programme.

"Young people with additional needs and disabilities should have the same opportunities as non-disabled or neurotypical young people, and our project will support them on their exciting journey into the world of work or higher education. It is a vital project that will help young people to develop the skills and confidence to achieve their dreams. What better Christmas present could there be?"

Actor Sally Phillips has paid tribute to the charity, which is based at the CrossWays Centre, next to St Stephen's Church, in East Twickenham, as a 'wonderful family", which provides a supportive community for children with special needs.

She has personal experience of the issue and is Patron of the charity, which was named as a winner of a Community Organisation Award at the prestigious National Diversity Awards.

The Christmas Challenge was launched in 2008 by Sir Alec Reed, founder of Reed Recruitment. Since 2008, the initiative has raised millions of pounds for charity projects over the years.

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If you would like to have your donation doubled, please visit Skylarks' Big Give Christmas Challenge webpage.