A £500,000 campaign has been launched to help the most disadvantaged youngsters find work.

Sixteen and 17 year-olds living in Brighton and Hove's most deprived areas will receive help under the scheme to make them more attractive to the job market.

The government-funded Action Team for Jobs scheme was launched by Working Links, which aims to provide support to people with a whole host of problems or limitations, including poor qualifications, lone parents and people with drug problems.

Action Team manager Mairi MacEachen said: "The people we will target are not disaffected, they are disappointed.

"Life so far hasn't given them much of a chance and we're going to do what we can to help them."

The initiative, which will be concentrated on Marine, Moulsecoomb and Queens Park wards where jobless figures are more than twice the rest of Brighton, is voluntary for both employers and clients.

Mairi MacEachen said: "We'll need to encourage both to talk to us. When you're helping individuals back into the workplace you have to look at their individual circumstances, such as where they live, what local opportunities exist and what barriers need to be overcome"

Brighton and Hove has been targeted for one of 40 Action Teams for Jobs schemes starting this month across the UK under a year-long government-funded initiative to help the unemployed get work.

Working Links chief executive William Smith said: "The Action Teams have a free hand to come up with imaginative, flexible ideas to overcome personal and community barriers to work.

"Already in just six months we have got more than 1,000 long-term jobless people back into employment nationwide.

"In some cases these people have been out of work for more than three years."