AN arts partnership has been given a funding boost courtesy of the police and crime commissioner with a scheme to help offenders explore their creative side and keep them on the straight and narrow.

The Worcestershire Arts Partnership (WAP) will be funded by the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner to run two projects.

The funding for 2017/18 will be £20,000 for working with adults and £11,000 for working with young people.

The aim is to work with both adults and young people who are either at risk of offending or who are known to the criminal justice system.

This is the second year that WAP has been successful with an award from the police commissioner.

In 2016 a project worked with 60 people who attended workshops in drama, creative writing, magic, sculpture and metal work and ceramics.

These workshops were led by artists Laura McFall, Ruby Jennings, Miraculous Magic, Jest a Minute and Kay Mullett.

This new round of funding will see new groups of people working with a new range of artists on a range of artforms.

Steve Wilson, county arts officer, is looking forward to the new round of workshops.

He said: "Last year we saw some fantastic outcomes for workshop attendees and I am confident the project will go from strength to strength this year."