FUNDRAISERS at Sainsbury’s in Amblecote hope to raise £2,000 this year to boost the fortunes of a nearby community project.

The supermarket at Withymoor Village has chosen the The Brierley Hill Project as its charity to support throughout 2011/2012 after customers named the charity their favourite local cause.

The Brierley Hill Project, based on the Chapel Street Estate, Brierley Hill, works to provide a community hub for people living in the area, providing access to support services and opportunities.

Vernon Dix, Sainsbury’s Amblecote store manager, added: “The Brierley Hill Project is such a worthy local cause and we’re pleased and proud to be supporting it over the next 12 months.

“We’ll be letting our customers know of our fundraising plans and we hope they can join our colleagues in helping to support them.”

Sainsbury’s charity partner initiative is now in its third year and last year stores and their customers gave more than £1.5m and helped more than 850 charities and organisations across the UK through fundraising and volunteering.

John Cook, operations manager and trustee of The Brierley Hill Project, said: “We’re really excited to be partnering with Sainsbury’s Amblecote over the next 12 months and would like to thank everyone in the community who voted for us.”

The charity, which has helped more than 2,000 people in the last two years, offers help and advice to people including to one to one mentoring, help with reading and writing, life skills coaching or just friendship.

It also provides a distribution point for the Black Country Food Bank, daily drop-in services, after school clubs, young parents groups and arts and music activities.

Mr Cook said project volunteers would be working with supermarket staff over the coming weeks to plan an array of fundraising activities. He added: “We hope customers will support the store’s fundraising efforts.”

The store will be launching its new charity partnership at an in-store fashion show and raffle event on Monday June 27 at 7pm.