A COMMUNITY café which closed earlier this year has been reopened by an award-winning former youth worker.

Ann-Marie Stanton had previously dreamed of opening her own youth café and jumped at the chance to take over the former coffee bar inside Sherwood Community Centre.

The 25-year-old has completed four programmes with the Prince's Trust, through which she qualified as a youth worker.

She was named Young Ambassador of the Year for the East Midlands at the Prince's Trust's Celebrate Success awards earlier this month.

Ann-Marie said: "About four years ago, when I finished one of the programmes, I had an idea to open up a youth café, so it has always been on my mind.

"It's a community café at the moment but we want to get young people involved. It's got a nice atmosphere and it's somewhere safe to go. The Prince's Trust have helped me lots so I want to give something back."

Ann-Marie has previously worked as a volunteer team assistant with the Prince's Trust, which hires one of the rooms at the community centre.

The café was originally run by volunteers, but staff had to be employed when the volunteers left.

However, the staffing costs meant the café was making too much of a loss for the centre, and it closed a month ago.

Sherwood Community Association, which runs the centre, invited people to compete for the chance to run the café as their own business, and Ann-Marie won.

Thulani Molife, chairman of Sherwood Community Association, said: "I think it's absolutely great and fantastic that she's doing it. We are giving a young person a chance to make their mark in business and I'm really delighted.

"We will be getting rental income and there will be no additional cost to the centre."

The café has a new name, Ann-Marie's Diner, and is open from 8am to 3pm from Monday to Friday.

The official launch was held on Monday, where Ann-Marie said: "It's gone really well. The people that have supported me have turned up so it's nice to see them.

"I've had lots of help from Ben Smith at Business Link. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be here."

Ann-Marie said her intention was to make the café more like a coffee shop, but with healthier food.

Dishes include homemade dinners, jacket potatoes, salad, healthy kids' meals, soup of the day and homemade cakes.

She has been given a £1,500 grant from the Prince's Trust to help her set up the business.