A £300,000 project to help people on an estate beat stress and feel more confident is being launched next month.

The aim of the pioneering scheme – called "the feeling good programme" – aims to prevent people living in Braunstone, Leicester, falling victim to depression, anxiety and other mental health problems.

Plans include recruiting 24 people to train as life coaches and mentors and running programmes such as yoga, pilates and Tai Chi to help people build ways of coping and leading more positive lifestyles.

The venture will initially run for one year.

Braunstone mum Liesl Gates believes the project will make a big difference to residents.

She said life coaching provided by the Turning Point Women's Centre, on the estate, helped turn her life around.

The 35-year-old is now planning to train as one of the coaches to help others.

Liesl, who has three children aged 13, 10 and five, said: "I was going through a relationship break-up and was having problems with my son.

"I had big decisions to make and everything was stressing me out.

"The life coaching gave me back my self confidence to make those decisions. I think there is a need for things like this and I want to train as a coach so I can give something back to the community.

"Stress affects everyone and if people can learn simple techniques in coping it can make a big difference to their confidence."

Cash for the project is coming from the Government's new deal for communities, originally announced about eight years ago.

The programme will be managed by the Turning Point Women's Centre, a charity which provides a range of activities, advice and workshops for women in the area.

Other partners include the young people's service, Streetvibe, which is putting together a range of projects to help young people.

Among these will be a group for siblings of children with disabilities and a drop-in service for youngsters who may need help and support around mental health difficulties.

Work will also concentrate on trying to reduce stigma surrounding mental health issues.

Fit Active Buddies is also taking part, providing mentoring to help people get physically fit and advising on healthy eating. Nacro, a crime reduction charity, will be running a series of stress-busting workshops, including taster sessions in yoga and pilates.

Leicester City Council's welfare rights service is one of the partners and will be providing advice on benefits and helping people with claim forms.

Ruth Epstein, a service manager at the Turning Point Women's Centre, said: "This is the first time five organisations have come together like this to create such an overall package.

"We want to try to break down stigma surrounding mental health issues.

"We are concentrating on helping people with things like health, diet and exercise and ways in which they can improve their own mental well-being and help they think what triggers cause them distress."