Day: May 27, 2014

Member groups of the newly formed LGBT Community Groups Network have been given shared office space to carry out their day-to-day administration, and to hold meetings.

The office space is provided free, with electricity, insurance and wi-fi included. Centric Charity which manages unused office space at Prestamex House, opposite Preston Park, recently advertised for charities to take up free offices and Lunch Positive successfully bid for one.

Lunch Positive have extended their licence to facilitate a dedicated space for member groups of the LGBT Community Groups Network.

Gary Pargeter, is the volunteer project manager at Lunch Positive, and the Community Works facilitator for the Network.

He said: “We’re incredibly pleased to have secured this extra space for our smaller LGBT groups. From personal experience, running a community group often involves more administration that people realise. Having good facilities to carry this out and plan our work makes a huge difference to how well we are able to run our groups, and deliver our services. The cost of renting offices is prohibitive. Most of our smaller groups are run by volunteers. Working from home can sometimes be very difficult, especially when work is pressured. It’s important to be able to separate work and personal lives. We hope this space will help the people running groups and their groups work. Another fantastic advantage is that our groups will be able to spend informal time with each other, and hopefully also benefit from getting to know each other well.”

The LGBT office space is accessible 6 days a week during office hours, open plan, has nine ‘hot desks’, filing storage and a meeting area. Groups have use of a shared kitchen, and a larger meeting area out of hours by arrangement. The space has been furnished through the donation of equipment from Freegle, and a community development grant of £500 from Sussex Community Foundation.

To find out more about the LGBT Community Groups Network, EMAIL:  

Or telephone: 07725 647455

Brighton & Hove City Council hosted a Trans Equality Talkback session last week.

It follows up the pioneering work of the council as the first local authority to consult the community on what needs to be done to promote equality for Trans people.

The feedback session was well attended, 65 members of the community heard from council officers on progress being made on all 37 recommendations.

Further sessions are being held to talk about specific elements of the recommendations such as health and housing; and anyone interested in this should contact the council.

Cllr Phelim MacCafferty the Trans councillor champion, said: ”We are fully committed to the process of promoting equality for the trans community. Discrimination still blights the lives of our trans community so we will continue the conversation to make life fairer. What work has been done and the work we have yet to do will all help make our city a better place. There’s clear progress being made in a number of areas, but there is still a lot of work to do with other key organisations in the city such as the Police and the community and voluntary sector.”