A Rainbow Fund grant helps the busy volunteer-led LGBT Community Safety Forum respond to 12 calls for help a day.
The LGBT Community Safety Forum is an established independent LGBT forum of volunteers working with the LGBT Community to address and improve safety issues throughout Brighton & Hove. They undertake cultural, educational and social safety community activities and any type of LGBT community/inclusion and accessibility initiative.
The Forum was formed to give the community a much needed voice on a wide range of safety issues in Brighton and Hove. They act as a bridge between the community and statutory services such as the city council and Sussex police and to enable there to be more accountability and transparency of the services provided.
In the last year they have continued to provide core services of safety awareness, advocacy and community events, and have developed the provision to empower the community to ‘help themselves’ and support each other.
They now advertise a landline and text number as well as an email address to provide immediate contact with the LGBT CSF.
The forum receives or makes 12 calls each day on community related and hate crime issues. In addition they receive or send approximately 5 emails per day regarding community related questions. This workload requires a further 14 calls and 20 emails per day to administer the volunteer-led group.
They aim to respond to inquires within two working days.
After receiving a grant from the Rainbow Fund in November 2013 they approached Varndean College to develop an accredited counselling skills course. The organisers worked closely with the course provider and organised an interpersonal skills class that they could deliver successfully to empower and generate a bank of neighbourhood listening ear volunteers.
They are currently training 12 individuals, with candidates already delivering other services in a front line capacity. From bars and hotels to the church and health projects the group is diverse and reflective of the multifaceted community.
With thanks to the Rainbow Fund they currently have four committee volunteers undertaking British Sign Language training at level one standard. Results are noticeable and impressive. The outcomes already reveal a vast improvement between the Hearing and Deaf / Hearing Impaired LGBT community interaction. Strong relationships have been made over the past six months between the LGBT Community Safety Forum and the Deaf LGBT Community.
The forum recently launched their ‘Accessibility Matters’ programme and have since been asked by Brighton Pride to deliver all aspects of Accessibility and Inclusion for this years event. To achieve this they have engaged with Conversant, an LGBT run BSL interpretation organisation who will provide the BSL communication over the Pride festival. This is a great step forward in the direction of inclusiveness and equality as many deaf, elderly and disabled LGBT people had slowly started to shun pride as access and inclusion had become a significant concern for them.
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