De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) has welcomed news that
Leicester LGBT Centre has won vital Lottery funding to build on its work with the transgender community.
The money has been awarded by the National Lottery Reaching Communities programme, to provide support to adult transgender people throughout Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
Transgender pride flag
The award will fund work on a number of themes including challenging hate crime and discrimination, reducing social isolation and improving the psychological wellbeing of transgender people.
Staff from the centre – which works in partnership with DMU - will work with both adult transgender people and their families, and also with organisations throughout the area to increase understanding and awareness of the issues affecting the transgender community.
It will additionally work to develop effective referral pathways between partner agencies to provide improved outcomes for transgender people. In the coming months DMU will be working on the project specification prior to a formal launch towards the end of 2017.
Mathew Hulbert, the new Chair of the Leicester LGBT Centre, said: "We're obviously very pleased and proud, as the leading LGBT+ organisation in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, to have secured this funding for what will be a pivotal project as we move into our fifth decade serving our communities in the city and two counties.
"As Chair, I pay tribute to the sterling efforts of our staff team in securing this funding and look forward to seeing the positive outcomes of this pioneering project as it moves forward."
Andrew Bolland, strategic development and partnerships manager at Leicester LGBT Centre, said: “We believe that the project is a unique and innovative addition to services for the adult transgender community in Leicestershire and Rutland and a ground-breaking project across the United Kingdom.”
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Last year, DMU signed a new partnership agreement with Leicester LGBT Centre, which will see DMU students and graduates offered placements and volunteering opportunities working alongside centre staff, helping deliver support, organise events and connect members of the LGBT communities.
DMU's VC Professor Dominic Shellard and former Chair Mark Beasley at the official signing of an agreement
The agreement will also see staff and students trained by Leicester LGBT Centre to act as anti-hate crime ambassadors, working on many of the #DMUlocal projects which take the skills and experience the university offers out across the local community.
Posted on Monday 7 August 2017