Salford’s LGBTQ+ community has welcomed new sessions that provide a ‘safe space’ for members after concerns that there was nowhere for people to turn.
This month, The Emmanuel Centre in Langworthy has launched weekly sessions to support the LGBTQ+ community, concluding Greater Manchester’s ‘Month of Hope’ campaign.
The sessions are running in partnership with the ‘This Is Me Salford’ project, which is a peer support organisation working to support the LGBTQ+ community in Salford.
Speaking after the first session last week, Pete Simms, project organiser, said: “It was amazing to see the LGBTQ+ community feeling so relaxed and cared for in the heart of Salford.
“We served about 20 people in total -and it felt really relaxed and accepting.”
These drop-in group sessions offer coffees, teas, cake, and toast in a safe, “unpressured environment.”
The project also concludes Greater Manchester’s ‘Month of Hope’ campaign. The campaign aims to raise awareness of suicide and runs from the 10th September to the 10th of October.
A study conducted last year by Stonewall, an equality rights charity, found that one in eight LGBTQ+ people aged 18 to 24 had tried to take their own life.
Owen Power, This is Me campaigner and LGBTQ+ rights activist, welcomed the sessions, raising concerns that there isn’t enough support for the community in Salford.
“There is no real support network or safe place to go for LGBTQ+ people in the city,” he said.
“I am a D/deaf gay man, and I am very conscious LGBTQ+ disabled people and LGBTQ+ BAME people often feel excluded from services, and it is great news This Is Me Salford recognises this and is doing something about it.”
Mr Simms added that although the message put out by This is Me is simple, it is having a profound impact.
He added: “When you don’t have that environment around you, having people who are supporting you in that way and saying it’s okay, along with the services that you need, that’s when suicide, self-harm and a lot of other problems come in and that’s not acceptable.”
As well as the new sessions, Emmanuel Centre Langworthy also ran a combination of alternative drop-in community sessions at the beginning of the month in order to help the Salford community in the ‘difficult times’ ahead.
Events Manager at the Emmanuel Centre, Megan Guite, said: “People are really going to be struggling with the choice of whether to feed themselves or put the heating on. We’ve seen a massive increase in the numbers of our food bank, so right there tells us there’s a great need for it.
“Our goal is to make the Emmanual Centre a hub and a safe space for all in Salford, we are hoping that these projects that we’re bringing in are going to show the community that we welcome everybody.”
The support and services available at Emmanuel Centre are open to everyone and anyone in the community, including the student community that surrounds the centre.
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