This pride we are celebrating 15 years of Lancashire LGBT as a registered charity!
Join us in celebrating this milestone, by pledging your support and ensuring another 15 years for Lancashire LGBT. Here are a few ways you can help:
- Submit a memory of Lancashire LGBT to our brand-new online archive by clicking here
- Book a Pride lunch & learn for your workplace by clicking here
- Organise a fundraiser for Lancashire LGBT. Have one already? Why not choose us as your chosen charity. Submit funds raised by clicking here
- Make a donation by clicking here
Founded in 2009, and registered as a Charity in 2010, Lancashire LGBT was established by a team of local LGBTQ+ people determined to make Lancashire a place where, all LGBTQ+ people can be safe and feel a sense of pride and belonging.
In 2025, we are driven by a mission of supporting LGBTQ+ people in Lancashire to be happier, healthier and better connected. We have a team of three full-time staff, six trustees, over ten volunteers and two gender outreach workers who are committed to our four values: inclusivity; compassion; empowerment; and integrity.
We provide a person-centred compassionate approach informed by the lived experience of LGBTQ+ people. Our work includes the following activities: Peer support groups and activity groups; Counselling with LGBTQ+ counsellors; One-to-one support with our dedicated Support Worker; LGBTQ+ Mental Health Hour videos – and forthcoming podcasts; Partnership with Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust supporting their 2 Gender Outreach Workers to support local people from our office in Preston; Training and Consultancy for organisations on LGBTQ+ inclusion. We are extremely proud of the work we do, and the diverse community we support here in Lancashire.
Since our inception, we have supported over 10,500 people- that is 25% of the LGBT population in Lancashire!
In addition to this, we have delivered a series of LGBTQ+ awareness training to professionals in local organisations- over 7,500 people in the last 9 years! Regular sessions we deliver include police officers, social workers, health care professionals, university medical students, mental health practitioners and local businesses and charities.
In the last year, we persuaded local Public Health Departments across 3 councils to undertake a Trans and Gender Diverse Health Needs Assessment- the only one of its kind in the north-west! Our steering group will continue to encourage those with the power to implement its recommendations. We have previously published research with Healthwatch Lancashire and Healthwatch Blackburn with Darwen.
We have also pushed for greater inclusion and visibility of LGBTQ+ stories in Lancashire’s cultural spaces. In 2013, we received funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to create a LGBT history trail in Burnley, celebrating local LGBTQ+ stories from the 1970s. See the plaque outside Burnley library marking the date of the first meeting of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality there in 1971! In 2023, we took part in a project alongside Queer Britain which led to the creation of an award-winning podcast, and a toolkit for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the GLAM sector. We were recently nominated for the community organisation award at this year’s National Diversity Awards.
Since 2014 we have run our own Lancashire LGBT Quality Mark ‘kite mark’ scheme supporting over 40 local colleges, GP surgeries and charities to be inclusive of LGBTQ+ people as service providers and as employers. This is under review and will be relaunched later this year.
Since 2021 We have created a series of unique webinars exploring LGBTQ+ mental health and intersectional identities available to watch on our website. We are currently in the process of creating some new podcasts on LGBTQ+ mental health.
Over the last 11 years we have also provided 6 residential weekends for trans and gender diverse people, giving people a safe space for peer support and peer learning.
We are a small team- but we have always punched above our weight, and we remain the only pan-Lancashire LGBTQ+ charity.
