Lynx South West
Community Development Project
- Achievements
- Help for other LGBT groups (no strings!)
- Is there any cost involved?
- Trust and Confidentiality
- What kind of support does Lynx South West provide?
- Filling gaps
- Special projects
- What is "Community Development"?
- Our funders
February 2009--Community Dev Achievements
Being History Month, Intercom has released the following documents to chart the achievements and successes of our Community Development Services and those of the frontline grassroots groups. Please take time to check them out....we know they are big files!
Shared Skills, Shared Achievements
Community Development Timeline
Help for other LGBT groups (no strings!)
The Lynx South West Project provides support for independent LGBT community groups across the peninsula (about ninety at the last count). These include local community helplines and switchboards, social and support groups, campaigns groups, and local events organisers.
If you are involved in a small LGBT group or network, do get in touch to see if there's any way we could be useful. If you think you could help set up a new group that's needed, somewhere in the peninsula, again, get in touch to see what support and facilities we can offer.
There is no charge to other groups.
Quite the opposite: we are sometimes able to make small grants to other groups, or to pay their travel costs when they come to meetings with us. This is because central government and other funders have shown that they value the work this Intercom project is doing to help small groups and develop communities.
What kind of support does Lynx South West provide?
Well... what would your group like to ask for?
In the past we have helped with:
- promoting a group's activities to potential new members
- websites
- finding, or training, or supporting volunteers
- fundraising, all sorts of amounts
- helping with bank accounts and financial rules and procedures
- rule-books or constitutions
- sorting the paperwork (accounts, charity law, health and safety, volunteer and event insurance, payroll services, etc.)
- computers and software systems
- key legal or policy issues (like confidentiality, good volunteering practice, child-protection, and record-keeping)
- trustee recruitment or other management-committee problems
- ... anything really. You wouldn't believe what a wide range of stuff we've been asked to help with.
And some groups have told us that at some crucial time for them Lynx South West has made all the difference between success and, well, just not being there any more. For more information, go to our Support Services web-page.
We try to encourage and help local people to set up new groups where they are most needed.
For instance, there's no men's social or support group anywhere in Northern Cornwall, Northern Devon, or most of Dorset, so far as we can tell; and we know the need is there. There is a massive need for groups that will enable LGBT people who have mobility problems to get out more. Again, there should be far better resources for older LGBT people right across the peninsula. Older lesbians and gay women have a great resource called SWOLlows (South West Older Lesbians), provided they can get to Exeter---but what about those who can't get to Exeter?
We're always delighted to hear from anyone who can identify a gap in services, or help to fill one, and we'll give all the support we can.
We know there are tens of thousands of LGB and/or Trans people (both in the rural areas and in the big cities) who for one reason or another have no access to community support, but would really value this kind of opportunity.
In the past three years Lynx South West has provided organisational or technical help for local people running the Bourne Free events in Bournemouth (2004, 2005 and 2006), the Plymouth Pride Event (2006 and 2007), and the Glastonbury Pink Picnic (2006); we are proud to helped those who have set up important new groups like Western Boys; and we are equally proud to support and promote long-standing activities such as Outback and Outskirts. In addition to these, we have helped many other groups grow, or develop, or just survive when they have encountered difficulties.
In 2005 we hosted a big residential conference for representatives of all the other groups to get together, and network, and discuss needs and priorities. It was a wonderful event, and it ended with a massive action-list, or wish-list, which you can read in the Conference Report. We're working our way through it as fast as time and resources will allow.
- One of the key projects the conference came up with was that there should be a Standing Council, where all the local groups could get involved in electing their representatives to discuss community priorities and campaigns, improve networking and partnership-working, identify new resources to support the local groups (that means money), and develop local dialogue about LGBT people's needs with people like the police, the NHS, and local government. You can find out more on the LGBT Collective web-page.
- Another key project was to set up a dedicated secure community intranet that the groups could use to access breaking news, share significant information with each other, download model policies, and keep up to date.
We are helping young people and youth workers set up a network of LGBT youth groups and other young people called LGBT Youth Lynx South West. This has been generously funded with a start-up grant from the Local Network Fund. You can read the report of their inaugural conference in November 2006. You can find out more on the YouthLynx South West web page.
LGBT History Month Project (LGBT Heritage)
We are very excited about national LGBT History Month, which takes place every February, and about our community heritage in the South West peninsula. have a look at our Heritage page, where you can find out about our new LGBT History Month project.
What is Community Development?
The aim of community development is to reduce social isolation, improve social cohesion, and help to reduce the harm done by ignorance, prejudice, and exclusion, by enabling individual LGBT people and community groups to develop and strengthen local community-led services such as social groups, helplines, etc., and make them widely available to people who need them.
There are many isolated LGBT people who have personal skills, and inside knowledge of the effects of growing up, living, and working as an LGBT person in the modern world, and a good understanding of other LGBT people's needs, and of wher the system currently works well, and fails to work well.
As time goes on we hope that increasing numbers of local people, supported by local community development initiatives, will feel able to speak up to local service-providers (young people's and adult social services, the police and criminal justice system, the NHS, local councillors etc.) and explain the varying needs and concerns of local LGBT people with regard to local planning and services.
Our own skills in the Intercom team, and our information-resources (the CEDAR Project), are open to anyone who is running a local project or group, or wants to become an "active citizen" in their area (i.e. be an advocate for better services for LGBT people).