Seaham youngsters show their support to LGBTQ+ society with recent project

The Youth Hub, at Dawdon Youth and Community Centre, proposed the idea as part of their Young People in the Lead project.

The project was funded by #iwill Youth Social Action programme, and managed by County Durham Community Foundation. The project has allowed teenagers to share their views and to put their ideas forward.

The young people attended and began talking about LGBTQ+ issues, where they developed the idea for a festival and information leaflet.

Joanne Bowen, youth and play development manager, said: “I am extremely proud of our young people – they’re brilliant to work with and they have come up with some great ideas.

“With Pride Festivals happening last summer, some of our young people came forward to say they had struggled and felt misunderstood: so we ran support sessions around LGBTQ+ issues.

“They’ve now written and produced a really good booklet called Coming Out, to raise awareness amongst schoolchildren and families. So far they have been able to give out 180 booklets. It’s opened my eyes as a youth worker and been a really good education. Young people who rarely said anything suddenly had lots to say when we got talking about these issues.

"We got the funding based on the work we already do with young people, which was great, and they’ve really taken it on.”

The young people involved in the project were proud of what they achieved and to see their ideas develop into a reality.

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