Chesil Youth Pride 2023

June 17th marked the first Youth Pride festival in Weymouth, Chesil Youth Pride. Organised and put on by Dorset Council, Weymouth College, The Drop-In (Portland), Dorset Police and ourselves at Space Youth Project!

We were so happy to lead the parade and be included in this event, spreading education, awareness and positivity about and to the young LGBT+ community in Dorset has always been our goal and this event encapsulated that goal with its amazing atmosphere and energy.

(Thankyou to Weymouth Gay Group for these lovely pictures!)

We had the wonderful opportunity to lead the parade with our Space banner and sound system, the energy of the marching young people and supporters was immense and we are sure we made a mark on Weymouth with our display.

We're looking forward to next year, thankyou again to everyone mentioned above and especially to Dorset's Young LGBT+ people and our allies!

Dorchester's Mocktails & Health Care Meeting

Anthony works at Dorchester Hospital as Research Governance and Quality Manager. He asked the young people at Dorchester group if he could come along and have a chat about their experiences within the health care system and Hospital. Also if they would consider being employed by a Hospital. He wanted their ideas about what's working for them, what needs changing and their own ideas of how they would like to receive care and support from hospitals and their GP's. He offered to bring an activity and they chose making Mocktails with him. very posh mocktails as it turned out. The young people had a lot of fun, did an alcohol awareness quiz and then settled to chat with Anthony. The young people were very pleased with the opportunity to have a say and Anthony had a lot of positive feedback and ideas to take away with him.

Bourne Free Pride 2022!

A month ago Dorset's biggest Pride event, Bourne Free Pride, took place in Bournemouth after two years absence (due to the pandemic). It was a welcome return to the event, with a massive turn out of people, including many members and team members of Space!

We started off the pride weekend with our Space Youth Project stall in Meryick Park. We had lots of leaflets and information about what we do. badges for sale with designs like pronouns, flags, and slogans, and the free lollipops and pens went down very well too! We had many visitors to our stall and it was wonderful to meet everyone and spread the word about what we do. The event was a big celebration of the LGBT+ community, with many great stalls from other charities, such as Beyond Reflections who have a lovely team that gave us some of their badges about consent. It was amazing to see so many people freely be themselves, celebrating their identity and expressing themselves, supportive families and friends, and incredible performers throughout the event.

Then came the Pride March, (pictured above) which began in the Bournemouth Triangle. (Outside FLIRT Café, where we hold our bi-weekly 'Coffee 'n' Chat' group for over 20's) We walked through Bournemouth Town Centre, all the way to Meryick Park, bringing the tunes with our boom box! It was glorious to see so many happy faces watching the parade, of all different ages, and we made sure Space Youth Project's presence was known! It was great to have some of our young people walk with us, proudly waving their flags. You probably could have heard our brilliant youth workers Charity and Jodie from quite a distance as they worked up the crowd so energetically!

We also held a pride event at The Dolphin Shopping Centre in Poole throughout Pride Month, where we had our stall as well as crafty activities like decorating mugs and tote bags. It was lovely to have so many visitors be interested in what we do and how we could help them or someone they know.

Pride events are really important, not just because they're great fun, but because they bring us together, even if you're not in the LGBT+ community. It's a time to celebrate ourselves and eachother, be PROUD of who we are and celebrate progress and freedom!

A massive thank you to all our supporters and members, the organisers of the events, and most of all to our hard working Space team.

Hope to see you there next year!

Blog by Katie S

Photo by Bournemouth Echo