Rainbow Playground

/ Lucy Harding

Rainbow Playground

Rainbow Playground is a Pride festival for LGBT+ young people ages 14-25. The idea has come directly from young people who want a safe and fun space to celebrate their identities with other LGBT+ young people. A young people’s planning group has started to meet, alongside the interagency planning board.
The event will include activities such as a climbing wall, music inspired session, Tai Chi, mindfulness and many more.

The event is free and will take place on Thursday 23rd August in Manchester, with 250 places available for young people. We are grateful to receive funding from Manchester Pride and Greater Sports towards the event, and in kind support from Manchester Metropolitan University.

Contact Sally.carr@theproudtrust.org for further information. Publicity and booking forms can be found here.

T-shirt printing and discussions at the LGBT centre!

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This week at Young Women’s we spent the evening at the LGBT centre making statement t-shirts from screen printing, and they turned out pretty awesome! The ideas for each statement came from discussions we were having throughout the session, ranging from abortion laws in Ireland to stereotypes among lesbian/bisexual women and how we identify ourselves.
 
We ended up spending so much time deep in conversation that it was a bit of a rush to get the stencils cut out and get the paint on the t-shirts but with the help of Chloe, we got it done!
This was a really enjoyable session that we hope to have more of in the future, and we can’t wait to get our t-shirts back next week as soon as the paint has dried!
 

Table tennis brings out our competitive side!

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At this evening’s session in the Sheung Lok centre, we made use of the awesome table tennis facilities and things got a bit heated!

It may have taken us what felt like three hours to successfully learn to serve and keep a rally going but by the end of the session, we almost went to sudden death in a doubles match of first to 25 wins. Victoria and Myrtle ended up victorious even though Laura and Olivia had a 7-point lead at one stage.

So despite knowing none of the rules and hitting each other with ping pong balls on numerous occasions, the session was a lot of fun and we definitely needed the snacks on the table at the end to refuel!

As well as the table tennis, we discussed where we’d like the group to go over the next couple of months and came up with some ideas for activities and discussions we could have in the future. But if you want to know what our oh-so-fabulous ideas were you’ll have to join us at Sheung Lok centre next week to find out.

See you then!

YWHP

Welcome to our new site!

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Welcome to the new home of Young Women’s Health Project!

We’re currently working on our new site and can’t wait to share all of our fresh content with you in a new way. Please bear with us as we get this site up and running and very soon we’ll be posting regular content for young lesbian and bisexual women, and all of the fun stuff we get up to at our group each week!

See you all again very soon,

YWHP

First cycling session with Bike Right!

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We kicked off the first of six weeks of cycling this evening with glorious sunshine and a handful of Chewits – just the right concoction to keep our energy levels up!

We met at 4:15pm at Sidney Street Cafe to bring the bikes over to the Sheung Lok centre. This proved slightly more difficult than expected as the bikes outnumbered the people! Thankfully, Claire used all of her biking experience to carefully carry two bikes at the one time. A mighty feat it was. Helmets off to you, Claire!

After snacking on some treats at Sheung Lok and doing our introductions, we all headed over to the grounds of Medlock Primary School to learn the basics of cycling. Snigger all you like but even those of us who have been cycling for years struggled to pull off an emergency stop and swerve!

Not everyone was as confident with one-handed cycling or turning corners at the beginning but by the end of the session, we all felt capable of hitting the road next week. So confident even that some of us tried our hand at, well, no-handed cycling… It’s safe to say we won’t be attempting that on the roads any time soon!

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LesBiCon returns on Thurs 9th March 4:30-7:30pm

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LesBiCon: What do young lesbian and bisexual women want and need?

The Proud Trust and Young Women’s Health Project are recognising International Women’s Day 2017 with an event bringing together young lesbian and bisexual women aged 14-25 alongside women professionals and decisions makers. This event is organised in collaboration Sylvia Pankhurst Gender Research Centre who are hosting the evening.

When: Thursday 9th March 2017 4:30-7:30pm

Where: The Ormond Building Council Chamber, Manchester Metropolitan University, All Saints Campus, M15 (Entrance off Lower Ormond Street)

LesBiCon

 

Influential Women and Women leaders are invited to attend the event which will offer an opportunity to a engage with young Lesbian and Bisexual women directly to help bring about local change in Manchester. Women do not need to identify as lesbian or bisexual themselves but are coming with a willingness to hear from the young women involved in the event.

 

What the event will offer:

–        An educational, open and safe space for women who love women and other women allies.

–        Learning around specific health needs of lesbian and bisexual women

–        Guidance on how to make your own work or service more inclusive of young lesbian and bisexual women

–        Information to feed into financial decision making in the city around inclusion, health and youth and other agendas

–        Free health resources to use in work with young people developed by young lesbian and bisexual women

–        Accessible intergenerational space for both young lesbian and bisexual and women leaders to collaborate and exchange thoughts and experiences

 

The event will comprise a range of different activities and inputs including:

Living libraries

Research presentation

Discussion groups

Political cake decorating

Quizzes

Refreshments

 

RSVP to myrtle.finley[@]theproudtrust.org / 07530 316 656 by 2nd March 17

Download the invite here: LesBiCon IWD 9.3.17 Invite.

Weekly Sessions Start 3rd November!

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We’re excited to annouce that starting Thursday 3rd November we will be offering young lesbian and biseuxal women aged 14-25 a weekly youth group. The group will run each Thursday 4:30-6:30pm at a venue close to our offices at the LGBT centre, M1 7HB. Get in touch with myrtle on myrtle.finley[@]theproudtrust.org / 07530 316 656 for more information.

Post with information about weekly sessions

Freedom and Fashion Exhibition Trip

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On Saturday we took a trip to the Manchester Museum to visit the Freedom and Fashion exhibition inspired by the large increase in UK women’s entry into the workforce during World War I.

‘I really enjoyed seeing the different types of fashion at the exhibit and learnt a lot of things about women’s freedom and fashion’ – Olivia

‘Freedom and Fashion – The clue is in the title. When viewing the different styles of the outfits I was able to see how women and designers showed how free they felt in their designs’ – Charlie

Fun in the sun?!

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Well, the sun wasn’t shinning that brightly on our trip to Crosby Beach today and it was quite blustery at times (which made playing Volleyball that extra bit challenging/funny) but the experience warmed our hearts. Together we enjoyed trying out the outdoor exercise equipment, some games on the beach and some sun health awareness discussion. Not so much sun but definitely lots of fun!

Another wonderful Summer Camp!

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Our 14th annual Summer Camp was brimming with fun, positivity, learning and excitement. This year our theme was #WomenCan and together the young lesbian and bisexual women made a wonderful to mural to reflect the theme. Thanks to everyone who was involved in supporting the project to go ahead.