SAYiT had a great night last night celebrating the fantastic work being done in Sheffield's Voluntary Sector at the Sheffield Community Awards. And we were very proud to win the partnership award.
There are so many wonderful groups and individuals working in the city to support vulnerable and marginalised people, looking after our animals and environment, providing health, sports and leisure activities, celebrating our diversity, cultures and heritage and much more to make Sheffield the fantastic city it is.
LGBTQ+ people are under unprecedented attack currently from our government, media and increasing hate crimes and discrimination, and our young people are facing navigating this hostile environment on top of all of the challenges that come with adolescence.
Our work at SAYiT supporting the mental wellbeing of LGBTQ+ young people has never been more needed in this climate and we couldn't do it without all of the individuals and groups who support and work with us.
We have a hugely passionate dedicated staff team and board of trustees and our work is supported by 50 volunteers.
We are hugely greatful to every person who has volunteered with us, fundraised to support our work, completed our training to increase their LGBTQ+ knowledge, attended our events and worked on partnership projects with us - we couldn't do the work we do without your support, so thankyou to everyone of you.
Here are just a few examples of some of the partnership work we have been doing this year:
Sheffield LGBT+ Multi-Agency Network
We co-chair this network with LGBT Sheffield bringing together groups and organisations representing and working with members of Sheffield's LGBTQ+ communities to share infomation, work together on group events and activities and consult with and provide a shared voice for issues affecting Sheffield's LGBT+ communities.
LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Sport
SAYiT is the charity partner of Rainbow Blades and Rainbow Owls, the LGBTQ+ supporters clubs of Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday football clubs. We have worked on joint charity football tournaments and events with Rainbow Blades and Rainbow Owls have been actively supporting our hate crime work. We also worked with Sheffield United Community Foundation on their Empower project, supporting more LGBTQ+ young people to participate in sports and physical activity.
Hate Crime
SAYiT is a 3rd Party Hate Crime reporting centre and an active member of the Sheffield Hate Crime Priority Group. We have also been running a rolling programme of workshops for LGBTQ+ young people on managing the mental health impacts of hate crime and recently ran our Break The Hate: Responding to Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate conference bringing together 120 professionals to look at what our services can do to challenge anti-LGBTQ+ hate.
Thankyou again to everyone we have worked with and we look forward to working with more of you in the months and years to come.
Heather Paterson - CEO, SAYiT