About us
Leeds LGBTQ+ Community Consortium is working with partners to reduce social isolation amongst older, unwell, disabled or otherwise restricted members of the LGBTQ+ communities.
What we do
Formed during the COVID-19 lockdown, the consortium aims to reduce social isolation within the LGBTQ+ community through inter-generational activities, events, and information sharing.
Member groups include several LGBTQ+ organisations representing diverse identities and interests. These are: LGBT+ Women’s Space, Out Together, Pride of Place Leeds, Free2BMe, Fresh Grassroots Rainbow Community, TransPrideLeeds, TransLeeds and The Alphabet Collective.
Despite challenges, with successful funding from various sources, the consortium offers a diverse program of events, both online and in-person, to enhance the lives of isolated LGBTQ+ individuals in Leeds and beyond.
If you or your organisation would like to get involved please contact us via our “contact us” link.
In 2020, led by Pride of Place Leeds Ltd, a number of LGBTQ+ organisations came together including Sage, LGBT Women’s Space, and Out Together to form a consortium to jointly address and enhance the provision of services for the increasing number of isolated LGBTQ+ people in Leeds.
During the pandemic and beyond many were restricted to their homes due to age, illness or disability, and some had no family close by, or no family at all, and may have experienced antagonism from neighbours.
Leeds LGBTQ+ Community Consortium became a constituted organisation in 2021 and a registered charity (CIO) in June 2022. LLCC currently has three trustees and a steering group made up of members of the other organisations involved in the consortium. All are volunteers and members of the local LGBTQ+ community.
Initially LLCC provided online sessions where people could meet via zoom and take part in arranged activities. This gradually included some to face-to-face events once the pandemic restrictions were lifted and people felt safe to go out and meet others.
In early 2021 LLCC contracted the freelance services of a “Cool Coordinator” to organise events. In 2023 LLCC ran 126 free sessions in total.
Trans Leeds, Free2Bme, Fresh Grassroots Rainbow Community and The Alphabet Collective have since joined the Consortium and it now provides a mixture of free online and in-person sessions, continuing to enhance the lives of isolated LGBTQ+ people in Leeds and beyond.
I started coming to the sessions while I was caring for both my parents who had different health issues, while being severely disabled myself and my mental health had tanked as a result. Coming to these sessions was one thing I could do for myself and one thing I could do to try to make sense of myself as a carer to my parents and how I felt about my dad’s loss of cognition etc. It’s been a world of good for me to come here, and while I don’t make it every month I’m so glad when I do because it gives me so much energy to be who I am outside of myself as me as a carer.
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