West Cumbria’s first dedicated LGBT+ hub for young people is opening soon in Maryport.
Pride in North Cumbria, a Cumbrian LGBT+ youth charity, is opening the new safe space after years of wanting to make their services accessible further west.
The Maryport venue will open officially next week and will give young people aged between 13 and 24 a safe space to socialise with tea, coffee, entertainment and organised activities.
Project manager Pam Eland said: “We’ve got a HQ in Carlisle and it’s been open for nearly 11 years now. But we’ve always had people phoning up or coming in and saying is there any services in different places and there isn’t many really.
“There is smaller services, we’ve got Over the Rainbow doing something in Workington, Proud and Diverse who did Whitehaven’s first pride in September and other smaller groups doing things.
“But we thought because our Carlisle centre goes down well and is a dedicated space that we could offer that same kind of service further out west.”
The new hub is being launched in partnership with mental health Community Interest Company Always Another Way and has been funded mainly by Children in Need and partly by Cumbria Community Foundation.
Pam added: “It’s important to have spaces like this everywhere and our plan is to expand into different areas. It’s all about being visual, because when we’re not visual people think there’s no need for these services here.
“It’s all about being loud and proud if you like and while we do predominately work with young people because we’re a young person’s charity, we do occasionally work with adults.
“People will often say why do you still need a safe space when you can get married now and it’s because there’s still bad homophobia out there.
“Safe spaces give young people the chance to develop their confidence and life skills. They can drop in, have a cup of tea, play some board games, meet people and get information and advice.
“We also go with what the young people want so we can deliver workshops or other organised activities depending on where they guide us. As we develop our service in Maryport we will also offer more things.”
Pam added that making services like safe spaces accessible across the county was important due to Cumbria’s rural nature.
She said: “Cumbria is very rural, so travelling from the west coast to access a service somewhere like Carlisle is a struggle. Yes we have the west coast line but it’s expensive and not always the right times you want for travelling.
“Areas like Appleby and further out can be even more cut off from services. But with the Maryport hub we’re not looking to replicate services already in the area – we just want to enhance things.”
Pam said Pride in North Cumbria have also obtained funding to look at doing more outreach work wider afield.
She said: “There’s actually a lot going on in Cumbria, Cumbria is one of the only places in the UK to have a dedicated LGBT+ hub and café like we offer in Carlisle and we’re getting more visual stuff with things like Whitehaven Pride, Cumbria Pride, Kendal Pride and Silloth Pride.
“We just love Maryport too, I think it’s such a nice place and we’re hoping to get involved in community projects like Maryport Carnival and do outreach in the area with local businesses and schools.”
The hub will be open on Monday’s and Wednesday’s from 3pm until 6pm for young people to drop in. Further time slots will be introduced in the future.
Pride in North Cumbria are also looking to host a carnival-inspired diversity march in June in Carlisle and are planning to bring together different protected characteristic organisations together for it.
