Funding appeal for city LGBTQ+ community groups

A non-profit organisation is calling on the community it serves to help raise "vital funds" to help inclusion, visibility, safety, and wellbeing for LGBTQ+ people in a city.

The Milton Keynes Community Foundation said it hoped its new Rainbow Fund would provide grants to local groups, voluntary organisations and charities.

Lucy Roberts said the fund would prioritise groups that included people who faced "multiple forms of discrimination".

The foundation said it would match-fund the first £25,000 of donations.

"People are really working for more visibility for these issues so I am really confident that people in the community will step up and support the fund," said Ms Roberts.

The foundation's previous work has included funding transgender awareness training for care home staff with the Q:alliance charity, and supporting British sign language interpreters and providing braille materials for the Milton Keynes Pride event.

Any money donated, such as by local businesses and organisations, could also be used to support people who are neurodivergent, for refugee communities, and to help improve mental and sexual health.

"We know Milton Keynes is a really beautifully diverse place to live, but members of the LGBTQ+ community still face discrimination in our area," added Ms Roberts.

"If we invest in this community, it already has the tools and it knows how to lift each other up and to create safety and joy and new experiences."

The fund has been launched along with an Our City, Our Story campaign, to celebrate the history of LGBTQ+ movements in Milton Keynes, which included the Campaign for Homosexual Equality group in Wolverton in the 1970s.

Roberts added: "This fund is for the community to tell us, what more do we need

"Do we need book clubs? Do we need clubs for couples who want to become parents? Do we need more safe spaces? Do we need arts and culture projects?"

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.