2024: 29 June - 14 July

Pride Day: Sat 13 July

Bristol Pride Community Fund

A fund for LGBT+ projects run by, and for the community

Bristol Pride Community Fund has been created to provide opportunities and activities which enhance or improve the lives of LGBT+ people in Bristol and the surrounding areas. 

We provide small grant funding to individuals, collectives, organisations or small charities to deliver projects that address issues that affect us all, help under-represented groups reach out and help LGBT+ community events that just need a little support.

The February 2023 Awardees

Trans Pride Southwest

Trans Pride Southwest will be using the funding to support their 2023 programme of events in November, ensuring we can continue to offer a range of events for the community. Our initial ideas for our 2023 programme include our regular annual Community Day, Protest and March, Afterparty, Comedy night, and Poetry Night, as well as some new ideas including youth events, sober coffee afternoons, an alternative gig, an open mic night, and sports events.

Windmill Hill City Farm

Members of their staff team who belong to the LGBTQI+ community ran activities. They were keen to be part of Pride and the idea of running these sessions came from them.

The farm ran four, two hour long, sessions across the two sites. These were aimed to be for adults, who were welcome to bring their children along. Two of the sessions focussed on growing, run by the gardening team. Two other sessions focussed on animal care, run by the farming team. Participants had a tour of our farm animals, which include cows, pigs, goats, sheep and chickens. Participants had the chance to feed the animals and top up the hay racks. For the brave, there was even the chance to muck out!

Section 28 and Me, Tea party

This was a community outreach project that fostered understanding and relationships within the LGBTQ+ community, by exploring the effect of Section 28. It brought together different generations within the queer community: those who have lived with section 28 and those today who have very different experiences, bridging the gap of our very recent history.

Conversations and interactions from the tea party style event were recorded and developed into a podcast, made available to the public through all major audio platforms.

Queer Space Bristol CIC

These funds will allowed for a day of rest and retreat for the trans and non-binary community. Held at the accessible, private, Boiling Wells setting, a small woodland valley just 3 minutes walk from St Werburghs farm in Bristol, this outdoor gathering was an offering for trans and non-binary people to rest and connect with nature and each other around the fireside. Activities during the day included drawing, lino printing, archery, a reflective writing invitation around the fire, a shared lunch and space and time to rest in each other’s company.

Queer China UK

This project offered a platform for Chinese LGBTQ+ in Bristol to join together and establish community cohesiveness through zine making, to get to know and support for each other. At the event, each participant was able to make a zine detailing their life story, how they found their gender identity, and how this identify impacts their lives in Bristol.

Secondly, the project presented the life stories of Chinese LGBTQ+ individuals in Bristol through photography and oral history. Jing, as a photographer, combined
photographs and writing to capture the tales of Chinese LGBTQ+ in Bristol, as well as explored how Bristol's culture impacts the community. The participants' zines, photos, and written works will be displayed in an LGBTQ+-friendly location.

Phoenix Song Project

Phoenix Song Project is a Bristol-based music therapy organisation by and for trans and nonbinary people. These groups were facilitated by a committee member-worker trained in therapeutic songwriting, who is also a member of the local trans and nonbinary communities. The groups offered a supportive space for self-expression and community support.

Phoenix Song project groups provide a space for trans and nonbinary people to experience and develop their creativity, especially musically, in an explicitly inclusive setting, with peers who share some understanding of what other group members may have gone through.

Disabled Allyship in the LGBTQ+ World

An interactive panel event with spoken word held at Kuumba Centre, St Paul’s. We encouraged and supported first time panellists to share lived experience of intersectionality; looking at the intersect of LGBTQ+ and disabled people.

Bristol Equality Celebration Tea Dance

This event celebrated queer social dancing, enabling new and experienced LGBTQ+ dancers to access activities and make new connections. The goal was to increase the visibility of queer social dancing in Bristol and provide a foundation for future development work.
It was also important that the event is affordable for everyone regardless of income, so part of the funding enabled concessionary tickets for people on low incomes.

Previously Funded Projects (2021-2022)

LGBT+ Faces of Bristol

LGBT+ Faces of Bristol aims to represent and empower the LGBTQ+ community in Bristol, by hosting photographic portraits on their website, as well as sharing across social media. Bristol Pride Community Fund enabled the printing and framing of portraits that toured various venues around Bristol including the Tobacco Factory, Bristol Pride’s Art Trail and the Grain Barge.

Let's Walk - Nordic Walking

Let's Walk are an ethnically diverse led walking group providing sessions in Central and East Bristol, empowering and motivating people who may be new to the activity.
Bristol Pride Community Fund funded a free taster session of Nordic walking. Held during Pride week, the session was aimed at the LGBTQ+ community to encourage people to be physically active and try a new sport.

Pride Comic Art Festival

PrideCAF is a one day event that showcases LGBTQ+ comic artists and zine creators. Comics and zines have played a vital role in the past in spreading information to the community where they are usually censored. PrideCAF gives the vibrant, independent community of creators a spotlight to show their work. The aim of the event is to provide free entry for people of all ages to explore, connect and engage with LGBTQ+ comic and zine creators.

Bristol Pride Community Fund enabled PrideCAF to pay the travel expenses for special guests who have extensive knowledge of working as independent comic creators as well as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community. The fund also helped with table hire, refreshments and promotional material meaning more people were able to take part.

Trauma Breakthrough

Breakthrough is a charity for adult survivors of trauma and abuse across the South West. 1-in-5 people experience trauma (childhood abuse, accidents, domestic violence, sexual assault) during their lifetime. This team provides specialist therapy, group therapy, support and wellbeing services; a crisis helpline for service-users; befriending; and mental health courses.
The Community Fund enabled free places for LGBT+ individuals on a 10-week mental health skills course helping groups of up to 12 survivors of trauma understand the impact of trauma on the mind and body, and develop skills to help their mental health, relationships, recovery, and coping strategies both now and in future life.

“I found this group to be so informative and helpful, helping me feel better able to handle life basically” - START participant

Haunting Ashton Court

Bristol Pride Community Fund supported a large public event at Ashton Court at the end of September, involving performances from acclaimed Bristol-based artists Saili Katebe, Asmaa Jama and Tom Marshman, as well as a takeover of the music room, with plants and atmospheric lighting. They were also able to hire a professional photographer to record the evening. The group were also able to put on free transport to reach over 20 people who would not have been able to access the event otherwise.

“The fund made a huge difference. It allowed us to get the event off the ground, enhance our reach through the partnership with Bristol Pride, and fund the performers, who are majority working-class, LGBTQ+ and Global Majority background. “ - Jack Young

A Shining Intimacy - Tom Marshman Performance

Through the show and archive workshop, Tom invited the audience to reflect on their own support networks, the strong bonds that can come from oppression, and bring other work and that of the archives to a wider queer audience. Bristol Pride Community Fund ensured that the performance and accompanying workshop could happen after a previously unsuccessful Arts Council application.

“The fund provided essential funds to help make the show a reality… Many audience members connected with the show on a very emotional level, which was heartening to see as it is such a personal story that touches on grief, friendship, queerness, loneliness, and mental illness.” - Nia Evans, Producer

Head of English with books
St Bonaventure’s School, Bishopston

St Bonaventure’s School in Bishopston was awarded £500 to purchase books that represent as wide a range of identities, by buying over 50 books recommended for children to explore our diverse communities in an age-appropriate way.

Each class chooses a book as part of their Power of Reading topic for the term, responding to the children’s experiences and backgrounds and integrating the learning across all subjects. The school’s library will also showcase a special section as a toolbox for children to read more about diversity as they wish to.

Our October 2023 Awardees

Bristol Pride are excited to announce our October 2023 Awardees:

Yate Academy – Promoting LGBT+ inclusivity through staff training and role model visits

Trauma BreakthroughSTART Programme places for LGBT Trauma Survivors. 

Queer Hiking Bristol Peak District Hiking Weekend

Queer ChinaReclaiming Narratives: Healing and Empowerment for Chinese-speaking LGBTQ+ Communities

House of ManningtonBlack Excellence Cabaret

Hong Kong Film Festival CIC – Lan Yu Screening and Discussion

Evergreen Primary AcademyLGBTQ+ Book Collection and Evergreen’s LGBTQ+ Visibility Lanyards and Flags . 

Elmfield School for Deaf Children – Elmfield LGBTQ Club

House of Boussé – TRANS/FORM

Bristol Association of Neighbourhood DaycareLGBTQ+ Visibility Training Course

Brigstowe Project – Our Stories Told By Us – Bristol Roadshow

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