London’s largest charity for the older LGBTQ community has been awarded a £300,000 grant
Opening Doors London helps give a voice to the older LGBTQ community
By Steve Brown
London’s largest charity for older LGBTQ people has been awarded a £300,000 grant.
Opening Doors London (ODL) were awarded the funding from City Bridge Trust – the City of London Corporation’s charitable funder – to help it develop and expand its ‘Ambassadors’ programme.
Led by volunteers, the scheme aims to represent older LGBTQ people and give them a voice to service providers, policy makers, researchers and the media.
The donation will fund the ‘Ambassadors’ programme for the next five years and is supported by a part-time policy officer and a part-time ambassador support officer.
Dhruv Patel, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s City Bridge Trust Committee, said: “Opening Doors London’s work goes to the heart of our own commitment to tackle disadvantage across the capital and help make London a fairer and better place in which to live.
“My colleagues at City Bridge Trust were impressed by the charity’s sterling work to support the needs of people from the older LGBT+ community who, all too often, can feel isolated, lonely, and discriminated against.
“We hope that this significant grant for Opening Doors London will help it build upon the success of its commendable ‘Ambassadors’ programme over the next five years.”
Alice Wallace, Director of Opening Doors London, said: “Opening Doors London Ambassadors are volunteers who are over 50 and who identify as LGBT+ and who are happy to speak about growing up LGBT+ before recent legislation was in place to protect their equality rights.
“They also speak to health and social care professionals about the inequalities that their generation still faces today.
“We are delighted that funding from the City Bridge Trust will ensure that our Ambassador volunteer programme expands in the years ahead, and that the experience of our LGBT+ city elders continues to inform and influence inclusive health and social care services in this internationally recognised city of diversity.”