A Greater Manchester youth charity is aiming to raise enough money for 1,500 hours of support this Pride season after discovering anti- LGBTQ+ bullying remains a ‘huge problem’ and less than half of young people feel confident their school would appropriately handle a student coming out as trans.
Research from The Proud Trust, independently analysed by Manchester Metropolitan University, found that 90 per cent of teachers and school staff say they need more training and support to better equip them in supporting trans students. Meanwhile only 48 per cent of young people feel confident that their school would do well at supporting a student who came out as trans.
The findings come after the #2022 BeeWell survey of young people in Greater Manchester found that trans young people report significantly higher levels of stress and lower levels of life satisfaction and psychological wellbeing, than their cis counterparts.
After seeing a surge in trans and non-binary young people seeking their help, The Proud Trust is aiming to raise enough money to fund 1,500 hours of support for LGBTQ+ young people this pride season through its Time to Be Proud charity campaign.
Kate Heppell, business development and partnerships manager at The Proud Trust, says: “Unfortunately for many of our young people anti-LGBTQ+ bullying in schools is still a huge problem that they’re facing.
“We’re still seeing young people being pushed out of mainstream education because of bullying and lack of acceptance from not just their peers but their teachers sometimes as well. There is still a long way to go.”
The Proud Trust supports young people across the North-West through youth groups and mentoring programmes and provides support nationally through its Proud Connections Live Chat service and inclusion training programmes.
In March the charity launched its free Trans Inclusion Toolkit Trans Inclusion Toolkit to help schools better support trans and non-binary students.
Kate says: “Teachers want to do the right thing, but they don’t know what the right thing is.”
Kate adds that out of those The Proud Trust supports trans young people are currently facing the ‘biggest challenges’ due to the number of negative news stories in the press and the lengthy waiting lists they face to see gender specialists.
“If someone sees their GP at 16, they might not be seen by a specialist until their early twenties so it can be a really long wait,” she says.
Kate says that all the young people at The Proud Trust ‘care deeply’ about trans rights.
“All of your youth groups have a lot of trans young people in them, and all are young people have close friends who are trans, so all our young people care really deeply about trans rights, and the negative media messaging is really affecting them, and they want to push back on that,” she says.
Kate says that anti-trans media coverage has also had a detrimental effect on the level of funding The Proud Trust receives from corporate partners making it more difficult for the charity to cover costs.
In a bid to help reach its target of funding 1,500 hours of support, The Proud Trust is appealing for more supporters to raise donations through the easyfundraising website and app where it is a registered cause.
Once supporters have signed up to easyfundraising and chosen The Proud Trust as their cause the retailers they shop with via the easyfundraising website – from John Lewis to Just Eat – will automatically donate a percentage of their purchase to The Proud Trust without adding any extra expense to their bill.
Any money raised through Easyfundraising during June, July and August will go towards the charity’s Pride season fundraising campaign. To date The Proud Trust has raised £2,000 through easyfundraising.
“Every penny raised is so valuable and it goes a long way. Staffing our services costs £30 an hour so £2,000 will have funded quite a few hours,” Kate says.
Over Pride season the Proud Trust helps ensure as many young people as possible get to take part in local celebrations with Manchester Pride in August being one of the charity’s highlights of the year. You can support The Proud Trust using the easyfundraising website or app.
