Rainbow Fund support young and old people, trans people, people with HIV, people with mental health issues and the organisations who support them, at the Rainbow Fund Pride Awards last night (September 21) at the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel.

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The annual post Pride awards ceremony was hosted by local entertainer Lola Lasagne. Dignitaries in attendance included The Mayor of Brighton and Hove, Cllr Pete West and a host of local scene personalities and politicians including Miss Jason, Davina Sparkle, David Raven, the Conveynor of the Greens, Cllr Phelim MacCafferty and the Labour Councillor for Queens Park, Adrian Morris.

Chris Gull, Chair of the Rainbow Fund thanked Brighton Pride organisers for once again delivering on their funding commitment to donate £1 a head for every ticket sold this at this years Pride to the Rainbow Fund and thanked all other groups who fundraise year round for the Rainbow Fund including Bear Patrol, Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus, Brighton Bear Weekend, all the people who make personal donations and local LGBT businesses.

He made special mention of the support of the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel who through their sponsorship arrangement with Pride donated the room and hospitality for the evenings awards.

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Chris said: “In the present difficult times when statutory authorities are making savage cutbacks to funding of all the voluntary sector, the money that comes from Pride each year should be seen by everyone as a huge ‘windfall’. The Rainbow Fund take very seriously their responsibilities to Pride and to everyone who makes a donation to the fund to ensure we get best value for money from every grant we give. This year for the first time we have issued contracts to recipients of all grants for them to produce regular evaluations on their work during the year.”

Pride 2016 raised £90,000 for the Rainbow Fund made up of £1 a head from every ticket sold for Preston Park and The Pride Village Party which generated £70,414. The rest came from official Pride fundraisers including the ‘official’ Pride parties on the night of Pride, which raised £3,282.00. However, bucketing on the Pride Parade this year raised a disappointing £1,679.00 towards the overall total.

Lola Lasagne
Lola Lasagne

Lola Lasagne, said: “I have been supporting fundraising for the LGBT+ communities in Brighton & Hove for years and feel really proud to support this event. I can honestly say tonight I have learnt about some organisations I did not even know existed and will go away and make it my mission to find out more about them. That’s what makes events like this so important.”

The following organisations received grants this year:

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David Pollikett aka Davina Sparkle presents Accessibility Matters with a grant for £1,974 toward core costs of running the project which delivers access to Pride for disabled people.
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Chris Sandland MBE presents Allsorts with a grant for £5,000 for their work with young trans people at Transformers.
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Brighton Bear Weekend presents FTMB with a grant of £1,508 to help them double their meetings to two a month.
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Cllr Adrian Morris presents MindOut, the LGBT mental health project with a grant of £4,889 to support ‘Out of the Blue’ a suicide prevention and peer support group and a further weekly social peer support group for all MindOut service users.
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Carole Todd presents Radio Reverb with a grant for £2,000 to continue supporting the ‘HIV Happy Hour’ weekly radio show dealing with issues surrounding HIV.
Jason Sutton aka Miss Jason presents Rainbow Chorus with grant of £6,850 for core funding and develop the work of RC+ which provides a platform for people who just want to sing and don't want to perform in concerts.
Jason Sutton aka Miss Jason presents Rainbow Chorus with grant of £6,850 towards core funding and to develop the work of RC+ which provides an opportunity for people who just want to sing and don’t want to perform in concerts.
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Morgan Fabulous presents Lunch Positive a grant for £10,066 towards the cost of providing a healthy meal each Friday for people with HIV.
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Broadcaster and motivational speaker Sophie Cook presents Trans Can Sport with a grant for £5,000 to help transgender and gender variant people have access to sport.
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Cllr Phelim Mac Cafferty, Convenor of the Greens presents a grant for £10,098 to BluePrint 22 a young persons project to support ‘Work it Out’ a project supporting 60 young people who have experienced barriers to employment, enterprise and education because of their sexuality or gender.
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David Raven aka Maisie Trollette presents a grant of £2,720 to Brighton GEMS to enable them to add a second daytime meeting to their monthly Friday evening meetings.
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Hervet Guyat, owner of New Steine Hotel present Peer Action with a grant of £6,493 towards core costs and continuing to provide therapies and yoga sessions for people with HIV.
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Danny Dwyer from Bear-Patrol presents Older and Out with a grant of £5,010 to help continue their once a month social club for older LGBT+people.
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The Mayor of Brighton & Hove, Cllr Pete West presents the LGBT Community Safety Forum with a grant of £12,514 for core costs, a self-defence course and a new Outreach programme.
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Jason Sutton aka Miss Jason presents Legends with a special award from the organisers of Brighton Pride to recognise their fundraising for the Rainbow Fund during Pride weekend and their sponsorship of the Legends Cabaret Tent amounting this year to over £10,000.

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Graham Robson
Graham Robson

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