A youth group is launching in a Welsh city in a bid to offer help the young LGBT+ community living there.
The Newport LGBTQ+Youth Group has been set up to tackle the lack of facilities and support available in Wales' third largest city, Newport, for young LGBT+ people.
Supported by Media Academy Cymru and Newport Youth Council, the group will aim to provide young LGBT+ people in Newport with social support and will be looking to launch later this month.
Media Academy Cymru offers a range of skills for young people to pursue, such as courses in media production and music, while Newport Youth Council is a youth-led forum that aims to influence key decisions that matter to young people in Newport.
The group will cater for young people aged between 11-25 in Newport.
Nerida Bradley, 22, who lives in Cardiff will be co-facilitating the group along with Georgia Coles-Riley, 29, from Pembrokeshire.
“Basically the Newport Youth Council did a consultation in the past year looking at the LGBT+ community” Nerida said.
“What they found was very little. Quite often for queer organisations, everything seems to be more Cardiff central. They found that there was nothing there for young people in Newport”.
Key to ensure that the group is facilitated by young people, Nerida hopes to support LGBT+ youth with meetings and access to leisure facilities.
“With Media Academy Cymru, we have those specialisms there such as film, graphics and things like that. We’re there to facilitate what they want and what they want from their city,” Nerida said.
“We’re quite keen to use the principles of youth work. We want to ensure that everything we do is young person led”.
Here's an example of an LGBT youth club, in Caernarfon:
Being a young LGBT+ person herself, Nerida hopes that the group will be beneficial for people's well being.
“As a young LGBT+ person I know how vital it is to have queer spaces. I know how important those spaces are for young LGBT+ people to connect with the community and to learn from each-other" she added.
“I feel passionate about it because I think LGBT+ specific support and spaces are really important for people’s well being. I think it’s amazing that you have these organisations that are willing to support this project, it’s really exciting”.
