2024 will be our final year
After 8 years together, we have made the difficult decision to close Colours Youth Network. It’s been a tough call to make, but at the same time, it really feels like the right decision for our organisation, and so 2024 will be our final legacy year. Committing to a final legacy year is a chance for us to do justice to our organisation, as well as to all the young people and youth workers who have made our work possible. By investing time in work across the year, we hope to ensure our legacy is a lasting one! Over the last few years, it has become clear that the biggest need for LGBTQ POC youth is provision that supports under 18s, that is regular, and that has a local focus. Sadly, that isn't work we have the capacity to facilitate. Equally, as more and more services have been cut across the country and life has become harder in so many ways for all our communities, priorities in youth work funding have shifted towards work that directly addresses more critical needs young people have. Whilst our work with LGBTQ POC youth is sacred and valued by so many, we understand that it’s not where current funding priorities lie. Since forming as a team back in 2016, we have hosted LGBTQ POC youth residentials, festivals, pride events, youth worker gatherings, and more - including most recently our Youth Advisory Group. We are so proud of the work Colours Youth Network has achieved and in this final legacy year, we want to give time to properly celebrate as well as document all that we’ve done! Over the course of our legacy year, we will be focusing our work in 5 key areas:
We want to thank you, everyone who has followed, supported, attended and encouraged our services for LGBTQ POC youth and youth workers over the years. We invite you to continue to support us throughout our legacy year - we’d love you to keep sharing our resources, inviting young people and colleagues to our events and if you’re able, donate to support our work in the key areas shared above. To all the young people who have been a part of our journey...
We have loved meeting you, working with you and supporting you for the last 8 years! We’ve been inspired and energised by all of you, from your politics to your creativity, to your desire to do more for other young people and build your own movements and spaces. You’ve come to our events with courage and openness and filled our spaces with love. We’ve witnessed so many of your personal journeys and growth and are so honoured to be a part of them, we are excited for you and your journeys ahead. Closing Colours Youth Network has been a tough decision for our team, however, we hold sadness about this end alongside excitement and hope. Each of you have the power to make change happen - this work is proof of that. We believe in all of you, you are already a part of an incredible LGBTQ POC youth community, keep creating and keep going! We will be building a directory of support services across the year for LGBTQ POC youth, but if you need help with finding support now, you can get in touch with us. In the meantime you can visit the link in our bio where you’ll find resources to look after your wellbeing. Big love, Chloe, Sabah and Norrina 💜 A short history of Colours Youth Network In 2016, we came together as a small group of QTIPOC youth workers, in search of support, community and more joined up working for supporting QTIPOC youth in the UK and within our youth organisations. We recognised the scarcity of QTIPOC youth spaces, the isolation present for us as QTIPOC youth workers but also the strength we felt together. From that meeting, the network commitment to supporting both QTIPOC youth and youth workers was born... Later that year we ran our very first QTIPOC youth residential! Since 2016 Colours Youth Network has continued to grow in our offer for young people and youth workers. We have supported young people from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to access QTIPOC youth spaces, but this is just the beginning, we want to do long term sustainable work that builds a legacy in the UK. In 2019 Colours Youth Network was nominated for a National Diversity Award and in 2020 we were acknowledged in the British LGBT Awards top 10 Community and Charity Initiatives. Colours Youth UK is an independent QTIPOC youth organisation
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