At United St Saviour’s Charity, June was an exciting month, filled with fun, festivity, inclusivity, and connection, as we celebrated our first Pride Month since launching the Rainbow Club and signing the LGBTQ+ Housing Pledge earlier this year.
Pride Month is an important celebration of LGBTQ+ identities, history, and the ongoing fight for equality. As June and July brought pride festivities throughout London, United St Saviour’s was ecstatic to be able to celebrate in our borough of Southwark, alongside our community.
To kick things off, having received funding from Southwark Council, we were grateful for the opportunity to be able to stage our Pride Panto, Prince Charming. Bringing every colour of the rainbow to Appleby Blue, the Pride Panto was a spectacular show, consisting of upbeat 80s music, colourful costumes, and hilarious jokes that had the audience laughing throughout.
Head of Housing, Jude Leighton, performing in ‘Prince Charming’.
Our Rainbow Club’s Pride Panto was a huge success, filling the Garden room with a full spectrum of entertainment, laughter, celebration, and love. We extend our sincere gratitude to Southwark Council for their invaluable grant contribution, which made this production possible.
Following the festivities of our Pride Panto, we were pleased to invite Dr Georgia Bowers and Dr Frances Sanders from the University of Surrey to join us at our Head Office to discuss The Life House Impact Project, a study that explores training for housing providers to recognise the needs of LGBTQ+ adults in housing and social care.
As part of this study, they created an animation to support training for housing providers, exploring the lived experiences of older LGBTQ+ adults. A particular highlight was being able to see the product of collaboration between United St Saviour’s and the University of Surrey, with some of our Appleby Blue residents sharing their experiences for the research and lending their voices to the animation.
We are incredibly grateful to the University of Surrey for their partnership and for their dedication to this impactful project. We were appreciative of the opportunity to learn from the animation and training day, as well as through our insightful and enriching discussion amongst staff members.
Although June has now come to a close, we endeavour to continue to promote an atmosphere of inclusion and connection throughout our almshouses and the wider borough, to stay committed to the LGBTQ+ Housing Pledge, and to continue to learn from and support our community throughout the year.