Education
We engage with the local Education Authority, and with individual schools, in relation to education of pupils about sexual orientation and about homophobic and transphobic bullying. We sit on the local Anti-Bullying Strategy Group.
Youth Services
We are working with the local authority Youth Service to improve the provision of advice, guidance and support to young people who are, or who think they may be, LGBT. With them we are seeking to establish an LGBT Youth Group in the Borough. If you are an LGBT young person with ideas, contact us!
Older People's Services
We are very aware that older LGBT people are sometimes overlooked in relation to the provision of the services that they need. This is a new area of interest for us and we are seeking to establish what needs to be done. We would be particularly interested to hear from more older LGBT people in the Borough.
Community Safety
We are members of the local Community and Police Partnership and we regularly attend Community Safety Partnership consultations and events. We work closely with the local police, including their Community Safety Unit (who deal with hate crimes) and the various Safer Neighbourhood Teams (who provide local policing in each ward of the Borough). We have significantly influenced the reporting and investigation of homophobic and transphobic hate crime and the policing of areas where there are specific concerns by members of the LGBT community. Victims of homophobic crimes in the Borough are offered referral to the Forum for additional support by the police and by the local Victim Support service.
Domestic abuse
The Forum is represented on the local Domestic Abuse Forum and plays an active role in many of their sub-groups. We have an arrangement in place whereby we provide advice to the statutory agencies in cases of domestic abuse being dealt with at MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Protocol) meetings where they involve LGBT people.
Health
We have a number of members with a particular interest in various aspects of health services and we seek to engage with all local consultations on the subject. We are represented at meetings of the local LINk, ensuring that the specific needs and concerns of the LGBT community are thoroughly considered. Our input has led to significant changes to local health service strategy to ensure that the particular needs of the LGBT community are met. If you are a member of the LGBT community and have any specific needs which are not currently met by the health service then we need to hear from you!
Social care
As with Older People's Services, this is a new area of interest for the Forum and we are currently seeking to establish exactly what the current situation is and where any improvements are needed. If you are an LGBT member of the local community and are a user of social care services we would be very interested to hear your views on their adequacy and on any improvements that you would like to see.
Housing
We engage with the local authority Housing Department and with local Registered Social Landlords (such as the Richmond Housing Partnership and the Richmond upon Thames Churches Housing Trust) to ensure that housing services meet the needs of the LGBT community and that any issues are dealt with promptly and effectively.
Homelessness
This is a third area of relatively new interest for the Forum. We are particularly interested in the issue of homelessness in relation to young LGBT people, perhaps who have become estranged from their families and lost their home as a result coming out about their sexual orientation. We hope to convene a conference on the subject in the near future, bringing together the various statutory and voluntary organisations who currently address related issues in the hope of identifying a better way of coordinating them.
Equalities
We recognise that sexual orientation is only one of a number of diversity strands and that where people fall into more than one minority category they can suffer multiple discrimination and harassment. We are members of the local authority Equalities Strategy Steering Group and play a full role in it's activities. We are actively seeking more members from ethnic minority groups, with the whole range of religious beliefs or with disabilities so that we can better understand, and represent, their perspectives. If this is you, join us!!