Manchester Pride August 2009
After much planning and preparation the time had come, 29th – 31st August had arrived, the big weekend at Manchester Pride! Pride is a 10 day long event held every year in Manchester's Gay Village to raise awareness on homosexuality, bisexuality, transgender,
transsexual, HIV and Aids. Lisa ( Liberty House ) thought it would be a good idea for a change to work this weekend instead of partying this year and put on an information stand for Adullam at the Lifestyle Exposure Markets. The aim was to raise Adullam’s profile, give advice and reach out to those who may not know about or have access to our services. It was the first time Adullam had done this and so it was a new experience for all those involved.
Lisa had set up the stall on the Friday evening and on Saturday morning arrived to find out our table had been stolen! After a little rant and panic….despite the setback Lisa managed to sweet talk the table person into letting her have another one and met up with Andy Gale, Patricia Jordon and Brian Read from Merseyside who had kindly offered their services to man the stall for the whole day. Brian and Andy watched the all famous parade go by and according to Patricia had a thoroughly wonderful time watching the fancy costumes, dancers and performers! I think Andy and Brian may have even got over excited and agreed to dress up next year, but maybe that was just a rumour! Throughout the day they even met an ex–service user of Adullam who accessed our services 10 years ago and came over to our stall for a chat. Adrian (Liberty) also arrived later on and put some hours in between partying and watching the unknown bands playing on main stage!
On Sunday Lisa, Adrian and Cheryl (Liberty), Liz Morganti and Neil a resident at Canal Street and Pat Steeles (Stockport) all helped out on the stall and had a wander making some links with other organisations such as Albert Kennedy Trust, Black Health Agency and many more. Lisa took many contacts for volunteers on this day and we also took some referral details and sign-posted people who we couldn’t help to the right place.
On Monday Lisa and Kevin Tomkinson manned the stall with two Liberty Residents Michael and Stephen who were taken aback by having free passes for the whole day and couldn’t wait to use them to come back later that day to have a look around. Michael was inspired by the work Adullam do and was really happy to have been asked to be involved. They were especially pleased with the free goodies they collected from other information stands, but aside from that both did some networking with agencies and Michael had a chat with staff from Bury Council to promote our 2 new upcoming services! Lisa was so tired she didn’t even get to watch Peter Andre perform that evening!
The whole weekend was admittedly tiring, but well worth it and since the event I have been informed by Paula Crawford that they have had 2 people make enquiries / referrals to the Trafford Project as a result of this. Liberty too have sent out referral forms and had the Albert Kennedy Trust come to one of our team meetings. Next year we plan to have a float for the
Parade and plan to promote our services even further. This was our first bash at this and all involved felt it was an excellent way to network and see what else is out there.
Lisa would like to thank everyone who came to help out over the weekend, staff and residents…it was a pleasure to meet you all and work with you in a different environment, your input and efforts were inspiring and really express what Adullam is all about so thank you. I hope to see you all again next year!
Lisa Bennett-Thornton
Acting Project Manager Liberty House
