A grant for the county’s transgender community

A GROUP serving transgender people in Hinckley received funding from the National Lottery.

The Leicester LGBT Centre is getting funds through the lottery’s Reaching Communities scheme.

The money will go towards a project providing support for adult transgender people, by challenging hate crime and reducing social isolation.

It will function throughout Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, working to prevent discrimination and improve psychological wellbeing.

Working with both adults and their families, it will increase understanding and awareness of the issues affecting the transgender community.

It will also work to develop effective referral pathways between partner agencies.

The project will formally launch towards the end of 2017.

Mathew Hulbert, chairman of Leicester LGBT Centres, from Barwell, said: “We’re very pleased and proud to have secured this funding for what will be a pivotal project as we move into our fifth decade.

“We will now be, across the age ranges, one of the leading organisations in the whole country providing support, information, advice and more for our transgender communities.

“I pay tribute to the sterling efforts of our staff team in securing this funding.”

The project will complement the centre’s existing Young Transgender Centre of Excellence Project, which started in November 2015, thanks to funding from Children in Need.