What is Blossom LGBT?  

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Blossom LGBT is a not for profit organisation that works with 16 to 30 year olds across the UK help them step into adulthood. We operate under the simple belief that no young person should face economic or social exclusion because of who they love or the gender they are. 

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It's our mission is to empower queer young adults and engage wider society to address the systemic barriers of discrimination, poverty, and social disadvantage faced by young queer people. In more friendly language, that makes we we equip young adults and wider society with the tools, support, and opportunities they need to thrive. Through education, advocacy, and community programmes, we challenge inequality and foster a more inclusive society where every young person can succeed and live with dignity. 

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Our biggest programme is a one to one mentoring scheme where queer young adults spend four weeks on an intense course with our team on confidence building and establishing their why, before we connect them with a volunteer mentor for up to a year to help them launch their lives as an adult. Meanwhile, we have a number of workshop schemes and social spaces designed to build soft and hard skills in peer-to-peer support settings. We also repurpose the learning from our brilliant service users to create guidance for businesses on what it means to really attract and retain young adults, which is imperative when queer Gen-Z only spend an average of 6 months in their first jobs whilst making up over a quarter of the population! 

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 Why did you set it up?  

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When I founded Blossom, I was volunteering as a local authority youth worker for an LGBT+ group. I noticed that young people had a cliff edge for support, they received fantastic tailored support up until their 18th birthday but then they often either fell between the cracks or got passed into adult services which provided a very different level of support. The reality is, the needs of an 18 year old are often worlds apart from the needs of someone who is 50 or 60 years old, yet in adult services they would receive a very similar level of support. So, I knew that Blossom needed to bridge this gap by providing something that was youth work inspired but leaned further into building personal autonomy and resilience in young adults.

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This all compounded when a young man who I had been working with took his own life. As he stepped into adulthood, a number of targeted youth services begun to end their support for him. Unfortunately took his own life within a year. I remember speaking to his mum shortly afterwards and her saying that his trans identity was almost the smallest part of his story and one of the easiest things for him to cope with, I spent a lot of time reflecting after that conversation on what could have been if we had just been able to see past a person's LGBT+ identity and address the entire person. Ever since, Blossom has been operating in his memory with an ethos that we can provide a softer landing for those who need a more accessible and holistic level of support once they turn 18 years old. 

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 When you set Blossom LGBT up, were you surprised by discrimination and social disadvantage young queer people were getting?  

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Well, yes and no... When I founded Blossom LGBT I was still a young adult myself, I was in my early 20s and the service was really a "for us, by us" kind of group. In the early days, we'd just informally meet in a coffee shop after hours once a week and it was mostly young adults who I had been supporting previously as a youth worker so I already knew their stories and needs.

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As we grew, I started to be surprised more often. I never expected we'd start receiving referrals in to our services from the police, social services, or mental health workers but I also didn't realize how underserved queer communities outside of more metropolitan areas are. People would travel hours to come to our meeting group and for some it was the only time they'd leave the house every week. I remember one young adult had been in and out of mental health hospitals for years, I was really scared that we wouldn't be able to save them, fast-forwards to today and they credit having the stability of a meeting space and a community of peers to being the reason they broke the cycle of hospitalisation... Hopefully I'll be invited to their wedding (to someone they met at our groups) in the summer! Similarly, I didn't expect to welcome a baby from a connection we made or end up talking on stages in front of 100's of people.

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I certainly never expected us to grow to the size we are now and have the demand for our services that we do. I always assumed Blossom would just be one small meeting group that met in the evenings; not a national service employing multiple full time employees. Today, I still hear stories of discrimination that knock me off my chair, like one young girl who recently referred into us after she was hospitalized by an assault at work because of her identity, but I try not to let it phase me too much. People come to us because they're ready to move forwards so I feel as though it's important for me not to get too bogged down with how awful the world can be and focus on how amazing our worlds will be.

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 Do you feel it's getting better or worse for queer people at the moment? 

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It's definitely hard at the moment, there's absolutely no denying that. I think some of the global scale work I'm engaged in outside of Blossom really puts that into perspective. When you're supporting people who face the prospect of a government sanctioned death simply for loving another person, you realise how awful the world can be. But, I think we're at a pivotal moment where both extremes are being built. 

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It's easy for us to be sucked into the negatives especially when social media relies on extreme headlines and comments to boost our engagement. It's true that the gap in anti-lgbt funding compared to funding for activism and community change is the largest it's been in a very long time, it's also true that the most hostile voices, policies, and opinions are being amplified. But amongst all of that, I'm seeing some of the most promising and passionate leaders being built. It's a bit of a cringworthy saying but pressure creates diamonds. Similarly, I think every day people who historically wouldn't consider themselves activists are finding themselves engaged in ways they haven't been before; testimony to the fact there are more people with us than against us. 

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The hard part, is translating that movement into politics, policy, and public platforms before we continue even further down this current scary path.

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 We met you at Student Pride this year, how important is Pride? 

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Pride as a concept today is as important as it was on day one. I think Prides that center the voices of the most under represented and marginalised within our community are imperative, we need to be seen, heard, and counted especially when we're only truly as free as our peers! 

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This is especially true in a world where anti-lgbt+ conduct and extremist views seem to be more and more acceptable in mainstream discourse. Pride is an essential tool because we have to remind people that we are the neighbors, their friends, their family members, and that we won't be silent.

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Student Pride, I have a particular soft spot for. I think it's so important queer students have a space to connect because the experience of being LGBTQIA+ in education can feel really isolating. This is especially true when you're in a brand new place with lots of new people. 

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 How can people contact Blossom LGBT?  

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Our website with a sign up form to join a group, attend a workshop, or join our mentoring programme as a mentor or mentee is www.Blossom.lgbt