Our LGBT Charter highlights, challenges and top tips!  

As we head into the final stages of completing the standard required for the LGBT Youth Scotland Charter, Artistic Director Jenni Mason gives us a rundown of the process so far!

Charter highlights  

• Our first Staff and Young Champions meeting. It was brilliant to see our staff and young people so motivated and energised and being committed to helping us create change across the organisation.  

• Our first Purple Party (now an annual event). A great event for LGBT PACE young people and allies to come to together for an informal social night – games, a quiz, a raffle, karaoke and a lot of purple food (we had to get creative!) It was an ideal way to bring together and celebrate our LGBT members and it was great fun for the staff too.   

• Sharing our learning at YTAS Drama Conference at Dundee Rep in March 2024. We loved sharing the experience with two of our LGBT young champions. It was brilliant to tell others about our charter journey and connect with Lucy from Eden Court and Emma from YTAS in person.  

• Our Pride Book Club – an opportunity for young people to read a book with LGBT themes and come together to debate and discuss.  

• Our annual PACE ball had a rainbow theme to celebrate the work of the charter.  

• Our Young Champions Awareness Campaign – ‘Don’t look away – lead the way’ – against LGBT prejudice and discrimination. Our Young Champions worked on a short film to highlight experiences of LGBT young people which was shared on social media and created a ‘call to action’ asking members to make a pledge to positively support LGBT young people.  

• Finishing our LGBT focused page on our website and finalising our LGBT notice boards in both our venues.  

• Our second Purple Party which was a great success. We had more young people attending than last year so nice to see our LGBT community continue to grow! Our Young Champions did a great job organising.  

• Our partnership with Lucy from Eden Court and Emma from YTAS. It was lovely to meet them online for charter updates and to share advice and resources. They have both been so generous in sharing what they have been up to and resources they have. Emma invited us to be part of the YTAS youth drama conference in Dundee and it was lovely to meet in person to share our learning with the wider sector.  

• Continuing to make our venues more LGBT friendly and to celebrate LGBT people and stories through our programmes and performances.  

Challenges  

• I think that in any busy organisation it can be hard to find the time for things that are not part of your main programme but doing the charter pushed us into taking action on things that needed done so although it wasn’t always easy to make space – it is definitely worth it.  

• It can be easy to let things pile up especially during very busy periods but if you can set even a small amount of time each week it stops the to do list becoming overwhelming.  

• Don’t over complicate things and look to others for ideas/inspiration – there is plenty of resources in the LGBT hub that will help!   

Top tips  

• Get as many staff involved as you can and share the to do list – not only because it ensures the workload is shared out but also because it helps change the culture across the whole organisation because everyone is invested in the process.  

• Spend a little bit of time working on the charter every week.   

• If you work with young people – get them involved – they have the best ideas and bring and energy to the whole process!  

• Don’t get overwhelmed – it can seem a lot when you first get started but it’s all manageable and when you break it down into smaller chunks it starts to feel a lot more achievable.  

• If you can connect with others who are on the same journey – it will be invaluable!