Our Stories - Our Joy! Our celebration event in London.

Reflections on our celebration event at the Bishopsgate Institute, London, June 23.

“Loved it all - but above else meeting new people from LGBTQ community”

“All the facilitators are *so* friendly and helpful.”

“Making time to reflect on my own thoughts and taking time to explore artistic expression“

“The workshop was very good and a very welcoming and comfortable setting“

This was our first celebration event. We wanted to make a space where we could invite LGBTQIA+ folks from the whole of the UK to be with each other, hear each other’s stories and to celebrate the best parts of what it means to be LGBTQIA+ and South Asian.

We organised 3 workshops and mixed up the afternoon with some small group chats, bigger group discussions and chats over samosas and hot drinks. As you can see from the feedback, people enjoyed the event and the feedback was all positive. We’ve had lots of suggestions for future whole-day events and we’re working hard to try and put on a similar event next year.

We recognise that holding events in London limits who can attend the event and even though we supported some non-Londoners with travel costs to try and make it easier for them to attend, we know many people would still have been put off from traveling so far. Hopefully, as our team of volunteers grows and we work out ways to get more regular funds, we can put on more events in different parts of the UK.

If you have any ideas about what future events we could or should be running, please get in contact with us by email (info@theopenmindsproject.org). Similarly if you want to join the team, let us know!

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With warm wishes,

The Open Minds Project ­

We usually meet on the last Wednesday of each month and if you want to join us at an Open Minds Meeting, please visit the Events page on our website.