CAMDEN LGBT FORUM
Camden Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Forum

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A Brief History of the Forum

Camden LGBT Forum is a registered charity which was set up in as a community organisation in 2002 to increase the visibility and voice of LGBT people in the borough. It is estimated that between 10 and 12% of people living in the borough will be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and visitors to Camden's gay venues swell this number. The Forum aims to advocate to ensure their specific needs are met with regard to community safety and service provision in the borough.

The first meeting of the Camden LGBT Forum Action Group was in January 2002. The remit was clear: to create a forum that would provide an official channel of communication and influence between the LGBT community in Camden, organisations responsible for ensuring community safety and advising on specific community safety needs. Local business, statutory and voluntary organisations and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in Camden were invited to attend these planning meetings and to work toward the development and launch of a community based forum.

The launch was held on 17th September 2002 and the first full forum meeting was held in October at The King William Public House in Hampstead; an overall strategy for the forum was decided on and a Management Committee elected to steer and organise the forum.

Since then, the forum has held monthly meetings, open to all, which now take place at Camden Town Hall. The Forum meetings are the real heart of the organisation, making policy decisions and debating responses to the demands made on our services.

Camden LGBT Forum currently employs two full-time staff who work from our offices in Covent Garden: a Project Director and an Administrator/Outreach Coordinator. Members of the Management Committee assist by attending meetings on behalf of the Forum and taking on client cases according to their area of knowledge. The Management Committee meets monthly.

The Forum has worked on a variety of projects since its inception in including community safety schemes, support for LGBT victims of crime and harassment, social and outreach events, domestic violence and housing support. We work on a strategic level with service providers including the Metropolitan Police and Camden Council, and provide input on LGBT issues for bodies including the London Criminal Justice Board and the Probation Service.

During the lifetime of the Forum, the judicial disposal rate for homophobic/transphobic crime has doubled in the borough.

We provide training programmes for public sector workers to raise awareness of LGBT issues and ensure frontline staff understand the specific needs of people from LGBT communities when dealing with them.

Since its inception, kep areas of work for the Forum have included:

• Under reporting of Hate crime
• Increasing safety on Hampstead Health, and cruising in Camden
• LGBT Domestic violence
• Reporting crimes without using the police
• Housing problems, including harassment from neighbours

If you think we should be doing other things for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people then get in touch and help us to do something about it. You can read about our past projects in this section, and peruse the minutes of our meetings which may help you get a clearer idea of what we do. If you want more information then contact us and we’ll try and help you out.

Aims and Objectives

Our mission:

"To challenge homophobia and transphobia at all levels in society and tackle the inequalities and barriers faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities"

The main aims of Camden LGBT Forum are:

• to improve the social inclusion of LGBT people in the borough by articulating needs re: service provision and identifying gaps in service provision
• to promote awareness and understanding of LGBT needs within statutory and voluntary service providers to ensure equality of access to services in the borough
• to represent and support members of the LGBT communities to enable their full participation in society.
• to support LGBT people seeking access to services or experiencing difficulty with these services and, where necessary, to advocate on their behalf.
• to work in partnership with the Community Safety Team and police to reduce fear of crime, to increase reporting of homophobic and transphobic crime and to promote greater participation in the prevention and detection of homophobic and transphobic crime to the LGBT communities in Camden.

Main activities and services of Camden LGBT Forum

• Providing advice and support for LGBT people to enable better access to services or who are experiencing difficulties with service providers,statutory or voluntary.
• Advocating on behalf of the LGBT communities and acting as the representative body within Camden to work with statutory and voluntary sector service providers to improve accessibility and responsiveness of services to, and to identify gaps in, service provision to LGBT people.
• Reaching out to the most vulnerable groups within our community who are most likely to be socially excluded to ensure their voice is heard and their needs are met by statutory and voluntary service providers.
• Partnership work with the police and Camden Council's Community Safety Team and Anti Social Behaviour Action Group to address homophobic/transphobic hate crime and harassment and to improve judicial disposal,victim satisfaction and reduce fear of crime.
• Outreach to LGBT venues and public sex environments(PSEs) for non-police reporting of crime and intelligence and community safety information.
• Continued capacity building throughout the diverse LGBT community to ensure the Forum is truly representative of this diversity and to work to build a stronger community from social networks.
• A monthly forum meeting open to all and a monthly social outreach evening.
• Outreach drop-in at housing offices (Caversham, Holborn) and community centres (Gospel Oak).
• Consultation and training on LGBT issues primarily within Camden (Housing, Equalities,Connexions, Police) but also, on request, pan-London and nationally.
• LGBT Youth Network (11-25) to provide training around homophobic bullying and LGBT issues to schools and youth services, funding search for LGBT youth drop-in.
• LGBT Harassment Advisory Group bringing together ASBAG, police, Community Safety Unit, Camden Victim Support, CHMs, Broadway, SHP (floating support services) and community representatives to advise on housing and other harassment cases.
• Out in Camden, the LGBT awareness day in partnership with Camden's Equalities Unit and Community Safety Teams.

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