EACH

This is what one of the speakers, Laura Poultney, President of the University of Bath LGBT Society, said at the event:

"Since being a young teenager I have been involved within the online youth lesbian, gay bisexual and trans community mainly because there was nothing for me, as a young gay person, in my rural hometown. A group such as REACH, would have been beyond mine and my counterpart’s wildest dreams.

The lack of any services, culminated in myself and two very good friends maintaining a UK-wide website and forum, Gay Youth UK, with over 5,000 young people as members. Whilst the internet is a fantastic tool for young people to network and make friends, nothing will ever measure up to concentrated face to face support services such as REACH. It’s phenomenal to think we have such a valuable and needed resource in Bath.

This year I was given the pleasure of being the President of the University of Bath LGBT Society and often we have received emails from young people wanting to get involved with a local support groups, but the difficulty being that the majority of the LGBT community unfortunately is, at the moment, concentrated in age restricted alcoholic venues and heavily commercialised therefore it is refreshing and empowering to see something new, free and accessible to all young people to show them they aren’t being forgotten about.

I am excited to be involved with the group and look forward to it becoming a trusted resource within the community."

REACH gives its members the opportunity to socialise with other LGB&T young people in the area and become involved in a variety of fun activities and useful workshops in a non-judgemental, supportive and professionally supervised environment. The youth group is supported by EACH and run by Youth Workers.