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MindOut Human Library – volunteers needed

MindOut, the LGBT Mental Health project, are once again holding a Human Library at the Falmer Campus of the University of Brighton.

MindOut Human Library

The event will take place on Wednesday, October 29 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and MindOut are currently recruiting volunteers.

A Human Library event is designed to challenge the stigma and prejudice associated with labelled identity. Volunteers act as ‘books’ with a title of their choosing that describes an aspect of their chosen identity such as bisexual parent; partner of a trans* person; older Jewish lesbian; person with social anxiety.

Readers choose to borrow the “book” from the library and spend time with him or her, asking questions, having conversations and learning how it is to live as a person with that chosen identity.

MindOut are seeking to recruit forty volunteers to act as books for the event.

Full training will be given on Monday, October 27 (6 p.m. – 8 p.m.) at Community Base.

 

 

World record attempt to raise funds in aid of children’s hospital

Michelle Rhodes prepares to set a Guinness World Record in aid of the Great Ormond Street Hospital charity

 

World class neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) trainer and inspirational speaker, Michelle Rhodes, has announced her intention to break a Guinness World Record by hosting a marathon NLP charity event with the aim of raising £50,000 for the Great Ormond Street Hospital children’s charity.

 

Head of NLP training and development at Optimum Performance Achievement Ltd (OPAL), Michelle Rhodes is hosting a marathon 56-hour NLP demonstration in an attempt to break the current official ‘longest speech marathon’ world record. The attempt has been set up as a charity event to raise vital funds for the much-needed refurbishment of the hospital, provide vital up-to-date equipment and fund research into better treatments for the children.

 

Michelle Rhodes commented: “Great Ormond Street Hospital children’s charity is such a wonderful cause that genuinely kind people really love to support because of the difference it makes to those tender young lives. My friends and family think I’m a little crazy to go for 56 hours without any sleep and it will be a huge challenge but I, and those attending the event, will feel so amazing when we present the cheque to the charity at the end. We are aiming to raise £50,000.”

 

In order to achieve the fundraising target, 100% of ticket sale proceeds will go to charity. For her world record attempt, Michelle plans to deliver an incredibly challenging 56 continuous hours of remarkable life-changing NLP techniques to an audience at Mercedes-Benz World, Weybridge, Surrey. The record-breaking attempt is set to begin on Friday 24th October and run until Sunday 26th October 2014.

 

Great Ormond Street Hospital children’s charity Senior Fundraising Manager, Laura Savory, commented “We’re so grateful to Michelle Rhodes for her generosity and support. The money raised will help to make a huge difference to young patients and families from across the UK.”

 

The 56-hour charity marathon will see Michelle demonstrating a huge variety of life-changing techniques from the Certified NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner Training, NLP coaching and mentoring for executives and entrepreneurs, and NLP personal transformation sessions that create phenomenal success. Attendees can expect to benefit from valuable NLP techniques and methods such as:

 

– Releasing Negative Emotions from the past

– Eliminating Limitations including limiting beliefs

– Resolving Internal Conflict

– Mastering Linguistics for the Most Effective Communications

– Eliciting and Utilising Individual Strategies to Influence Ethically

– Understanding Individual Differences for Optimum Motivation

– Transforming Negative Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviours

 

About Michelle Rhodes

 

Michelle Rhodes is managing director of Optimum Performance Achievement Ltd (OPAL) a personal, professional and business development company specialising in NLP training, coaching and mentoring and transformational change. Michelle is a naturally inspiring and motivational speaker who is exceptionally skilled in NLP, transformational change, human behaviour and individual differences, and her in-depth knowledge and experience enable her to adapt and connect to captivate any audience.

 

Notes to Editors:

 

Great Ormond Street Hospital is one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals, with the broadest range of dedicated children’s healthcare specialists under one roof in the UK. The hospital’s pioneering research and treatment gives hope to children who are suffering from the rarest, most complex and often life-threatening conditions, from across the country and abroad.

 

Great Ormond Street Hospital children’s charity (Registered Charity No. 235825) needs to raise money to help rebuild and refurbish its hospital, provide vital up-to-date equipment and fund research into better treatments for the children. You can help us to provide world-class care for our patients and families.

 

PACT launches new inclusive adoption service in Brighton

Adoption charity, Parents and Children Together (PACT), launches new service in Brighton & Hove to help gays and lesbians adopt a child.

PACT LGBT Service

Funded by the Department for Education (DfE), the service focuses on the LGBT community in Brighton and Hove and is intended to find loving and secure families for 4,550 children in care.

PACT adopters Jacek Kacprzak and Andrzej Kubinski, who have adopted two little boys, were on hand to cut the ribbon and open the new office along with PACT CEO Jan Fishwick.

Jan said: “This is a very proud day for PACT.  We are proud of our excellent reputation amongst the LGBT community and it’s thanks to a grant from the DfE that we have been able to extend our services to the Sussex area in order to attract much-needed loving families for the 4,550 children in care in the UK today.

“PACT is delivering this new service in partnership with New Family Social, a UK network for LGBT adoptive and foster parents.

“There are many people in the LGBT community who would like a family, and PACT wants to engage with those people to bust the myths associated with adoption, and demystify the adoption process.

“We have staff and volunteers who understand the common barriers that might prevent prospective adopters from the LGBT community from enquiring.”

This is PACT’s fifth location, the others being in Reading, Oxford, Pimlico (London) and Old Street (London).

An Ofsted inspection in January rated PACT’s adoption service as outstanding across all four assessed areas. PACT’s theraputic service FACTs, which support adoptive and foster families through difficult times, was awarded Voluntary Adoption Service of the Year in the BAAF National Adoption Awards in 2013.

PACT is a key player in the field of adoption and fostering and helps find ‘forever families’ for the estimated 6,000 children requiring a new permanent home every year.

PACT will be hosting adoption information events, interviewing prospective adopters and running workshops to approve people waiting to adopt, at its new offices at Community Base, 113 Queens Road, Brighton.

The first event will be on Wednesday, October 1, from 6.30pm to 8pm. A second event is planned for Monday, November 24 from 6.30pm to 8pm

Nancy Platts and Jan Fishwick
Nancy Platts and Jan Fishwick

Nancy Platts the parliamentary Labour candidate for Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven attended the opening ceremony.

She said: “I welcome PACT setting up an office in Brighton to support LGBT people who want to foster or adopt. It was touching to hear the stories of those who have successfully adopted and I hope that as a result of this very positive initiative, many more children will find their forever families.”

For more information about PACT, CLICK HERE:

 

 

 

 

PREVIEW: Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Festival

Fringe! returns to East London for the fourth year running from Hovember 4-9.

Fringe!

East London’s alternative queer film and arts festival, Fringe!, returns this November with a programme of film, art, workshops and parties!

Alex Karotsch, the Festival Producer, said: “We’re delighted to bring back Fringe! for the fourth time with new festival dates in November, an expanded art programme supported by Arts Council England and a host of fantastic new films. We can’t wait to share the exciting Fringe! line up with our audience this autumn.”

For the first November edition of the festival, Fringe! will present an expanded art section using public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England. The art section of the festival opens on Tuesday, November 4 and the film opening night is November 6.

The not-for-profit festival is pulled together by a team of volunteers and hosted by different venues around East London, with many events being free or affordable.

Highlights of Fringe! 2014 include:

• Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn opens the film section of the festival on November 6 at Hackney Picturehouse. Peter de Rome, pioneer erotic film-maker, talks about his life and work in this charming documentary by UK filmmaker Ethan Reid.

• A special mini-strand on Riot Grrrl and queercore including the screening of a new cut of Jill Reiter’s lost film In Search of Margo-go, starring Kathleen Hanna, produced especially for Fringe! alongside the UK premiere of Abby Moser’s Grrrl Love and Revolution.

• NYC-based art duo Superm (Slava Mogutin and Brian Kenny) will be attending the festival and present a programme of their shorts as well as hosting an event at Dalston Superstore.

• “Ken. To Be Destroyed”, by Sara Davidmann, brings the story of her uncle Ken (K), trans* in the 1950-1960s, to Fringe! in the shape of an exhibition. Using family letters and vintage photographs and photographic processes, Davidmann tells this family secret, bringing to light the story that is missing from the family album.

• This year’s community-focused events will include a range of sexual health events and workshops programmed throughout the duration of the festival.

For more information, CLICK HERE:  

 

 

 

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