Brighton Bear launch new logo for the Brighton Bear Weekend which takes place from June 15-18, 2017.
This year’s logo has been designed by Eoin Norton, a London based graphic designer who specialises in branding development and creative direction.
Eoin Norton
Eoin said:“I support the Brighton Bear Weekend, as it creates an all-embracing non-judgemental and fun event for the communities in and around Brighton. I was fortunate to take part in 2016 and was overwhelmed with the friendliness and the community support that I saw from the event. I think smaller less corporate events like BBW create that unique tight sense of community that the other large events lack.”
Graham Munday
Chair of Brighton Bear Weekend, Graham Munday, added:“We are very pleased with the design of the logo this year. We will soon be putting our t-shirts, polo shirts and other merchandise up for sale on our website which helps us to raise money for the Rainbow Fund.”
The Rainbow Fund make grants to LGBT+/HIV organisations who deliver effective front line services to LGBT+ people in Brighton & Hove.
For more information about Brighton Bear Weekend, click here:
For more information about Rainbow Fund, click here:
The first ever HIV & Finance Tour organised by Chris Morgan and Unusual Risks in partnership with Terrence Higgins Trust will visit Brighton on Thursday, March 9 2017 from 2pm to 4pm.
The tour which will take place during February and March will also visit Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and London offering free HIV and Finance Educational Workshops that are designed to provide training for professionals who work with people living with HIV.
Chris Morgan
Commenting about the HIV & Finance Tour, Chris Morgan said: “I’m very excited to be touring the UK with the HIV & Finance Tour, offering HIV Professionals an opportunity to learn more about the financial issues facing their clients and financial products available to their service users”.
He continued:“We are extremely grateful to Terrence Higgins Trust and George House Trust for their assistance with organising and hosting the tour and in particular the THT Health, Wealth & Happiness Project, who will working with us facilitating the workshops”.
The tour will feature a presentation from Chris Morgan the UK’s leading financial adviser on HIV Finance Issues, plus group discussions and question and answer sessions. The workshop will offer free training and a chance for delegates to share experiences.
Some of the topics to be discussed will include:
♦ Exclusion of people living with HIV by the UK Finance Industry
♦ Current position HIV and Life Insurance (HIV and Life Insurance Consumer Guide)
♦ Financial Planning for over 50’s living with HIV (Whole of Life Assurance)
♦ Current position HIV and Mortgages (Issues Faced by people living with HIV applying for mortgages)
♦ Other Financial Products for people living with HIV (Pensions, Income Protection, Critical Illness Cover )
There are already plans to take the tour to further venues across the UK such as Northern Ireland and Scotland. If your organisation would be interested in hosting a HIV & Finance Workshop, contact Chris Morgan by emailing: enquiries@unusualrisks.co.uk
A new law targets bullies who ’emotionally bully and control partners’ with ‘coercive and controlling behaviour’ with 5 years in jail.
Director of Public Prosecutions: Alison Saunders
In the past three-months it was revealed that domestic violence police units were on the verge of being ‘overwhelmed’ amid a 31 per cent rise in recorded domestic violence cases. Bullies who emotionally abuse partners face up to five years in prison.
Under laws, anyone who inflicts psychological cruelty on their other halves can be prosecuted – even if there is no direct physical harm.
For the first time, domestic abusers who stop short of lashing out at their victims will be targeted with a new offence where there is evidence of ‘coercive and controlling behaviour’.
This could include preventing a partner from seeing family or friends, keeping them short of money, controlling their social media accounts, spying on their communications or determining aspects of their everyday life, such as when they eat, sleep or even go to the toilet.
Prosecutors are determined to tackle the problem of perpetrators who trap their victims in a ‘living hell’ with repeated threats, humiliation and intimidation.
Research has shown that 30 per cent of women – about five million – and 16 per cent of men, or 2.5million, experience domestic abuse during their lives.
Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders, said: “Controlling or coercive behaviour can limit victims’ basic human rights, such as their freedom of movement and their independence.
This behaviour can be incredibly harmful in an abusive relationship where one person holds more power than the other, even if on the face of it this behaviour might seem playful, innocuous or loving.
Victims can be frightened of the repercussions of not abiding by someone else’s rules. Often they fear that violence will be used against them, or suffer from extreme psychological and emotional abuse.
Being subjected to repeated humiliation, intimidation or subordination can be as harmful as physical abuse, with many victims stating that trauma from psychological abuse had a more lasting impact than physical abuse.”
Polly Neate, chief executive of Women’s Aid, said introducing the law was a “landmark moment” in tackling domestic abuse. “Coercive control is at the heart of domestic abuse,” she said.
“Perpetrators will usually start abusing their victim by limiting her personal freedoms, monitoring her every move, and stripping away her control of her life; physical violence often comes later.
Women’s Aid has campaigned to have this recognised in law, and we are thrilled that this has now happened.”
Prosecutors will be able to secure convictions using documentary evidence, such as threatening emails and text messages, and bank statements that show an abuser has sought to control the victim financially.
Police and prosecutors will be expected to take action against those who trap their partners in a manner that Home Secretary Theresa May has described as “tantamount to torture”. Coercive behaviour is defined as an “act or pattern of acts which are used to harm, punish or frighten a victim”. The offence was part of the Serious Crime Act 2015, which was passed by Parliament earlier this year.
In order for the offence to apply, a culprit’s behaviour must have a ‘serious effect’ on the victim. Home Office guidance says this involves causing someone “serious alarm or distress which has a substantial effect on their usual day-to-day activities”.
Police and prosecutors are now being trained to recognise patterns of abuse behaviour which meet the criminal threshold.
Louisa Rolfe, of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said the new offence:“will provide more opportunities to evidence other forms of domestic abuse, beyond physical violence”.
13-25 year olds in Brighton & Hove have been examining how issues faced today by young people identifying as LGBTQ+ compare with those faced by young LGBTQ+ people over the past 40 years in the city.
Photo: Saskia Grundmann: From the series; ‘Hold Your Own’
Into the Outside: the next chapter is an exhibition charting the responses and research produced by the group on the topic. It will include elements of the newly created queer archive for the city including photography, written responses and oral histories.
In 2016, photography and creative writing workshops, archive research and oral history training took place with the young people at both Jubilee Library and The Keep, a world-class archive resource centre that holds the archives of East Sussex Record Office (ESRO) and the Royal Pavilion & Museums Local History Collections. The Keep also holds the Brighton Ourstory archive, the collection of a local LGBTQ history charity dating largely from the 1980s to early 2000s.
Participants have also been exploring a range of materials, including the National Lesbian and Gay Survey – a collection of autobiographical writing and ephemera submitted by over 250 people in the UK between 1986 and 2004.
The programme has been facilitated by artist Helen Cammock, who has many years of experience running high calibre projects with young people.
The Into the Outside group have worked with many different communities and at events across the city, including Pride and Trans Pride, to research and collect oral histories, many of which are included in the exhibition.
Elements of the project were included as part of 2016’s Brighton Photo Biennial as ‘work in progress’. This was lauded by local, national and international visitors to the photography festival, as well as being mentioned by the British Journal of Photography as a festival highlight. This latest exhibition will show the group’s work as related to their investigations into the period between 1967 (which saw the Sexual Offences Act decriminalise homosexual activity) and the present day, encompassing some key historical moments for the LGBTQ+ community, such as the first Gay Pride marches, Section 28, the reduction of the age of consent, the Civil Partnership Act and the Equality Act. 2017 heralds the 50th anniversary of this significant moment.
ITO participant Charlie Snow, said: “The Into the Outside project has been a way for me to connect with the LGBTQ+ community. I’ve been able to talk to other young people about their experiences and felt listened to when I shared my own. It’s been eye-opening learning about issues faced by LGBTQ+ people in the past and how some of them are still a problem today for many. Sometimes it can be difficult when you’re trying to figure out how you identify, but being part of this project has helped me to be proud of who I am and the city I live in. ”
Juliette Buss, Photoworks Learning and Participation Curator added: “The young people taking part have been really keen to find out about the lives and experiences of other young people in the past who identified as LGBTQ+ and use this insight to create the work for the exhibition. They have been looking at what their social life was like, how they fitted in and how easy or hard it was for them coming out. This project is a valuable opportunity to help local young people feel more connected with their city and enable them explore, make sense of, and value the legacy of their cultural heritage. They are learning about the importance of archives, developing heritage skills, and build awareness of LGBTQ+ issues such as, representation, identity, emotional wellbeing and social barriers to inclusion.”
Participants for Into the Outside were recruited by an open call through social media, schools and community groups. The thirteen-month heritage-learning project is being delivered in collaboration with Brighton & Hove Libraries Services, and the Mass Observation Archive. Many other organisations from across the city are also involved including: The East Sussex Record Office, Queer in Brighton and the Brighton & Hove Aldridge Community Academies.
Into the Outside is a heritage-learning project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund delivered by Photoworks in collaboration with Brighton & Hove Libraries Services, the Mass Observation Archive and the East Sussex Records Office. Many other organisations from across the city are also involved including local schools, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Queer in Brighton and Allsorts Youth Project.
Event: Into the Outside: the next chapter
Where: Jubilee Library, Jubilee Street, Brighton
When: February 3-19 March 19, 2017,
Times: The exhibition will be open during library opening times:
♦ Monday: 10am-7pm
♦ Tuesday: 10am-7pm
♦ Wednesday: 10am-5pm
♦ Thursday: 10am-7pm
♦ Friday: 10am-5pm
♦ Saturday: 10am-5pm
♦ Sunday:11am-5pm
Mayor of Brighton & Hove attends the Bear-Patrol Bacon and Sarnie social at the Sussex Beacon last month.
Image: Nick Ford Photography
Between bacon butties the Sussex Beacon CEO, Simon Dowe announced that Bear-Patrol events in 2016 had raised £21,929.46 for the Sussex Beacon and £6,763.16 for other organisations making the grand total raised for good causes by Bear-Patrol in 2016 to £28,692.62.
Bear-Patrol was founded by Danny Dwyer on May 28, 2008 and has been fundraising for good causes since January 1, 2011.
To date they have raised and donated a total of £158,115.99 to 20 different organisations.
The following totals have been raised for each organisation:
♦ Sussex Beacon: £141,330.13
♦ Rainbow Fund: £3,951.60
♦ Canine Partners: £3,629.72
♦ Sussex Cancer Fund: £3,078.75
♦ Rockinghorse: £1,636.25
♦ Mencap (south coast): £1,149.41
♦ GMFA: £763.75
♦ Lunch Positive: £505.73
♦ MacMillan (South): £425.00
♦ Great Ormond Street: £392.50
♦ THT (South): £305.00
♦ Chestnut Tree House: £240.00
♦ Peer Action: £180.00
♦ Mildmay Mission: £166.25
♦ Brighton Pride: £162.15
♦ Rise: £88.50
♦ Brighton Housing Trust: £50.00
♦ Demelza: £30.00
♦ Ditch The Label: £25.00
♦ Age UK: £6.25
Total amount raised: £158,115.99
Image: Nick Ford Photography
All Monies Raised via Bear-Patrol and Danny Dwyer during their events goes directly to the charity/organisation via online donation pages and/or registered collection tins and buckets.
A high percentage of their funding is specifically allocated to named projects i.e. a new summer house, garden pond, decorating, equipment, chemotherapy chair and natural hair wigs for cancer patients.
The tour which will take place during February and March will also visit Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and London offering free HIV and Finance Educational Workshops that are designed to provide training for professionals who work with people living with HIV.
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