PACE Services Threatened
Cuts to PACE services will impact vulnerable young people (Donate here)
What's Going On?
“It doesn’t make sense to save a penny now, to be forced to spend a pound in the future”, says Tim Franks, PACE CEO, in an interview with Out Magazine.
PACE mental health charity has been running youth services since 1997, bringing together vulnerable young people from all over London in a safe environment, with professional counsellors, therapists and youth workers on hand to deliver support and advice on a myriad of different topics and situations.
Away from PACE, who reinforce equality and diversity within all of their work, they are increasingly isolated. ‘Gay’ is the most used insult in British schools, and is used freely all over the media, slyly promoting mainstream homophobia and indifference. Before coming to PACE, a quarter of young service users had attempted suicide. 40% experienced negative reactions when they told someone about their sexuality – a significant number have told no one at all. Isolation and lack of support in schools, family and mainstream youth groups lead to fear to come out. Whilst large numbers of young people who have experienced homophobia or transphobia go on to build successful lives, it is clear that a combination of factors have negative mental impacts on young people’s mental health. LGBT people are significantly more likely to suffer from depression, to attempt suicide or self-harm, and to abuse drugs and alcohol. This has been proved time and time again.
Then why are PACE’s services- which simply don’t exist elsewhere in London- being cut?
Tim Franks states rightly that it is ‘not only… morally wrong , an insult to the LGBT community and a dereliction of our duty of care, I also think it’s incredibly short sighted.’ In harsh economic terms, cutting support for young people’s future mean’s they’ll be using more services-potentially more NHS care and more social welfare; paying less tax. This is why the cuts are in no one’s interests: not the young people’s, not PACE’s, and not the MPs and councillors’.
The fact is that PACE services are helping, visibly. At the recent Youth Forum meeting, young people were despairing over where to go, and at the shaky future of their long-standing youth groups. One PACE user said: ‘when I first went out on the scene, it was a very harsh place full of agendas and a lot of people wanting things- particularly sex… I felt because I had PACE behind me I didn’t fall into unsafe sex or drugs- I think a lot of people do because they think there is no alternative, but I knew there was this place, and that was a great thing for me… This place has given me safety’.
Then there’s my own story, of how I found PACE and ended up eventually giving my time as a volunteer for the organisation that helped me come out of the closet in safety.
I first discovered PACE when I had just come out of the Bethlem Royal psychiatric hospital after having severe depression. I was lost, and wanted to kick-start my life again. I was questioning my gender identity and sexuality at the time, and wanted to meet more people like me, who were feeling the same sort of emotions, asking themselves the same sort of questions. I wanted to have a social life; I’d never had the courage to have one before.
I Googled around, and found that PACE was having a meet-up in Soho Square park. My mum came along as well, so I didn’t feel that alone. I clearly remember that as a turning point- my first real LGBTQ event. Even though my memory’s terrible about pretty much everything- I remember the smiles on peoples’ faces, the warm and welcoming vibe and the openness of everyone there. On that day, I made some friends who even now, years on, I still speak to. It was also the first time I came out as trans to anyone, and met someone who identified the same way I did. It was awesome to feel included, to feel I had queer people to talk to- in real life (and who were the same age as me!)
I think PACE provides many valuable and life-changing services. After the tragic suicides of several young gay men in America, the world has realised still how prevalent homo and transphobia is even in this ‘forward-thinking’ age. It is sad to think that only after a spate of deaths, the epidemic of homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools is widely recognised in the media and by the general public. The trauma of homophobia and transphobia suffered by many young queer people is ongoing, real, everyday, and has been going before these suicides. And it will keep getting worse if organisations like PACE weren’t around. PACE provide support and information to schools via workshops for teachers and educational plays and workshops for students. This helps combat the root of ignorance, from which I believe hate stems from. This education and spreading of positive information is vital if we’re to combat the suffering I- and others- faced in education because of our sexuality or gender identity.
PACE’s youth projects were the first youth services I ever accessed, which as I mentioned before, changed my life. Being part of a youth group hugely boosts confidence, and has boosted confidence of every person I’ve met who’s attended FirstMove, GirlDiva and OutZone, and other LGBTQ youth groups. Before, I was spending copious amounts of time alone, online. Now with a new lease of life, I have a busy social life; events to attend, projects to work on and arrange and people to see and meet. Getting out of the house and doing something positive with my gender identity and sexuality was a huge self-esteem boost, as was meeting young people who actually didn’t think I was a freak!
For many young people, LGBTQ youth groups could be the only time in the week where they get to be their real selves, the only place where they can make understanding and supportive friends, talk about their feelings and access information- such as on gay sexual health- that they may not have known about otherwise. Youth groups at PACE can also link young people elsewhere if they need more help, such as if they are facing being homeless or are having troubles with coming out or their families. PACE’s youth groups are usually the first port of call for many queer young people around this area, and can build their confidence in meeting up with larger groups outside PACE, or just in meeting new people outside of the LGBTQ ‘scene’. The one to one talks that are offered as part of the youth group can be invaluable if you’ve had a bad day, or need to talk about an issue that’s affecting you in private. As well as one to one talks, PACE’s young people’s counselling service is very well run (and I’ve been to a fair few counsellors in my time as a psychiatric patient), helpful and non-judgemental: another resource at PACE which I’ve used, as well as the Family Therapy service, which provided me and my mum a platform to talk to each other about sensitive issues that we may not have talked about otherwise. Even though me and my mum’s relationship is good on grounds of sexuality and gender identity, Family Therapy could provide other families with an open yet safe space to talk about those issues affecting them.
Having seen all the good work and strong support PACE offers to teachers, youth workers, the LGBTQ community and young people alike, I have decided to become a volunteer with them, and have completed over 6 months of volunteer work for them, with my main work being the researcher and editor for PACE School’s newsletter and the FirstMove newsletter, as well as accompanying Tim Eastwood on LGBTQ awareness training. I find it all an enriching and empowering experience, and volunteering at PACE has made me decide that youth work or working with and around young people is definitely a career path that would come naturally to me. Before, when I hadn’t been exposed to a LGBTQ youth environment, I wouldn’t have thought it was at all possible.
PACE has made my life flourish, and continues to be a fundamental pillar of compassion and support to many, many young people.
What Now?
PACE is going to fight for our young people’s future. We need help spreading the message though, to local councils and local NHS bodies that deem our services not important enough. Speak up and speak out for our LGBT future- our present LGBT youth. Your councillors are paid to represent you (often paid a substantial sum!)
PACE’s ‘Save Our Services’ page can be found here: http://www.pacehealth.org.uk/support_us
Please spread this on the networking sites you have. You can follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pacehealth and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/FirstMove
PACE has also set up a donation page on Just Giving. We are looking to raise £500. To securely donate, hit this link: http://www.justgiving.com/Tim-Franks
Keep up to date with all developments here:
www.paceyouth.org.uk
www.paceyouth.net
Not the only ones hit.
HIV prevention groups in London say they are “disappointed” and “concerned” at 43 per cent cuts to their NHS PCT funding and claim that the move will not save money.
The news coincides with figures released today which show UK HIV diagnoses have almost doubled in the last decade, with a 70 per cent rise in gay and bisexual diagnoses.
The groups are part of the Pan London HIV Prevention Programme, which is funded by PCTs and commissions a range of small organisations to tackle HIV in the capital.
They were told by Kensington and Chelsea PCT, which manages the programme, that although 21 PCTs in London wish to continue the work, only six-month contracts with reduced funding can be offered at present because PCTs are “not able to continue to commit at commensurate financial levels going forward”.
In 2001, 1,810 men who have sex with men were diagnosed with the disease. Last year, this had risen to 3,080 in 2010.
Total HIV diagnoses have almost double in the last decade from 1,950 in 2001 to 3,780 in 2010, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) figures show.
Experts estimate that there are 30,000 gay and bisexual men living with HIV in the UK today – although a third of these are thought to be undiagnosed.
