Manchester Pride is launching a pioneering series of online workshops for LGBTQ+ young people as it pivots its year long programme of engagement in response to the COVID-19 lockdown.
The LGBTQ+ charity held its very first Youth Pride MCR last year as part of Manchester Pride Festival over the August bank holiday weekend.
The charity which campaigns for LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion places a huge focus on engaging with as many people as possible and this was an initiative to provide an element of Pride which was curated entirely with the younger members of Greater Manchester’s LGBTQ+ community in mind.
In 2020 Youth Pride MCR will be part of the Manchester Pride Festival again and alongside this the charity is introducing a programme of 13 online workshops for young people.
The workshops will be led by artist, producer and freelance creative facilitator Jana Kennedy and supported by Manchester Pride’s Community Engagement Officer.
Themes will include a flash mob-style dance with young people choreographed by Stuart Bowden, content creation workshops, guest takeovers by the young people participating in the workshop and a discussion around Manchester Pride’s Youth Ambassador programme.
With many young people now at home, Manchester Pride is providing an opportunity to upskill young people with content creation skills and to be an integral part in shaping this year’s Youth Pride MCR, the format of which is yet to be announced.
Attendees will have the opportunity to join the Content Creation Committee, where they will have the chance to take control of content which will be shared across the specially created Youth Pride MCR Instagram and Tik Tok channels. The content workshops will then focus on working with the members to share their voices through these channels and will also showcase user-generated content, from blogs to quizzes, music recommendations and top tips by young people for young people.
The ‘Guest YP Takeover’ sessions will be a chance for the young people in the group to take over a session and teach others a skill, hold a talk or show them something new. This will be a great opportunity to grow young people’s confidence and give true ownership to the participants.
The workshops will run from 6th May until 28th October on a bi-weekly basis and each one will last for one hour.
Manchester Pride will also this year launch a Youth Ambassador Programme, which will be led by the young people taking part in the workshops with a virtual round table discussion to discover what they would like to see from this project and what it means to them.
Mark Fletcher, chief executive for Manchester Pride, said; «With schools currently being closed and the current climate of social distancing, we recognise that our youth audience are in need of opportunities to engage with their peers and the LGBTQ+ community. Digital platforms offer us the chance to create an online community of young people and offer them something that we hope will be really useful and positive in what may be quite a scary and lonely time».
«The project will be very much participant-led as we want to work with young people to ensure that everything we do is right for them. The Youth Pride MCR social media channels will be a unique opportunity for them to inject their voice into Manchester Pride and make it their own».
For more information visit ManchesterPride.com.
