Welcome to our Spring 2019 newsletter. As I write this introduction we are basking in a heat wave!

In our latest newsletter you will read about some of our exciting new projects including an insightful series of podcasts, which we will be launching during the year. As well as more about our work with the South Gloucestershire Youth Partnership and with our partners in the South Gloucestershire Equalities Partnership including our public event at UWE Bristol to celebrate International Women’s Day.

I was really honoured to be invited to speak at Fudan University in Shanghai at the end of last year. The opportunity came about because of the work I have been doing with colleagues Dr Paul Willis and Dr Wenjing Zhang, from the School for Policy Studies, at the University of Bristol. The collaboration continues to get better and better and opens up new ideas and opportunities all the time. A really big thank you to both of them. You can read about the time Wenjing and I spent in Shanghai working together inside our newsletter.

We are also really excited to be launching new groups for LGBTQ young people, aged 13-19. We are now running three monthly groups in South Gloucestershire in Kingswood, Patchway and Yate. As well as our work to support the youth group Out of the Can in Swindon and a pop-up group in Glastonbury, Somerset.

Thanks as always must go to Dave Sully who writes and edits our newsletters and to Frank Duffy who turns the text Dave writes into beautiful designs. My personal thanks must also go to my fellow Directors at the Trust including: Cheryl Morgan, Frank Duffy, Russell Thomas, Lou Hart, Mark Greenburgh and our Chair Derek Froud. They keep me grounded and focused whilst I am busy trying to make the world a better place for all our communities.

We have a very busy year ahead, with more exciting new projects we can’t wait to tell you about! So please keep reading our newsletters and keep in contact by sharing your news and ideas for how we can create a safer and fairer society together and influence social change.

Please drop me a line berkeley.wilde@diversitytrust.org.uk

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