This article is published in today's Derby Telegraph:
Gay group awarded grant of £390,000
A support group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Derbyshire has been awarded more than £390,000.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has offered Derbyshire Friend £393,120 – the largest amount from its latest round of grants that has seen 61 projects share £10m.
Derbyshire Friend will use it to encourage more reporting of hate crime and harassment, develop a newsletter and pay for additional posts to help run support groups.
Toni Montinaro, manager at Derbyshire Friend, said: "It's brilliant news, not just for us but by the fact that this money is coming into Derby.
"One of the first things we want to look at setting up is developing support systems for young people who have become victims of hate crime and homophobic bullying."And we also want to improve awareness of same-sex domestic violence which our studies show affects one on four people locally."
Mr Montinaro explained that the money would be awarded over three years and depended on the organisation achieving goals set out by the commission.
Baroness Margaret Prosser, deputy chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said that the grants went to projects that had good understanding of how to provide benefit in their local communities.
More than 2,000 organisations applied to the commission for grants, with just 61 being successful.
Grants ranged from £40,000 to the £393,000 awarded to Derbyshire Friend.
