Plymouth Pride 2024

24 June 24

Updates Community

This year, Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) has teamed up with Plymouth Pride as a Pride Community Champion sponsor.

On Saturday 22 June, PCH pitched up in the Rainbow Village at ‘Pride in The Park’, one of the top Pride events in the UK organised by Plymouth Pride CIC.

Plymouth Pride CIC is a group of volunteers from across our city with a shared goal of delivering the greatest Pride events Plymouth has seen, and to change the narrative that Plymouth doesn’t feel safe for LGBTQIA+ and minority communities.

Members of staff from PCH were on hand to manage a stall within the Rainbow Village alongside other local organisations and businesses and other stalls, exhibitions and activities ran by local LGBTQIA+ organisations. Attendees were able to connect with community members, discover resources, and learn about various initiatives dedicated to promoting LGBTQIA+ rights.

The main event took place at Central Park between 12pm – 8pm, and a Pride March started at 11am from the Theatre Royal, marching right through the heart of the City Centre, all the way up to Central Park to kickstart the celebrations.

Ryan Huws, Communities Worker at PCH facilitated the stand at Plymouth Pride this year, organising a group of staff who volunteered at the event to engage with our residents and the local community.

The team were also asking PCH residents and the local community to feedback on how we engage with our residents, and the feedback received will help us further support our residents and champion inclusivity. There’s still time to share feedback and get involved. The survey closes on Sunday 7 July at 11pm so be quick!

Our staff really enjoyed representing PCH at Plymouth Pride this year and were pleased to be able to speak to and consult with so many residents and community members.

Ryan said: “It was a colourful fun day in the sun. As part of the PCH consultation, we talked to hundreds of people, and I’m now looking forward to reading all the collected feedback. It was great to see PCH have such a strong presence on the field”.

Lou, a Housing Officer at PCH volunteered at Plymouth Pride and thoroughly enjoyed the event. Lou added: “I wanted to represent Plymouth Community Homes at Pride this year as I feel it is important that we let our residents know that we support and are part of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I was really pleased to discover that as part of the event we were asking the question ‘How can Social Landlords support the LGBTQ+ community better’ and I’m looking forward to hearing the ideas people have.

“Home should be a safe space for people but unfortunately there are still large amounts of the LGBTQ+ community that report that they don’t feel safe in their homes and feel isolated and excluded. As a Social Landlord we want to make sure that our LGBTQ+ residents do feel safe and can engage in the wider community and representing PCH at the event is the start of that process of finding out what we can do to support this.”

Jo, Project Manager in the Development Team, said: “It was fantastic to attend Plymouth Pride alongside other local organisations and businesses, including Citybus, Plymouth University, Devon & Cornwall Police amongst many others.

“Luckily the grey clouds that threatened rain in the morning parted and the sun came out for what was a fun and positive afternoon. We had lots of engaging conversations with a wide range of people. The jellybeans proved very popular, as were PCH Pride flags and PCH Pride stickers.

“We were there to ask the big question, ‘How can social landlords support LGBTQIA+ residents.’ As one of the biggest employers in the city and the biggest landlord, it is important that PCH is seen in the community we live and work in, and that employees and residents who identify as LGBTQIA+ feel supported by PCH. Nobody should feel unsafe or unsupported in either their workplace or their home.”

Jo Steel, Resident Involvement Coordinator, added: "It's important we get feedback from residents and understand their experiences and needs. We took advantage of our presence at this event as an opportunity to start conversations around what social housing landlords can do to support LGBTQIA+ communities.

“Throughout the day we had some interesting and in-depth comments which we can use to influence how we deliver our services. Due to the amount of interest, we have extended the survey deadline, so please click the link and tell us what you think.”