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LIVERPOOL PRIDE RETURNS FOR 2012
THE
organisers have announced that the main festival site will remain at
the Pier Head and is due to return on Saturday, 4 August 2012.
However, a presence will definitely be maintained in the Gay
Quarter, thanks to a close working partnership between Liverpool
Pride and the Liverpool Gay Business Association, the collective
that organised Stanley Street Pride in 2011. Liverpool Pride
is one of the biggest FREE LGBT Pride festivals in the country, with
over 40,000 people attending the event in 2011, double the 2010
figure of 20,000. A study completed by Liverpool Pride showed that
2011’s festival generated a total spend of over £2.6 million for the
local economy as people spent money on hotels, travel, clothes, food
and drink. The study also showed that a large number of Pride Goers
booked their trips to Liverpool Pride more than two months in
advance. Faced with Liverpool City Council’s proposal to cut all
funding to festivals, organisers have taken the decision to start
fundraising for the festival much earlier than ever before and have
devised an all year round fundraising campaign will begin from 2012
onwards. The Liverpool Pride Board of Trustees is adamant that it
will continue its core work of combating homophobia and transphobia
in the city, whilst maintaining a free festival to ensure that
everyone feels welcome.
The fundraising campaign will launch with the Camp as Christmas
event, produced by Hope Street based Orb Events who have previously
worked with Liverpool Pride on their 2010 & 2011 festivals. The
event, which promises to be Liverpool’s ultimate LGBT Christmas
night out, will take place at newly opened venue The Dome, Renshaw
Street, on Saturday 17 December, starring X-Factor duo Diva Fever,
actor, writer and comedian Rikki Beadle Blair and a whole host of
local talent including Caz & Brit, Barbieshop, Emma Dears and
Liverpool’s finest drag queens.
There are also Liverpool Pride runners in the city’s Santa Dash and
a series of smaller fundraising events, to be held throughout 2012.
Liverpool Pride will also bid for funds through applications to
trusts and large public sector organisations as well as through
corporate sponsorship from the private sector on both a local and
national level. To date, Liverpool Pride has already received
funding from Merseyside Police Authority for its 2012 soccer project
and from the Big Lottery Fund. The money from which has been used to
recruit a Volunteer Manager as well as funding the Liverpool Pride
365 Cultural Visions project, which will work with LGBT people to
produce art, photography and theatre, celebrating gay culture in
Liverpool.
As part of the Liverpool Pride 2012 fundraising campaign, the
organisation is also asking local businesses and individuals to run
fundraising events such as bring and buy sales, cake bake offs and
sponsored drag days, walks, runs and any other ways in which they
would like to raise money. Businesses and individuals who are
interested in supporting Liverpool Pride 2012 in any way are invited
to contact James Davies, Liverpool Pride Trustee on:- 0151 709 5069.
More information on the Camp as Christmas event can be found at:-
thedomegrandcentral.com.
James Davies of Liverpool Pride said:- "We’re delighted to be
able to announce Liverpool Pride 2012 and can’t wait to start on the
road to creating something that is truly special once more. Although
we face some funding cuts due to wider cuts in public spending,
we’re determined to make Liverpool Pride 2012 even bigger and better
than ever before and can only do that with the help of Liverpool, as
a council, as a community and as a business collective. We’re
grateful to the City Council and to the likes of the European
Regional Development Fund as well as our sponsors for all of their
support thus far and hope that, despite budget cuts, we can continue
to work with them in the coming years. We believe that this festival
is one hundred percent worthwhile and that it is truly helpful for
raising awareness of LGBT issues, specifically reducing homophobia
in the city in addition to being good value for money for funders as
the festival brings a relatively large amount of money into the
city’s economy over the course of the Pride weekend. We made the
festival into a massive success in 2011 even though we faced a 60%
cut in our funding from the City Council and we’re determined to do
it again even if further cuts should occur. We will continue the
work of Liverpool Pride and have set out on a mammoth fundraising
campaign to ensure that the 2012 festival is free, safe and
enjoyable for everyone and we would ask you to support the
forthcoming fundraising events such as the wonderful Camp as
Christmas show produced by Orb Events as well as getting involved on
an individual and a corporate level to join with us and ensure that
Liverpool Pride 2012 is an event that is worthy of Liverpool’s gay
community."
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Ministers
re-open £60m fund to boost business skills & growth
THE
second phase of the Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF) has been
launched by Business Secretary Vince Cable and Minister for Skills
John Hayes. The fund will support businesses to develop their skills
solutions tailored to their own needs, transforming growth in their
sector, region or supply chain.
BIS will be providing £34 million for 2012 to 2013 and there is
still £29 million available to bid for. With matched funding from
businesses there will be around £60 million available under GIF this
year. Comparable levels of investment are planned for the following
2 years.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said:- "The Government
understands we need to tackle the skills shortages that are holding
companies back. Through this fund, we will support employers that
take collective action to overcome these barriers, helping to
rebalance and grow our economy. By putting the employer’s voice at
the heart of the process, we will reward inventive approaches to
training that deliver real help to get business moving."
Attending a reception to launch the GIF funded Hospitality Guild,
John Hayes announced that this year the Government would be
accepting applications throughout the year, ensuring projects could
be approved at several points in 2012, rather than having one annual
round.
Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, John
Hayes said:- "I know times are tough for many businesses, but
I am determined to do all I can to build a skills system that
creates opportunity for young people, and puts firms on course for
growth. Government investment in skills works best for individuals
and communities when it responds directly to employers’ needs.
Offering a more continuous process will ensure that public money
will be able to fund more projects throughout the year, giving
business the power to shape training and directly support jobs and
growth. The Hospitality Guild is a great example of how the Growth
and Innovation Fund can help unify businesses and professional
training bodies to raise skills in the sector, and support staff
development within both large and smaller players in this industry."
The Growth and Innovation Fund offers targeted help for employer
groups to overcome barriers to growth within their sectors and
industries. The funding is already supporting 15 projects across the
country deliver new training to boost innovation and productivity,
enable industries to set new professional standards, or support new
or extended National Skills Academies.
Earlier this year in collaboration with 9 other founding members of
the Hospitality Guild, People 1st successfully put forward a bid for
GIF funding.
Martin-Christian Kent, Hospitality Guild Director, said:-
"Through the Hospitality Guild, the hospitality industry has a real
opportunity to shout about the career opportunities it offers, to
demonstrate its passion for skills and its ambition to raise its
productivity and professionalism. With 1 in 14 people working in the
hospitality industry, an area that has been growing despite the
economic downturn, the Hospitality Guild will also have a role to
play in tackling unemployment through facilitating strong ‘into
work’ programmes, apprenticeships and work placements."
Geoff Russell, Chief Executive of the Skills Funding Agency said:-
"We look forward to working with employers and their
representative organisations to find innovative and sustainable
solutions to tackle skills gaps in their sectors. The Growth and
Innovation Fund will secure a greater commitment from employers to
invest in the skills they need, so creating jobs and
Apprenticeships, driving enterprise and increasing their overall
productivity in support of the growth agenda."
Following that first round several improvements have been made to
GIF to make it more accessible to potential applicants. GIF will now
open for business all year round, meaning proposals can be submitted
whenever they arise and are ready to be considered for investment.
Where proposals are identified as meriting GIF co-investment the UK
Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) and the Skills Funding
Agency (SFA) will be available to work alongside the applicant to
ensure the projects have the very best chance of fulfilling their
promise to make a significant impact on enterprise, jobs and growth.
To make sure that the investment fund can support businesses in the
different ways they work together to secure growth, including in a
particular geographical area, we have extended eligibility to apply
to local enterprise partnerships, alongside the wide range of sector
and employer bodies already in scope. |
