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Who we are

We are LGBTIQ+ colleagues, friends & activists who work in the Homeless sector & have lived experience of homelessness & the unique, complex issues our community face. We volunteered to launch the UK’s first LGBTIQ+ Crisis/Homeless Shelter & Community Centre. We launched publicly at London Pride 2017, campaigning alongside the passionate & talented LGBTIQ+ community of activists & artists.

the two founders of the outside project
Project founders Carla & Laik attaching the banner to the Pride Punx float at London Pride – July 2017

📢 LONDON LGBTIQ+ SHELTER 🏳️‍🌈‬

Christmas is over, but our service is needed year round. Are you in crisis, homeless, sofa-surfing, survival sex-working? Reach us & Stonewall Housing:

☎️ tel: 0207 359 5767 (10am-1pm)

💻 online referral: CLICK HERE

👥 drop-ins:

Monday 18:00 – 21:00

The Outside Project Camden Hub. Castlehaven Community Association, 23 Castlehaven Road NW1 8RU

Wednesday 14:00 – 15:30

Origin Housing, St Richards House, 110 Eversholt Street, London, NW1 1BS

Friday 14:00 – 15:30

London Friend, 86 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9DN

Monthly drop in sessions

First Wednesday of every month 17:00 – 19:00

cliniQ, 56 Dean Street, London, W1D 6AQ (for trans people)

Second Wednesday of every month 12:00 – 14:00

Camden LGBT Forum Hub at Union Chapel, Compton Terrace, London, N1 2UN

All services are free and confidential and all the venues are accessible for people with disabilities. No appointments necessary. (Pre-arranged appointments can be made for between 15.30 and 17.00) #homelesslgbtiqsolidarity #LGBTIQcommunitycentre #identityresponsiveservices

The Shelter

During the summer 2017 we crowdfunded £11.5k. This enabled us to buy a 12 bed tour bus to host the shelter that winter. Through ongoing support from the community & grant funding from the local authority we were able to deliver a professional shelter &demonstrating the need for this vital service on a year round basis.

three people siiting under a dome
To celebrate the arrival of the shelter in the area ahead of its opening, local groups met to present their projects & do a walk of solidarity, followed by a sleep-in at the shelter. November 2017.

LGBTIQ+ Community Centre

The shelter has an LGBTIQ+ Community Centre at its heart to reach those more at risk of rough sleeping & bring together marginalised groups so that they do not feel left ‘outside’. The centre is a mix of cultural and artistic hub, offering safe daytime refuge & social space alongside queer led services, pop-up businesses & co-working space for marginalised groups. Holistic case work, advice, housing & employment support is delivered through our support team and partnerships with Stonewall Housing and other LGBTIQ+ and homelessness organisations.

There are so many incredible LGBTIQ+ and homelessness groups resident within the centre. Our long term collaborators have been Queerseum, Museum of Homelessness, Streets Kitchen,African Rainbow Family, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, Friends of the Joiners Arms and Save the Black Cap. We have welcomed new groups such as the Queer Youth Artist Collective, Voices4 and London Interesex and Trans Community Hub.

Our Mission

The Outside Project is a homeless/crisis shelter & LGBTIQ+ Community Centre in response to those within the LGBTIQ+ community who feel endangered, who are homeless, ‘hidden’ homeless & feel that they are on the outside of services due to historical & present prejudice in society & in their homes. Our aims:

Visibility, fundraising & promotion

We regularly host & attend events & fundraisers to promote the project, reaching 'hidden homeless' members of the community that hadn’t considered themselves to be in crisis or at risk of homelessness. We run workshops & sober spaces at community events such as Pride events, Festival's, Lush soap shops & the Lush Summit, Teen Challenge, Gendered Intelligence Super Camp.

We are very active on social media, building a large following across sites.

News

26-08-2019

OUTSIDE PROJECT FUNDRAISER

 
 🎉 CONGRATULATIONS! Thankyou for supporting the project by donating your wedding gifts to us. We wish you all of the happiness 💕 #homelessLGBTIQsolidarity #LGBTIQcommunitycentre

READ MORE 

23-08-2019

Sheffield's LGBT-only halls were called a ghetto – but a year on, they're thriving

It was a controversial decision for the university to open the flats, but it’s helped residents gain the confidence to mingle 

A year ago, the University of Sheffield made headlines when we became the first UK university to launch LGBT-only flats in our accommodation. Much of the coverage was based on untruths and exaggeration, conjuring images of huge rainbow-clad buildings where all gay students were forced to stay. 

The reality was far less dramatic: 32 students in seven flats scattered among the three student villages, with no way of being identified aside from by their tenants. It was hardly the “ghettoising” we were accused of.

 The debate hit the news during my first week as the students’ union welfare officer. The project was a result of a partnership between the university and the students’ union LGBT committee. As an LGBT activist myself, I initially had concerns. But my worries were quickly assuaged when I did what lots of news outlets didn’t: actually talk to the students concerned.

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