Happy May, everyone! We hope these past couple months have been kind to you.
In March, we received £1,554.08 in donations from 105 contributors and we spent £2,821.41. In April we received £1,634.12 in donations from 107 contributors and we spent £2,897.78. We have £5,292.02 left in our main pot. As you can see, we are running quite low on our reserves. We’ll be running a fundraising campaign shortly, so please hop on that and share it around!
To echo one other important announcement first – we have CLOSED our Emergency Grants for this quarter. Here’s more details about that: Due to a significant drop in donations, we can no longer sustain giving away the amount of money in grants per month that we have been. We have been giving away £2,500 every single month, and that’s just not doable any more. We have therefore had to take the extremely hard decision to close our Emergency Grants for the time being, and reduce the amount that goes towards our General Grant rounds. We know that this is hard news. We will be doing larger fundraising drives over the next few months, and, hopefully, along with the increase in donations we receive during Pride season, we will be able to reopen Emergency Grants soon. We will keep everyone updated via our social media about the status of that. We are sorry that we don’t have better news, but unfortunately that is where we are at the moment.
We have seen an uptick in donations, and for that we are incredibly thankful! We’re hoping we can recover the Emergency Grants again soon.
In better news, we have been continuing to have such a great time at our Swim & Gym events every 2nd and 4th Friday of the month! Please join us in the future, and thank you so much to all who attend! As a reminder, swimmers are welcome to swim without a swim top. We have access to a full gym, as well. As always, many thanks to Not a Phase for collaborating with us on these events!
In early April, we took Caio with us to explore the National Museum Cardiff as one of our team members was visiting from the States (hi, that’s me!)! Caio is so excited to see you at all the Pride events coming up!!
That’s all for our updates this month. Here are some bits that might be of interest to you:
Ongoing research projects looking for participants:
Research:
A study about voice therapy:
Researchers at UWE Bristol are looking to interview people who have experiences of trying to access voice therapy in the last three years (regardless of having received it), are 18+, live in the UK, and are trans, gender-diverse, and/or non-binary. Participants can receive a shopping voucher or enter a prize draw as a thank you for their input. You can find more here: https://www.instagram.com/transvoicestudy
A survey about beauty services:
A queer professional Make-Up artist based in Llanelli is working on a project called Safe Space Beauty and has a short anonymous survey to understand people’s real experiences with beauty services to inform creation of a more inclusive space. You can find her website here: http://www.simonebevan.com/ and her survey here: https://forms.gle/sN6bL5X4NNDTMzzf6
A study about neonatal care:
Bliss, the premature and sick baby charity, is conducting a questionnaire about experiences people have had in neonatal units across Wales during the past five years. You can learn more and complete the questionnaire in English: https://forms.office.com/e/9FUAjGQv40 or Cymraeg: https://forms.office.com/e/JSLm7i4Pxb
A study about discourse:
Seeking professionals and advocates to discuss experiences partaking in trans rights discourse. The findings will be used to support advocacy efforts to overcome political challenges. If you are interested in participating in a Zoom interview with Dr. Karoline Anderson, email them at [email protected]
An advocacy project around Section 28:
The Section 28 Justice Coalition has launched a petition calling for public inquiry into the impact of Section 28 including a pursuit of justice for people affected by it and steps to avoid anything like it from happening again. You can find more about their work here: https://section28justice.co.uk/ @section28justice
Fast Track Cymru have produced a manifesto for ending HIV transmission in Wales by 2030. You can check it out here: https://nat.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/One-Senedd-Left-HIV-Sector-Manifesto-2026-English.pdf
Report: The Young, Queer & Away from Home team have completed their project and are ready to share about it! They’ve released a report about their work which you can find here: https://pure.port.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/119504011/Young_Queer_Away_from_Home_Report_-_final.pdf and a training which you can find here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/young-queer-away-from-home-lgbtiq-identities-and-creating-inclusive-services You can learn more about the project here: https://www.iglyo.org/projects/yqa#resource-hub
Lastly, April was Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. This is a cancer some of our team have personal connections with, so it’s extra important for us to encourage everyone to learn more about screenings available. You can find more here: https://phw.nhs.wales/services-and-teams/screening/bowel-screening/
Alright, that’s finally it from us for this month. We’ll check in again soon!