Cause of the Month: The Albert Kennedy Trust

Our featured cause for the month of February is The Albert Kennedy Trust, founded in 1989 in Manchester (now also based in London and Newscastle), an organisation that works helping LGBT young people who need a place to live. A frequent example of this are young LGBT people who have been kicked out by their parents.

Some astonishing fact from AKT include:

• Annually the Trust receives over 2,000 calls for support across three cities: London, Manchester and Newcastle
• Over 6,000 nights off the street provided by AKT for young people in 2013 (excluding Purple Door)
• Over 1,800 hours of mentoring provided by AKT for young people in 2013
• Purple Door Project has already provided over 1790 nights accommodation for young LGBT people in need since opening in July
• Estimated that 1 in 4 homeless youths may identify as LGB or T
• 85% of our young people have faced some level of rejection by their parents just for being brave enough to come out and be who they are.
• Over 2/3 of AKT young men have been offered sex or been forced to offer sex to get a bed for the night

The Albert Kennedy Trust helps acts as an intermediary to provide foster homes (or similar), as well as helping them to live independently. With the Purple House project, UK’s first LGBT specific safe houses:

Purple Door London is designed to take LGBT young people out of danger and off the streets. They stay in the safe house for approximately 21 days whilst specialist workers provide a bespoke intervention which covers longer-term accommodation, support, mentoring, advocacy and therapeutic care. In Greater Manchester, the project will support young people into education, employment and training, and equip them with the skills they need to live independently for between 6 – 12 months through a structured tenancy training program.

Here is a campaign video:

These are some of the Case Stories:

You can contribute by making a one-off donations, as well as a regular donation. You can also contribute to their Purple Door Project here.

Please, consider donating today. With as little as £25  you can provide a young LGBT person with an emergency pack and one night off the streets.