LAGMORE Youth Project have been shortlisted for the Pride Ally Community Award at this year's Belfast Pride Awards.

The project, which includes a group specifically for LGBTQ+ youths and allies, previously won the 2021 Aisling Community Award and their recent Pride Colour Run was a huge success.

Speaking after being shortlisted, Colm Fanning from the project said: "Our project never set out for the recognition of an award. It was about trying to identify young people who needed support.

"We have a number of our staff that are part of the LGBTQ+ community so when talking with them about at-risk young people, at the fore of our thinking was the lack of support available within the community for the LGBTQ+ community.

"We developed our programme to reach out to the young people who identify as LGBTQ+ within the Colin area and make them aware that there is support here for them.

"It is great to be recognised as a local organisation and I would encourage other youth providers to reach out to the LGBTQ+ community."

The group's Inclusion Project offers a safe space for young members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies to come together and develop friendships.

On that, Colm said: "On a weekly basis we have over 50 young people who are registered on that programme. It is no different to any of our other programmes just that the young people who come to it identify as LGBTQ+ or allies. 

"We look at things like leadership, their place in community, mental health. These are the same issues that other young people on our programmes are also facing but they get the support as a collective friendship group."

Local woman Jacq O'Neill, who nominated the project for the award said, that she was blown away by the work the project put in for local LGBTQ+ young people.

"I am a paramedic and I have worked at Pride each year. Many young people come and have a chat while we are there about their lives and from seeing the work of the Lagmore Youth Project I have been so impressed," she said.

"The kids just come and are taken as they are. No matter if they are gay or straight or if they have family issues, they come here and are accepted for who they are and they are very encouraging of allowing these young people to be who they are because quite often their friends don't accept them, their families don't accept them or their schools don't accept them but they come to the Lagmore Youth Project and they are treated as who they are."

Voting closes on Friday, July 22. To vote visit the Belfast Pride website.