The Leeds United Foundation have had a fantastic month engaging with around 750 youngsters from various programmes around LGBTQ+ History Month.

LGBTQ+ History Month takes place throughout February and it is an annual month-long campaign and observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements.

The campaign has been running since 1994 and the club, Academy and Foundation have undertaken a number of activities to help mark the occasion, educating members of staff, young players, and charity participants around the history of the LGBT community.

As part of the educational activities the club’s official charity have been hosting weekly live lessons with question-and-answer sessions for youngsters throughout the month from Premier League Primary Stars, Premier League Kicks, NCS and partner Grassroots clubs. Coaches from the Foundation have also created resources dedicated to the month-long campaign that have been provided to primary schools and high schools for teachers to use during lessons.

Throughout February the Foundation have also rolled out an inclusivity project, asking children, young people, and adults to create a poster or provide some quotes that represent what inclusivity means to them. This creative challenge was seen as a fantastic opportunity to involve our community in opening up the topic of conversation, allowing people to share their thoughts around inclusivity and a lot of the projects that have been created can now help to frame the work being done to promote equality, diversity, and inclusivity.

Julia Hogan, who is the LBGTQ+ EDI lead at the Leeds United Foundation, said: "We have had a fantastic amount of engagement throughout the month on LGBTQ+ history. The live lessons were some of my favourite things to be a part of with some brilliant children and young people taking part.

“I have received an overwhelming response in regards to the inclusivity project and gathered lots of these posters, quotes, and materials. A massive thank you to everyone who has been involved including Stonewall, the local schools, Grassroots clubs, Leeds girls’ and boys’ programmes and Marching out Together." 

A teacher from Asquith Primary School sent some feedback following their live online session thanking the coaches for their hard work, remarking that the children really enjoyed the session and presentation, and it was fantastic to see how engaged they were, asking lots of questions and being interested in finding out about LGBT history and taking part in the inclusivity project, designing some powerful posters.  

If you would like to find out more about the work being done in the local community to help promote equality, diversity and inclusivity through the Leeds United Foundation, please contact Julia.Hogan@leedsunited.com.