Allsorts as it is now known originated through a chance meeting one cold, January morning in 1999 between Jess Wood, a volunteer mentor for social services and myself, James Newton, a youth worker with the Young Men's Sexual Health Project. We had within the space of half an hour decided that we were interested in providing 'something' for lesbian, gay and bisexual young people in the Brighton area.

After a great deal of liaison and negotiation with organizations and individuals, the Allsorts Youth Project was born. We have been asked a number of times what made us decide to call ourselves the Allsorts Youth Project. Simply, we were of the opinion that many of the other national lesbian, gay and bisexual youth groups contained the term 'out' in a very dynamic,almost aggressive context. We felt that many young people would find this off- putting; that actually they may just want to explore their sexuality in their own, quiet ways.

We also recognised that some young people were desperate to come out in as loud and proud a way as possible: therefore we wanted to appeal to all sorts of young people, the ones who had had little formal education as well as the university educated, the homeless as well as the homed, the unemployed as well as the computer programmers.

We eventually decided that the Allsorts Youth Project had two fundamental aims:

• To engage vulnerable, alienated or marginalized young people in Brighton and Hove and the surrounding area who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or unsure of their sexuality (LGB) and provide them with a variety of support services designed to promote and protect their well being as they emerge into an LGB adult identity.
• To do outreach work in the wider community in two ways: firstly by providing workshops for young people in schools and colleges, to promote awareness of LGB issues and to provide positive modelling for L68 young people, secondly, by offering training to people working with young people in the statutory services and voluntary agencies in order to raise awareness, promote good practice and facilitate the creation of safer and more supportive environments for LGB young people in the wider community.

The first Drop-In session was held on Tuesday 26th October 1999. Seven young women and two young men attended this first Drop-In; the young people ranged in age from 15 to 25. Four of these young people never repeated this first contact. Even so, the Allsorts volunteer workers were very surprised by such a large number of young people on the first night. Minimal advertising had been released and the workers were expecting a maximum of three young people that first evening. Allsorts has continued to grow and develop through 2000 and into 2001, to our satisfaction and hopefully to that of the young people. We are looking to diversify our services over time and hope to really become a project that is of national significance to LGB youth work. We have been very fortunate to have had a lot of support, but we have also worked very hard to ensure our success. Our vision of Allsorts and our commitment helped us through the difficult times and ultimately the young people have proved to us that we are providing a very necessary 'something'.

Funding

At the beginning of the project, we begged and borrowed everything from re-usable envelopes to meeting space and we would not have been able to survive this period had we not been offered so much brilliant support from the Young People's Centre ( PACT Community Projects) and the Brighton & Hove Youth and Community Service.

We also received financial support from Brighton and Hove Council, who gave us a Small Grant of £1000 for 1999 and 2000 and a further Community Chest Small Grant of £500 for Pride 2000. Unison also made a donation of £150.

The HIV Prevention Office Small Grants Scheme gave us a grant of £5000 for 2000 and have given us further grants of £1350 and £2896 to run residentials in 2000 and 2001. Pride made a donation of £500 and finally, we received major funding from the Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Fund of £220,180 to run from November 2000 to January 2004.

We'd like to thank everyone who has supported our work.

Taken from the Annual report 1999 - 2001, available from here