As you know (because we haven't stopped shouting about it) June has been Pride Month and we were incredibly proud to have partnered with the Leeds-based charitable organisation – Angels of Freedom. 🏳️🌈
This month we pledged to donate 15% of all online sales to Angels of Freedom to help fund volunteer training in Mental Health First Aid and suicide prevention.
The Angels of Freedom team do an incredible amount of work in the Leeds LGBTQ+ community to ensure people are safe, happy and connected. They were the perfect partnership for us this month as their ethos truly matches ours.
We're thrilled to see so many of you responding on our social media. A huge thank you to all our ambassadors and influencers too. You've all been phenomenal about getting our message out there.
We've seen RuGirls share our treats, Rebecca More give a detailed review, The Viaduct Showgirls have taken our brownies on stage with them and the cast of Drag S.O.S. and the Death Drop show in London helped get the word out. We've seen talent from Glow Up, comedy and cabaret icons and LGBTQ+ advocates and allies have championed our mission.
You all don't know how much of a big difference this has been to the Angel of Freedom's work within the LGBTQ+ community.
The Grand Total...
The moment you've all been waiting for...
That's right, we raised £2,308.20 for Angels of Freedom and we are over the moon with this! With this money, more volunteers will be able to get trained and hopefully the stigma of mental health can be broken and we can all get chatting and be more aware!
A message from George & Lucy Welton, founders of Brown & Blond:
A message from Rob Wilson, coordinator of Angels of Freedom:
"Brown & Blond have shown how to support the LGBT+ community in the right way over Pride Month, using their platform to profile our group and raise awareness of our activities, whilst also raising an incredible amount of money to support us throughout the coming year.
With the amount raised throughout the month we're already planning on delivering an additional Mental Health First Aid course later in the year, so we'll have twice as many LGBT+ community group representatives qualified to provide support to those in mental health crisis compared to our original plan.
We're also relaunching our monthly LGBT+ coffee & cake cafe in September, providing a much needed LGBT+ affirmative accessible family friendly social space away from the bar scene, and this money will cover all our costs for this.
Leeds Pride 2021 would usually be held on 1st August, however the Main Street event has already been cancelled for the year. The LGBT+ bars are already planning a big weekend of activities, so we've taken up the challenge of organising our Leeds Pride village fete again this year in the grounds of Mill Hill Chapel providing a celebratory space for everyone - the money we're receiving from Brown & Blond will really elevate the fun activities we're able to undertake on the day. Details of the village fete can be found on our social media accounts and website."
