We might not have had the sunniest of summers but we certainly felt the warmth of the community across all of our spectacular summer events. Take a look at our round up.
Brighton & Hove Pride: August 2023
We joined up with our friends from Unity Club Nights, Heartventure, Speak Out, Stay Up Late and Carousel to start the celebrations early at our Pre-Pride Party on 26th July at Carousel’s nightclub on Brighton seafront. The night featured performances from DJs, bands, and solo artists.
We then took part in the Pride Community Parade on 5th August. We had a wonderful time on our big yellow bus, celebrating alongside fellow local learning disability charities Unity Club Nights, Heartventure, Speak Out and Stay Up Late.
The bus, was kindly donated for the day by Dave and Frankie at the Brighton Bus Preservation Society, and featured the statement ‘Equal Able Sexual’ slogan designed by people supported by the charities. Thanks to Zurich Insurance for a donation used to deck out our bus in amazing decorations, including a rainbow balloon arch, bubble machine and our very own Grace Eyre flags.
Both events caught the attention of both the public and the media – it was a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of our work and support adults with a learning disability and autism from the LGBTQ+ community.
Brunswick Festival: 19th August 2023
Grace Eyre had a brilliant day out, and the sunshine arrived, for the Brunswick Festival, a family-friendly festival event on Brunswick Square, Hove, with music and entertainment. We talked to the community about the excellent work we do and our plans for development, plus we ran a fun children’s competition to redesign our Montefiore Road building.
Picnic & Party
Grace Eyre welcomed old friends and new at our Picnic and Party celebration in Priory Park, Chichester on 1st September. The sun shone, and people brought their own picnic lunch, joining in the fun sharing food, playing games, listening to music and even taking part in a football match! This was the first of more proposed events spreading awareness of the work Grace Eyre does across West Sussex.
London to Brighton Cycle Ride: 10th September 2023
On 10th September, over 4,000 riders took part in the London to Brighton Cycle Ride, a 55-mile ride starting at Clapham Common in London and ending on Madeira Drive in Brighton. Over 20 super cyclists took part in this year’s ride to raise money for Grace Eyre. We received them at our Grace Eyre stand where passers by could also find out more about our work.
Our fantastic #TeamGraceEyre riders collectively raised over £5,000, all of which will go towards the Big Build project.
Thank you
We want to say a big thank you to everyone who was involved and took part, and we also want to thank our amazing volunteers who gave up their valuable time to support us and without whom we would be unable to manage all our events.
We always welcome more volunteers however and are currently looking at how we can recruit and train more people who can help us in a variety of ways and creating new toolkits to support them. If you are interested, please get in touch with humanresources@grace-eyre.org
We are extremely grateful to a kind donation from Zurich towards our Pride decorations, and to the Co-Op for the cupcakes and Cava for our #TeamGraceEyre Cycle riders.
Just a reminder that we have a what’s on page on our website, with all the different events going on at Grace Eyre!