And everyone lived happily ever after . . .

Happily Ever After details a fairy tale story of a prince who falls in love and marries a prince. After watching the play the children will take part in a workshop allowing them to explore the story in more detail and makes a comparison with what would happen in real life.

This project has been run already in a number of schools, with teachers giving positive feedback explaining that they felt an increased confidence in being able to discuss LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans) identities and being able to challenge homophobic language and behaviour from the pupils.

The children also benefitted as they were able to identify Hate Crime and know where to turn to for help and support.

Rachel Williams, Training Manager at LGBT Youth North West said “Young people from our vast network of LGBT youth groups consistently tell us that coming out while at high school is a difficult, frightening and challenging time. It makes sense to take an open and honest conversation – simply about different types of people – to a younger audience to eradicate negative homophobic language and behaviours earlier on.”

To enable the organisation to continue its work reaching as many young people in the county as possible, they successfully applied to the Commissioner’s Crime Prevention Fund and were awarded £2,500.

John Dwyer said: “Hate Crime is abhorrent. I believe that any work that can be done to educate people no matter what their age is fantastic and helps in the fight against prejudice.  This project is that its educating young people, which hopefully will shape the way they think as they grow giving them the confident to report any Hate Crime incidents they encounter, and feel more comfortable in their own skin. I want to wish this project every success and look forward to seeing the play in action.”

Rachel Williams from LGBT Northwest receiving the cheque from Commissioner John Dwyer.