Doncaster Pride has delivered 13 annual events, & one online "Lockdown Pride". In this time we've seen the community & the town change so much. We want to grow the event to meet the needs of a growing & increasingly diverse audience. We want to add a special children & family area to the event as well as make improvements to accessibility with viewing areas, special quiet spaces & more facilities that cater for people with additional needs. To do all this requires a move - our old "home" became too small for our plans. We had planned this move for 2020, but of course that didn't happen but we're back & we're even more fired up than ever to bring Pride back in 2021 & for it to be the best EVER. *We will continue to be guided by safety considerations. In the event of needing to reschedule the festival, we will communicate this via our Spacehive page.*

What we'll deliver:

• A new location
• A strategy to fund this growth through sponsorship and advertising
• A family and children area
• A more diverse offer that will cater for a more diverse audience
• A wider community inclusion - Pride isn't just for the LGBT+ community

Why it's a great idea:

Pride is one of the biggest free events in Doncaster. It caters for the LGBTQ+ community but more than this it attracts an audience as diverse as our town. Pride is for everyone, there is no restriction for age, gender, sexuality, religion or ability & to further reinforce this message & educate we want to grow the event. Our move will see us go from a town square to a large park where more & more people can enjoy the day safely We want Doncaster Pride to be able to provide more and grow to be fully inclusive, a beacon amongst other prides that cater only for the LGBT+ community. We believe community cohesion comes from joining together across all our communities and celebrating our similarities and not our differences. By enabling us to reach out to the business community to support our event through a brand new marketing and sponsorship campaign will mean we're sustainable moving forward and this funding would be used to help us to build capacity to grow way beyond 2020.

Steps to get it done:

• deliver new marketing and sponsorship package
• appoint specialist Trans advisor to work in the group
• secure sponsors for children and family area

Pride in Doncaster is a volunteer led organisation & as such we don't have employees to work on our planning & delivery. We need to be able to support our volunteer board to develop & deliver more & better year on year. Their enthusiasm is unbelievable but the prospect of changing a model that has worked for the last 6 years to grow Pride & deliver on a new level is daunting - this funding would mean we can stage that growth & concentrate on developing the event this year as well as a funding strategy that will take us into the future. We have also seen the erosion of visibility for minorities during lockdown, mental health issues increasing & we believe news of a big comeback in 2021 will boost the community & the local economy that is struggling to get back on it's feet. We use all local suppliers for our event & news of its planning & comeback would be a huge boost for them too.