The History of the Forum - the "When"
2002
The Forum was established as a direct result of a conference held in Guildford, in November 2001 . One of the workshops had been on this topic, and some of the Reading delegates felt they wanted to take some action in this area.
After some informal meetings and conversations, the Forum was established in Spring, 2002 . It immediately began to attract a lot of interest from the Lesbian and Gay community as well as voluntary and statutory organisations. It also became clear that there were similar initiatives taking place elsewhere in the UK. The time felt ripe.
We had early contact with Reading Age Concern who expressed a positive interest in the Forum. This was followed by contact with Age Concern Slough and Age Concern Berkshire.
Jenny Ward attended Age Concern's "Opening Doors" Conference on April 30th, 2002 . This conference was preceded by an Age Concern publication also called Opening Doors which is a good practice guide for services working with a Lesbian and Gay client group. This has demonstrated Age Concern's commitment to being a welcoming organisation towards us and evidence of a positive attitude of acceptance for Lesbians and GM who are clients, staff or volunteers.
We wrote an article for the Reading Voluntary Action (RVA) Newsletter, describing how the Forum was being set up and its aims and objectives. RVA were very supportive and helped a great deal.
BBC Radio Berkshire's live "Any questions". Jenny Ward asked a question of the panel about the issues facing older gay men and lesbians. The panel had included Jane Griffiths MP and Terry Rich, Director of Social Services.
Reading Borough Council Conference in October 2002 - the launch of Reading Older People's Forum Conference. The Forum was involved in the planning group for this event and fielded a key speaker - Roger Newman from the Gay and Lesbian Alzheimers Carers Group.
October, 2002 also saw our first social event - a Tea Dance at the Coronation Hall, Woodley. Please look at the socials page to see some photos. 80 people attended and it proved a great fund-raising event as well as good fun. We have further tea dances. Please look at our social events page to see what's up and coming.
In November 2002 , Jenny Ward and Nigel Tooke attended Gloucestershire Age Concern's conference "Opening Doors" where they made lots of useful contacts and gathered information.
2003
We were awarded a Community Champions Grant of £1,000 in March 2003 for networking with other groups for older lesbians and gay men in the UK and for our own training.
In May 2003 , Radio station 107FM broadcast an interview with Jenny Ward and Nigel Tooke about the work of the forum.
In June 2003 the steering group explored our vision for the road ahead. These two exciting sessions were facilitated by Margaret Collins.
In August, Berkshire Older Lesbian and Gay Forum was awarded £300, by Berkshire Community Foundation, towards the Opening Doors Conference being held in October 2003, (together with monies from Reading Borough Council, Reading Primary Care Trust and Slough Primary Care Trust). The grant from Berkshire Community Foundation was specifically for stationery costs (delegates packs, badges etc).
On August 30th we hosted a Networking Day for groups in the South of England working for Older Lesbians and Gay men. You can have a look at Sally Middleton's report of the day. In the mean time you may want to read the presentation which Sally Middleton (of Opening Doors in Gloucester) gave about a seminal piece of work by Dr Brian Heaphy on Non-heterosexual Ageing with top tips on how his research could be used in applying for grants.