By Sam Ward, PACT’s Events and Marketing Manager | July 2020
Summer for the PACT marketing team is usually a heady and happy roadshow of summer events. With August not far off, July always signifies our preparations and packing for our annual visit to the seaside and Brighton Pride.
Along with the other Prides that we attend, including London Pride, Black Pride, Oxford and Reading Prides, Brighton Pride is one of the most sparkly of jewels in our events calendar crown. Brighton Pride has such a great and special character; playful and inclusive. It is so much fun meeting and talking with a wide variety of people. The thought that we may be talking to the future parents of children already in the world and waiting never ceases to move us.
PACT has had a long-standing passion for working with the LGBT+ community and this drove our commitment to set up a Sussex based team in 2014. Since we opened the doors to our Brighton office six years ago our expert adoption social workers have worked across the whole of Brighton and Sussex and had the privilege of working with 69 adopters, of whom 46 were LGBT+. We have found loving and permanent families for 53 children. In 2019, 31% of our adopters identified themselves as LGBT+.
Many of our families stay in touch with PACT once their families are complete. We have local annual family fun days where the kids can play and families can meet, relax and eat cake. We also have a few adopters who regularly support us at events, such as Brighton Pride, by talking to people considering adoption to share their first-hand accounts. One couple, Max and Leon*, who adopted two siblings, support the Brighton Pride PACT stall every year. Max and Leon said: “We couldn’t imagine our lives without children now and it all started with an initial enquiry with PACT. This has been an amazing journey for us and if it is something that you are considering, when the time is right for you, PACT will be there to hold your hand throughout every stage.” Of course, they also talk about how weekend lay-ins are a thing of the past – but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Max and Leon have attended Brighton Pride for many years and now they come with their children.
Though we cannot physically be part of Brighton Pride 2020 we will still be there in spirit, madly waving our rainbow flags and showing our information film as part of the Brighton Pride online event.
But don’t wait until next year’s Brighton Pride to talk to us about adoption! We run regular online information events via Zoom where you can hear all about adoption and the process from one of our social workers. We hope to be back delivering face-to-face events soon too as we miss that real face-to-face contact with our potential future adopters. We always have adopters speaking too and there are plenty of opportunities for us to answer any questions you may have. Or you can book a call to a social worker or adopter to answer your own personal queries too. To book any of these call our friendly enquiries team on 0300 456 4800 or visit this page to find out more.
We look forward to meeting you soon. We hope you have a great Brighton Pride weekend and see you next year!
