Boston Belles

Year  2007

In addition to our participation in many community committees and projects such as Boston Community Showcase, Lincolnshire Pride, Lincolnshire Kaleidoscope, Compact and the Independent Police Advisory Group, our own work continued to increase, with extra demands this year on our confidential support services.  

Attendances at our Social Support evenings are improving, we now averaging around 30 per evening. In fact, at some evenings we have had over 40 attending, there is an ever-increasing demand for our confidential support services, whether it is over the telephone, by e-mail or face-to-face meetings.

Our financial stability has improved, due mainly to our own fundraising efforts at Public Events and the Raffles at our social support evenings. Some grant income has helped us to offset most of our operational costs and we have now acquired a trailer to take our stuff to public events.

We are hoping to be able to obtain some lightweight display boards so that we can be that bit more professional in our marketing of our services for future years.

The Year 0f 2007

      January saw Belinda & Stacey again assisting in the diversity training of the Police Service recruits also the preparation work for LGBT history month in February

      In February, we participated in the Second Lincolnshire LGBT History Month. We mounted an informative display for the whole of the month in the central library in Boston, where Stacy Tricia and Belinda were there to answer the questions from the public on the late opening evenings through out the month.

      February saw an enormous amount of work put into Lincolnshire Kaleidoscope. The constitution was adopted and the officers we elected. Stacey being the Membership officer and Trustee, and Belinda, Vice –Chair and trustee. We are confident that Lincolnshire Kaleidoscope will be the countywide vehicle for contact of the whole of the LGBT Community in Lincolnshire.

      Also during February some of your committee underwent training in the responsibilities of Trustees.

      We have now achieved some recognition at least! as Belinda & Joanne were invited to the Loving Cup tour ceremony where only some twenty groups and charities were invited to attend. We received the invitation in the name of Boston Belles & Lincolnshire Kaleidoscope, so people are getting to know about us now, which shows that some of our hard work is paying off at last.

      March started off with your committee being at the True-Vision day held in Boston. Publicising the Hate Crime reporting pack. We also had a display at this event held at the Council offices. Our March Support evening was devoted to a sale of Clothes, wig, boots & shoes, all of which had been donated to the Boston Belles to help raise funds for our work to carry on.

      April saw Belinda & Joanne visit Steph in Blackpool to see how her business is developing and take some clothes and other items to her, glad to report that she is progressing well and is establishing herself well in Blackpool, many of our members who have visited her & complimented her on her excellent services..

       May saw an immense amount of work by Stacey and Belinda into the Press & Public Launch of Lincolnshire Kaleidoscope scheduled for June 1^st at the Prestigious Collection Building in Lincoln. Also there was the Boston Area Partnership half-yearly Meeting at Boston College

      Also in May we were approached by Humberside Police to assist in their Training Programme with training sessions for their trainers.

      June saw Belinda being asked to chair SHREC (South Holland Reaching Every Community) to seek to engender community cohesion within the area by reaching out to the hard to reach groups. Also Tricia & Joanne are joining as well. This is in  association with the Community Interest Company” South Holland Radio”

      June also saw the Press & Public Launch of Lincolnshire Kaleidoscope at the Collection in Lincoln, which was a great success and received press coverage well outside of the county.

      During the month of June also we started our outreach work with Belinda doing a day on the Mobile Police Office at Kirton; further days are booked for Spilsby, Hogsthorpe & Burgh le Marsh. Belinda & Joanne also attended the Training day for the IAG’s

      July was a busy month with the focus being upon PRIDE weekend in Lincoln.

      Not only did we have the Boston Belles Stand, but we also manned the Lincolnshire Kaleidoscope staand. All in all we were at Pride for some 23 hours out of the 48.hrs. Our fundraising was successful with our 100 prize Tombola and the sale of Hand Crafted Cards, made by Joanne and all the proceeds going to our funds. It was a great effort by all your committee. Also in July, Belinda was elected Chair of the Independent Advisory Group for the East Division Lincolnshire Police Service and Joanne was elected Vice-Chair.

      August saw quite a number of meetings attended with various organisations also a large number of Face to Face support meetings to assist members with problems.

      September came along with our appearance at Boston Community Showcase, where again we had a 100 prize TOMBOLA and we were selling hand crafted Cards by Joanne, again all proceeds to our funds. We answered very many question from the public, who seemed to take to us and supported the work that we are doing. Also an interview was recorder for LocalLincs TV. Our September Social Support Evening which was also our first AGM under the new constitution was successful. The members present re-electing the existing committee to carry on their work for a further period.

      October saw our attendance at the Cultural Festival at Long Sutton, again our informative stand drew a lot of question about us from the public at large and Joanne was again selling her Hand Crafted Cards, the whole of the proceeds going to our support group funds, and there were a lot of cards sold to help our funding.

      Just after our very enjoyable October Support Evening, Belinda suffered her third heart attack, and after hospitalisation for a number of days, returned home to recover her health. Belinda would like to thank all those that sent messages and good wishes and especially Stacey who ferried Joanne to and from the hospital and generally took charge. Thank you all!!

      During October and November we also received some financial aid in the form of grants, from Lincolnshire County Council Healthy Communities fund, Lincolnshire Police Property Regulations Fund and the Medlock Charitable Trust, and The Allen Lane Foundation, all of whom we thank for their support which has helped to put us on a more stable financial footing to face the future demands on our services. We would like to thank those organisations for their help and assistance

      At the At the AGM of South Lincolnshire Community & Voluntary Service on 6th November, which was held at the Council Chamber of South Holland District Council in Spalding, The Worshipful the Mayor of Boston Michael Brookes made a presentation of a Certificate of Appreciation to Belinda in recognition of her valuable contribution to the community in South Lincolnshire (Photograph on this site).  In her response, Belinda thanked Joanne, Stacey & Tricia for all the work that they put in and also thanked the entire team at South Lincs CVS for the help and assistance they had given to Belinda in seeking to achieve a greater acceptance and awareness of the Transgendered Community in the whole of Lincolnshire. She also thanked Paul Kenny of Mayflower Housing, for the nomination for the award.

      Also in November, Belinda & Joanne attended the IAG National Conference in Blackpool where many new contacts were made and the reputation of the Boston Bells was spread further a field, and they were also involved in the Inside Justice Week and then we were approached to assist with diversity training for United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and Boston Borough Council. November also saw us make our first support visit to Lincoln Prison, where 2 inmates have been supported with their Transgender problems, this is in association with the Prison Governor and staff. We have set up a protocol for giving support to any inmate that requires such support whilst in Lincoln Prison; we have already a protocol in place for support to inmates at North Sea Camp Prison.

 The month ending with a countywide get together for the IAG’s to which Belinda, Joanne and Stacy attended to continue to fly the Boston Belles flag. Also both Belinda & Joanne attended the full Boston Area Partnership Meeting at Boston College. Belinda, Stacey Tricia and Donna-Isabella attended the Lincolnshire Kaleidoscope Forum which celebrated its First Birthday, and is making progress steadily towards all its aims.

      December. Saw our attendance at several regular events. Our Christmas Party on 14^th December was a really great affair, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and there were many new faces as well as many regulars. Andres won the Special TEDDY Draw.  In the run up to the end of the year the workload has eased a bit so as to be able to gather our strength for next year. In 2008 we aim to continue increasing the public awareness of Transgendered People and to increase acceptance of our community to the public at large.

A nice touch to end the year? We have just been advised that Mayflower Housing Association Community Fund has agreed to purchase the new display boards for us. They are on order and we will be presented with them in the New Year. Thank you Mayflower, they will be put to very good use, you can be assured of that.

      In Ending this brief report We wish you all a Very Happy Christmas and a Happy &  Prosperous 2008