Northumberland Pride rebrands as Pride Action North to reflect expanded scope and new services

Following the conclusion of Pride Month, the LGBTQIA+ charity will now be known as Pride Action North.

Darren Irvine-Duffy, the charity’s chair, said: “As the name suggests, we are an organisation which takes action as we strive towards making the region a safer, more inclusive and accepting place for everybody to live, particularly members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

“We have invested endless hours of time and effort in engaging with a cross section of service users, stakeholders and staff through various focus groups to gauge their views of what our organisation means to them and we are thrilled with the outcome of the extensive rebranding project.”

As well as the name change, the charity has new branding, values, and mission statement, with a new website in the works.

This is to reflect the charity’s wide range of support services, including counselling, mental health and wellbeing support, domestic and sexual violence and abuse support, hate crime support, and more.

The charity now also conducts engagement work with schools, training programmes, and advocacy work.

Charity manager Angela Brudenell said: “Allowing as many people to access our services, and receive support and guidance, is of great importance to us as an organisation, and we have strengthened our team and facilities to accommodate an increase in referrals to our services.”

The charity was founded in 2017 by volunteers to organise an annual pride event, and now has eight employees.

Darren said: “The development of the charity has been quite phenomenal when I reflect on the early days of wanting to bring a Pride event to the people of Northumberland so they didn’t have to travel to a city.

“There has been a very natural transition to an organisation which provides holistic support and meaningful services to ensure every member of our growing community feels accepted for who they are and safe in every environment.

“The rebranding is the biggest moment in our history, and we are very excited to be operating under a new name as we continue to increase our presence and support communities throughout the north.”