Press Release: 12th May 2025
Last year, 4,780 transphobic hate crimes were recorded across England and Wales – more than double the amount recorded five years ago. In Cambridgeshire, the number of suspects investigated for reported hate crimes who are still children themselves (aged 10-17 years old), has also dramatically increased since 2019.
Cambridgeshire-based charity, The Kite Trust, want to change that and turn the tide for LGBTQ+ young people. Thanks to National Lottery players, The Kite Trust has been awarded two grants from The National Lottery Community Fund – the largest community funder in the UK.
The youth charity will receive £1.2 million over five years from The UK Fund, to connect and empower LGBTQ+ young people and organisations across the UK, removing the barriers that prevent young people achieving their full potential.
The UK Fund is one of The National Lottery Community Fund’s first significant commitments as part of its new strategy, ‘It starts with community’, funding projects that help children and young people thrive – one of the funder’s four key missions.
The Kite Trust will also receive £500,000 over three years from Reaching Communities England. This second project will develop new approaches to tackling hate-based bullying in schools, and supporting families with an LGBTQ+ child in the East of England.
Pip Gardner, Chief Executive of The Kite Trust, said: “Thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund, and players of the National Lottery, this funding will support us to work collaboratively with other youth organisations, schools, families, and LGBTQ+ young people to turn the tide and tackle the rising number of hate crimes, particularly those perpetrated by other young people.”
The projects will draw upon The Kite Trust’s experience of delivering LGBTQ+ youth support in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for over 30 years. Using this expertise and by working together with organisations in other areas, these projects aim to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ young people across the UK.
“We know there are many people looking for ways to show their support for LGBTQ+ people at this time” Pip said, “and there will be several ways in which volunteers can get involved – sign up to our newsletter via our website to find out more.”
About The Kite Trust
The Kite Trust supports LGBTQ+ young people across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and surrounding areas. We do this through our youth work programmes including; individual support, social groups in Cambridge, Ely, March, Wisbech, Huntingdon, St Neots and Peterborough, and residentials.
The Kite Trust is the delivery partner for the Rainbow Flag Award in the East of England. The programme takes a whole-school approach to addressing bullying and promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools, colleges and youth organisations.
About The National Lottery Community Fund
We are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK – community is at the heart of our purpose, vision and name.
We support activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable and that will strengthen society and improve lives across the UK.
We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with Government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives.
As well as responding to what communities tell us is important to them, our funding is focused on four key missions, supporting communities to:
1. Come together
2. Be environmentally sustainable
3. Help children and young people thrive
4. Enable people to live healthier lives.
Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we distribute around £500 million a year through 10,000+ grants and plan to invest over £4bn of funding into communities by 2030. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £47 billion has been raised and more than 670,000 individual grants have been made across the UK – the equivalent of around 240 National Lottery grants in every UK postcode district.