Celebrating 30 years of service in 2019, MVA works towards a Medway where communities are active, empowered and connected. We support local not-for-profit organisations, groups and community members to develop skills, build resources and amplify their voice.
About Us
Established in 1989, and now embedded within Medways communities for over 30 years, Medway Voluntary Action (MVA) has a strong history of supporting and representing Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations in Medway
There is a lot of information about how MVA helps the local community in the video above.
We promote health and wellbeing and celebrate difference
Our vision
METRO’s vision is for a world where diversity is celebrated, difference respected and valued, and where optimum health and wellbeing for all is a collective goal.
Our mission
Working collaboratively with our staff, volunteers, users, partners and supporters to make a difference to people’s lives, we champion equality, nurture aspiration, embrace difference and challenge others to do so.
We promote health and wellbeing through our transformative services to anyone experiencing issues relating to sexuality, gender, equality, diversity and identity, and use our unique insight from these transformative services and our diverse heritage to influence decision makers and to effect positive change.
Our values
Innovation
We strive to deliver cutting edge, creative and entrepreneurial solutions to the individual, cultural, economic, historical and social problems we identify.
Insight
Our services and our change agenda are informed by our understanding of the power of human connection and relationships and our unique relationship with the people and communities we work with and for.
Integrity
We believe in the transformative power of inclusive services, products and experiences that are accessible to all.
Investment
We support the aspirations of all our members and users, and embrace these aspirations to ensure the sustainability of the charity through entrepreneurialism and social return on investment.
Our goal
We will to harness the power of difference and diversity to inspire and support people and communities to realise their assets and potentials and aspirations.
Our history
METRO was established 1984 in response to the development of the Greater London Council’s Lesbian & Gay Charter, Changing the World.
Originally operating under the name The Greenwich Lesbian and Gay Centre and providing telephone advice and support groups, the charity broadened its remit in 1994, working in partnership with statutory and voluntary organisations serving lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people and those questioning their sexuality.
Over the next decade and beyond, METRO has extended its services beyond Greenwich, and across South East London, until eventually it began working not only across the whole of London, but nationally and internationally.
In early 2008, the membership of METRO agreed to amend its Constitution to provide services to all people experiencing issues related to sexuality, identity, gender and diversity.
From its inception, METRO has taken a holistic approach to lesbian, gay bisexual and trans health and well-being and continues to acknowledge that our ability to create supportive environments for LGBT people depends not only on our strengths as an organisation, but also on our capacity to build alliances and partnerships that empower all people who confront discrimination because of their sexuality, gender, identity or HIV status.
In recent years we have developed a range of services and that support African people and communities affected by HIV consolidated and expanded since our merger with Harbour Trust in December 2010.
There are lots of different ways to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, choose the one that’s right for you and your partner. contraceptionI need some
You can get free condoms from any of our clinics, or if you’re aged 13-24 you can register for the ‘Get It’ scheme and pick up free condoms from a local pharmacy, or online. condoms
Get It SchemeFree condoms and advice for young people
NHS ChoicesGuidance and advice on condoms from the NHS
If you have had unprotected sex and are worried about unplanned pregnancy, act fast! You have 2 choices of emergency contraception. I’ve had unprotected sex
If you think you have an STI, it’s important to been seen quickly by a qualified professional. Don’t be embarrassed or ashamed, we are here to help you, and we really have seen it all before! I think I’vegot an infection
We provide treatment and support to people who are affected by HIV. Your GP or another health professional can refer you, or you can refer yourself if it’s easier for you. You can expect a completely confidential service from us.
If you are worried that you may have HIV then come to any clinic and talk to us about getting a test. about HIVServices
Some of our clinics are especially for people under the age of 25.
The Apple Tree project is designed to make sure that reasonable adjustments are made when a person with learning disabilities needs an appointment at a sexual health clinic.
By asking for Apple Tree, the person taking the call immediately knows that the caller needs a double appointment.
MASH supports people and families affected by asthma in Medway. We aim to improve awareness and understanding of asthma, its triggers and treatment, and to empower people with asthma to self-manage their condition. During Covid-19 telephone consultations, our asthma nurse can provide advice and support with asthma – discuss medications, asthma reviews and personalised asthma action plans. Letters containing the advice given and any recommendations will continue to be sent to clients to forward to their GPs.
When face-to-face appointments are able to safely resume, we will again be able to offer spirometry and FeNO testing for asthma diagnoses and monitoring, and airborne allergy testing. All of our services are FREE and open to all.
Whoo Cares is a community interest company working to support those on the Hoo Peninsula, with the overarching aim of reducing social isolation. Since 2015 we have been working towards this using a person-centred model of support for both vulnerable people and their carers.
We understand that the lives and circumstances of each of our Partners (beneficiaries) are unique, this is why we utilise a personalised Life Plan as the basis of our support. The Life Plan, developed with one of our Community Life Planning Coordinators, works to identify practical steps and supports that will make a real, positive difference to an individuals life. Support offered is highly variable, ranging from a weekly chat and cuppa or regular phone call, through to help getting to a local coffee morning, club/ group, GP or Hospital appointment. Our in person befriending has also proved valuable to carers, providing an hour or so of respite.
Currently our services look slightly different to comply with social distancing measures – however, we our doors remain firmly open for anyone in need!
UNISON is the UK’s largest union, serving more than 1.3 million members. We represent full-time and part-time staff who provide public services, although they may be employed in both the public and private sectors. We represent members, negotiate and bargain on their behalf, campaign for better working conditions and pay and for public services. And more besides.
A trade union is a group of employees who join together to maintain and improve their conditions of employment. Trade unions bargain for better pay and conditions and provide assistance and services to their members.
Representing our members is a key part of UNISON’s work. Our reps form the vital links between members and the union as a whole and are volunteers, trained by UNISON to support members at work.
Campaigning is a vital part of our work. It is one method we use to raise awareness of issues, fight for employment rights and gather support for local, national and international issues. One of UNISON’s main aims is to help workers fight for fairness and equality in the workplace and beyond. Challenging discrimination and winning equality is at the heart of everything UNISON does.
UNISON fights discrimination and prejudice in the workplace on behalf of its LGBT+ members. We work together in local and national groups of LGBT+ members to campaign and provide support for our members. We do this by building local and national groups of LGBT+ members, negotiating with employers an offering individual support to anyone experiencing discrimination.
The South East region has a very active LGBT+ committee; we meet throughout the year to discuss campaigns and issues affecting our members. The committee are great supporters of many local pride events across the region and are delighted to be sponsoring Medway and Gravesham for the first (but hopefully not last) time!
UNISON Q&A Session: LGBT+ Rights and Community & Workplace Organisation
UNISON is the country’s largest trade union, with over 1.3 million members. We represent people in the public sector, including those in the NHS, schools, local government, utilities, probation, social care and more besides. The union is divided into 12 separate regions under a national body, including here in the South East, where we have over 100,000 members!
Please join Lucy Power and Patrick Young for a special Q&A session. We’re here to discuss a range of issues including discrimination or bullying by colleagues, how to make sure that the voices of the LGBT+ community are heard in the workplace, how we support a range of LGBT+ charities and organisations, and any other questions or topics you may have for us!
Lucy Power
Lucy Power works for Kent Police, and is a member of UNISON’s South East and National LGBT+ Committees, and LGBT+ Representative on both the Regional Women’s Committee and the Regional Police & Justice Service Group.
Patrick Young is an Area Organiser for UNISON South East and Regional Co-Lead for our LGBT+ Self Organised Group. He works to support a number of local government, health, and police and justice branches across the south, and is also the Regional Social Care Lead.
See you there!
Pride month – during a pandemic
June usually represents a time when we come together to celebrate Pride in a spirit of love, acceptance and inclusion; a time when we honour the memory of the original Stonewall activists and organise to face the challenges still ahead.
Sadly, the devastating effects of the coronavirus have meant the cancellation of over one hundred Pride events across the UK, depriving the LGBT+ community of much needed social contact.
MGSD Centre with support from the Test Bed Fund are starting three new befriending & support services for the LGBP Community. These services will initially be virtual support groups but will eventually if the members wish develop into meeting both virtually and face to face for those who wish to.
Please email us if you are intrested in joining any of the groups below
A Lesbian Befrending support group
A Bisexual & Panseuxal Befrending and support group
A Gay Men befrending and support group
If you are intrested in any of these new groups please contact us at
The South East Gender Initiative was formed in October 2011 by members of the LGBTQI+ community who formed the management committee. SEGI is a Constituted Not For Profit Community Group who manage the Medway Gender & Sexual Divesity Centre (MGSDC) which is based in Rochester, Medway, Kent. The members of our management committee come from a diverse background and have direct experience being part of, and/or working with, lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, trans/non-binary, gender diverse, gender non-conforming people and people with gender incongruance, people who have or are undergoing gender reassignment, people who are questioning their gender or sexual identity.
We work with partners providing health promotion programs for LGBT people, deliver trans awareness training to organisations i.e. Kent Police, NHS Trusts, Social Care Providers, Counsellors and other health professionals and providers of health and wellbeing services.
MGSD Centre Services
The South East Gender Initiative (SEGI) project Medway Gender & Sexual Diversity Centre (MGSDC) provides a place where LGBTQI+ people their families and friends can meet in a safe environment to enable them to receive peer support, education, training, advice, and information, signposting opportunities for service users to access services with partnership organisations and other service providers.
SEGI / MGSDC also provides a resource to other organisations, public bodies and private companies to enable them to understand the needs of the Transgender / Non-binary & Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual community in Medway, Kent and the South East of England.
Kent Equality Cohesion Council (KECC) evolved out of the North West Kent Racial Equality Council and came into being in April 2010.
We work in partnership across Kent with both the voluntary and statutory sector to promote community cohesion and to eliminate discrimination. We currently have partnership arrangements with Kent County Council, Gravesham Borough Council, Dartford Borough Council, Gravesham Citizens Advice North & West Kent, Kent Fire & Rescue Service and Kent Police.
Cohesion + St Georges Day
We provide free advice and support around a range of diversity issues relating to Race, Faith, Disability, Sexual Orientation, Gender and Age. Our service is fully confidential. We are also specialists in community development, community outreach and community cohesion work across the County of Kent and provide training and policy development as and when required across both the voluntary and statutory sector.
SHOWCASE – Providing affordable space to exhibit in Chatham & Rochester
SUPPORT – Promoting access to the Arts for over 15 years throughout Medway & Kent
Nucleus Arts is the Award Winning flagship arts organisation founded by the Halpern Charitable Foundation. The Foundation was the brainchild of the late Hilary Halpern and it was his dream to promote the Arts in Medway and Kent. Nucleus Arts has become the cultural and creative heart of Kent & Medway over the past 15 years (founded in 2002) and focuses on affordability, accessibility and excellence in the Arts.
Featuring a wide variety of works by local artists, Nucleus Arts aims to prove that beautiful, original and unique works of art can be both attainable and affordable, whilst at the same time providing low-cost studio space to artists in order to enable them to be able to practice their Art.
Now in our 15th year, Nucleus Arts has sites in Chatham where artists can create and display their work. Open to the public (and free to enter), constantly updated, the Nucleus showrooms are a haven for local art lovers and a wonderful retreat for those who want a little something different from their shopping trip.
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Last Updated: 04/09/2020 by Hilary Cooke Leave a Comment
METRO Charity
We promote health and wellbeing and celebrate difference
Our vision
METRO’s vision is for a world where diversity is celebrated, difference respected and valued, and where optimum health and wellbeing for all is a collective goal.
Our mission
Working collaboratively with our staff, volunteers, users, partners and supporters to make a difference to people’s lives, we champion equality, nurture aspiration, embrace difference and challenge others to do so.
We promote health and wellbeing through our transformative services to anyone experiencing issues relating to sexuality, gender, equality, diversity and identity, and use our unique insight from these transformative services and our diverse heritage to influence decision makers and to effect positive change.
Our values
Innovation
We strive to deliver cutting edge, creative and entrepreneurial solutions to the individual, cultural, economic, historical and social problems we identify.
Insight
Our services and our change agenda are informed by our understanding of the power of human connection and relationships and our unique relationship with the people and communities we work with and for.
Integrity
We believe in the transformative power of inclusive services, products and experiences that are accessible to all.
Investment
We support the aspirations of all our members and users, and embrace these aspirations to ensure the sustainability of the charity through entrepreneurialism and social return on investment.
Our goal
We will to harness the power of difference and diversity to inspire and support people and communities to realise their assets and potentials and aspirations.
Our history
METRO was established 1984 in response to the development of the Greater London Council’s Lesbian & Gay Charter, Changing the World.
Originally operating under the name The Greenwich Lesbian and Gay Centre and providing telephone advice and support groups, the charity broadened its remit in 1994, working in partnership with statutory and voluntary organisations serving lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people and those questioning their sexuality.
Over the next decade and beyond, METRO has extended its services beyond Greenwich, and across South East London, until eventually it began working not only across the whole of London, but nationally and internationally.
In early 2008, the membership of METRO agreed to amend its Constitution to provide services to all people experiencing issues related to sexuality, identity, gender and diversity.
From its inception, METRO has taken a holistic approach to lesbian, gay bisexual and trans health and well-being and continues to acknowledge that our ability to create supportive environments for LGBT people depends not only on our strengths as an organisation, but also on our capacity to build alliances and partnerships that empower all people who confront discrimination because of their sexuality, gender, identity or HIV status.
In recent years we have developed a range of services and that support African people and communities affected by HIV consolidated and expanded since our merger with Harbour Trust in December 2010.
Where we work
Metro Get It Serrvice
Pronoun Use