Property Professionals Support Pride Month by Fundraising to Safely House LGBTQ+ Youth

Posted by deverellsmith on 30th June 2020 -

#seemenow: Because visibility matters

do some good has partnered with akt, a charity which supports LGBTQ+ young people aged 16-25 in the UK who are facing or experiencing homelessness or living in a hostile environment.

Since the outbreak, akt has seen a spike in cases due to young people being confined to a space and inadvertently, or forcibly, being outed to families and guardians who disapprove of an individual’s sexuality: this has left a significant number of young people helpless with nowhere to go, with families threatening and enacting verbal and physical violence.

Our mission is simple:

• Fundraise for resources and supplies
• Raise awareness
• Provide safe housing

To fundraise and raise awareness, we ask you to take part in DSG’s Linkedin #seemenow visibility awareness campaign, in a similar vein to the very successful ‘Run for Heroes’ campaign on Instagram.

The challenge encourages participants to speak out on why visibility is important to them through a selfie with a home-made sign, as simple as a post-it note or A4 piece of paper. Participants are encouraged to take part in the initiative before waiting for a nomination and donate to the cause.

The #seemenow campaign calls on people in the UK and all over the world to take part, each post published by participants will include 5 tagged nominees and a link to the donation page.

The campaign was stimulated by a survey carried out by EG which revealed that 81% of LGBTQ+ property professionals felt that not enough was being done nationwide within the industry to promote the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community.

Participants of the campaign include, Debra Yudolph of SAY Property Consulting, Andrew Deverell-Smith of deverellsmith, Adina David of Greystar, Sisi Lagrem of CBRE and Gina Battye – world-renowned author and speaker on LGBTQ+ rights (Forbes, Barclays, NHS).

do some good founder and supporting partners speak out on the importance of the campaign:

Debra Yudolph, partner, SAY Consulting said: “ Property must commit to being inclusive and diverse as an industry. The fact that so many LGBTQ+ property professionals feel that not enough is being done to promote the visibility of the community is something we must all address. I’m proud that do some good has launched the #seemenow challenge to help raise awareness of this issue.”

Andrew Deverell-Smith, founder and CEO, deverellsmith commented: “The property industry must come together to support the LGBTQ+ community and we’re proud that do some good is pledging to support these young people during these difficult times.

“We’re also proud to launch the #seemenow campaign to raise the visibility of LGBTQ+ professionals in property. Our industry has become much more inclusive and diverse over the last few years, but it’s crucial that we keep on raising awareness to make sure that real estate attracts and supports talented people no matter their background, sexuality or race.”

Adina David, director of Flexible Housing, Greystar, commented: “The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted inequality in many parts of our society and for minority groups in particular. It is sad to see that in 2020 members of the LGBTQ+ community are still having to struggle for their right to safe and quality homes. We hope to see businesses across the real estate industry help fundraise and donate to akt’s essential work.”

If you can offer spare residential space in and around London, we ask you to contact: [email protected].

Donate & find out how your contribution helps: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/seemenow.

Visibility matters – join us on our mission.

#seemenow