From running our first Health and Equity Training Conference to travelling across the country, here's what went down at BBH HQ in 2023.

Published new healthcare guides 

We launched not one, not two, but three new health guides for LGBTQ+ BPoC! 

• Breast Cancer 
  
• Hearing Voices and Seeing Visions 
  
• Eating Distress and Eating Disorders 

And as part of the release of our Mental Health resources, we ran two events inviting people to find out more about the guides. 

Issue three of The Beetle Feed landed 

During Pride Month, we released issue 3 of our magazine. 

This edition featured: 

• Henock Solomon, who wrote about the history of clothing in Ethiopia and gender-neutral garments 
  
• Poetry from Nash Sithole 
  
• Multidisciplinary artist, Sadé Mica, who give us insight into their working practice and how they find making binders therapeutic 

Each issue explores the key areas of our work - sexual health, mental health, chronic illness and reproductive health for LGBTQ+ BPoC. 

Not caught up on the mag yet? Give past issues a read and let us know what you think! 

Season two of our podcast came out 

Back in the hosting seat, Elliss Lewin-Turner returned for season 2 of the Black Beetle Health Podcast. 

She was joined by a line-up of LGBTQ+ guests including House of Rainbow founder Jide Macaulay, movement artist David Kam, medic in the making G Webster and more. 

Travelling to events

We packed our Black Beetle Health march, booked our train tickets and set off to join healthcare events across the UK. (We even made a trip to Paris!) 

These were some of the events we took part in: 

• Scottish Trans Conference with Scottish Trans 
  
• HIV Prevention England Location Activation Partners with Terrence Higgins Trust 
  
• Roundtable event with the Reproductive Justice Initiative 
  
• Mehfil takeover in Manchester with collaborating organisations Rainbow Noir and House of Spice 
  
• UN Roundtable on Discrimination and Violence in Paris with LGBT Foundation and the United Nations 
  
• Local Prides including Wythenshawe Pride, Sparkle Pride and Levenshulme Pride 

Collaboration with the University of Manchester 

We worked with the University of Manchester on a project that's part of their Community Partnership Fund (CPF). 

This led to their report - Collaboration for Change: Exploring Effective Collaboration between Academics and Community Organisations. 

CPF is aimed at supporting academics and community partners in North West England to co-develop a project that aligns with one of the four social responsibility goals of the Uni: 

• Social inclusion 
  
• Better health 
  
• Cultural engagement 
  
• Environmental sustainability 

Academics, this one is for you.

Our CEO and founder, Harvey Kennedy-Pitt announced his departure

We also said a goodbye to our founder and CEO, Harvey Kennedy-Pitt, who is leaving Black Beetle Health at the end of this year. We are so grateful for the four years of leadership and wisdom that Harvey has shown. We will miss him and are excited to see where his journey takes him next.

Big up the Black Beetle Health team, funders and supporters

We couldn’t end the year without sharing our huge appreciation for everyone who has supported our work this year. From the incredible efforts of the BBH team past and present, to all the people we’ve met on our travels – thank you. 

That's a wrap on this year - see you in 2024!