Crocus logo 

Crocus planning committee members at the launch

Photo by Sue Ackon

Crocus is being set up as a strong voice for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people in the London Borough of Croydon. It was formally launched on 12th May at an event in Croydon Town Hall.

See our Press Releases for more about the launch.

If you're an LGBT person and live or have an interest in Croydon, please take part in our Croydon LGBT Survey.

Membership

Crocus was initiated by Croydon Voluntary Action (CVA) and is supported by:

  • Aurora (Croydon's LGBT Police Consultation Group)
  • CAGS (Croydon Area Gay Society)
  • The Consortium of LGBT Voluntary and Community Organisations
  • Croydon Trans Group (local transgender support group)
  • Gemini (self-help support group for TG/TS people)
  • GALOP (London's LGBT community safety charity)
  • Visible (the LGBT focus group for Croydon Council employees).

We welcome contacts from any other LGBT organisations with a presence in Croydon.

Membership of Crocus will include the sponsoring LGBT-led organisations, but will also be open to any individuals who identify as LGBT and live, work, socialise, or have an interest in Croydon. We aim specifically to be inclusive of all local LGBT people, including those sections of the community under-represented in existing organisations, for instance ethnic minorities and faith groups.

The current Officers of Crocus — Chair, Vice-chair, Secretary, and Webmaster (note that the post of Vice-chair is currently vacant) — were elected for an interim period at the Planning Meeting on 1st October 2007, but we intend to hold new elections when Crocus is more firmly established.

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Background

We are very much in the early stages of setting up Crocus and everything below is subject to change. However we've held a number of planning meetings, plus a stall shared with other Croydon groups at Brighton Pride, and we've agreed to develop Crocus with the following provisional aims as a starting point:

  • being a place where public authorities can be held to account
  • providing information to LGBT people and to local organisations and public bodies
  • bringing together the knowledge from the various existing groups
  • coordinating campaigns on matters of common interest
  • helping to create social and support facilities for LGBT people where they are not met by existing bodies
  • taking action on issues together
  • creating a safe space with opportunities for networking
  • meeting regularly and reporting back to communities of interest
  • holding regular meetings with all local LGBT people invited.

Issues

Crocus is intended to address issues concerned with:

  • Croydon Council
  • health
  • housing
  • policing (with Aurora taking the lead on police issues)
  • making local businesses more LGBT-friendly.

Terms of Reference

The current draft of the Terms of Reference reflects discussions at a number of Crocus planning meetings.

Future events

The next planning meeting will be at 7:30 pm on Monday the 8th of September at Croydon Town Hall.

E-mail us for more information.

Last updated:
02 July 2008

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