Community Post Type: Callouts

Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities, has a decision to make. The EHRC, a regulator mired in controversy over anti-trans views, has sent a new draft Code of Practice to our Equality Act which would lead to the exclusion of trans people from public life. Say no to Trans Exclusion, support your Trans community and urgently write to your local MP and protect our amazing, creative yet marginalised and vulnerable communities.

Their draft tried to turn our equality laws into a bathroom ban, mandating the blanket exclusion of trans people from gendered spaces and services. Even if a business or association wants to remain trans-inclusive, they’d be told they must exclude us.

The EHRC rushed through more than 50,000 responses to its consultation on this draft using AI, and have now sent their final proposals to the government. We don’t get to see their final draft until it’s been decided on behind closed doors, but media leaks and the EHRC’s own public statements make one thing clear: they haven’t changed course.

The decision now is up to this government, will they sign a trans bathroom ban in secret?

This is unworkable, dangerous, and we cannot let it happen. Your voices are making a difference; MPs are expressing their deep concern about what is being proposed. It’s decision time now, and the government needs to hear loud and clear from your political representatives: they must reject this and tell the EHRC that exclusion can’t be the only option.

Act now. Ask your MP to urge the government to scrap the bathroom ban and demand any new Code of Practice ensures providers can lawfully include trans people in their services.

Pressure is building. Every voice matters here.

Please customise this First Take template as much as you can, it really helps, and add a request for a meeting to the email if you’d be willing to discuss this face to face with your MP.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve already written to them, now is the time to really keep the pressure up. The government must send this unworkable draft code back and make sure any new guidance explains how to include trans people, and respects our human rights.

The 10th Liverpool Maths Party is coming, a city-wide celebration of maths across the Liverpool City Region.

This year’s theme is Maths Moments: the everyday ways we all use maths in our work, our communities, and our lives. From planning budgets and setting up displays to timing wellbeing walks or tracking project impact, maths is happening all around us.

For ten years they’ve been celebrating the Maths Party with school settings. For their tenth year they want to get businesses, arts organisations, HE institutions, cultural venues and more involved! They’d love for your organisation to join in by sharing a Maths Moment during Liverpool Maths Party week.

How to take part

Spot a Maths Moment in your day-to-day work

Capture it – take a quick photo or short video

Share it on social media using #LiverpoolCounts and #MathsMoments

It’s simple, and a great way to highlight the maths that happens behind the scenes in your organisation.

Thank you for your continued support in helping make Liverpool a city that counts.

If you’d like to discuss this further, please get in touch! They can’t wait to see your #MathsMoments!

https://www.liverpoollearningpartnership.com/2025/09/maths-moments-assets/

The deadline has been extended for musicians to sign up to be part of this year’s Knowsley Fringe Music Festival.

The Knowsley Music Festival returns from 29 October to 28 November 2025, with performances from Paul Young, She Drew the Gun, and Chic Le Freak.

As with previous years, the main festival programme will be supported by the Knowsley Fringe Music Festival which will shine a spotlight on some of the region’s new and emerging local artists.

Funding is available from Knowsley Council’s Culture and Events team who want to hear from anyone who has an idea for a music event. The fund is open to local venues, promoters, programmers, or performers who have the chance to bid for funding of between £250- £500 to put on a gig in town centre and village venues. The team are especially interested in receiving applications from new artists and new venues across the borough.

The local programme will showcase Knowsley and Liverpool City Region artists, bands and performers and will take place in new and established music venues across Knowsley.

How to apply:

Please send a brief proposal (no more than 1 x A4) describing your proposal including venue and artist/s and/or band/s.
Please include the proposed date your music event will take place (this must be between 1 and 14 November 2025 to be considered).
Please supply a budget breakdown of how the funding will be spent.
Please supply an artist/band bio of no more than 100 words
Please supply an image we can use for promotion if your bid is successful
Proposals must be submitted by 5:00pm, Tuesday 7 October 2025 (Applications after the deadline will not be accepted).

You will be contacted if you have been successful by 5pm on Friday 10 October 2025.

Applications are to be submitted via email to sarah.craven@knowsley.gov.uk and amy.grundy@knowsley.gov.uk

If there are any accessibility issues or difficulties in applying via email, please contact the team to discuss on 0151 443 2788

Funding bids will be judged on the following criteria:

Date – Your event must happen between Saturday 1 November and Friday 14 November 2025

Performers – We are keen to showcase Knowsley artists, bands and performers and will place special focus on original music. (We will also consider applications showcasing Liverpool City Region musicians). We are especially interested in seeing applications from new artists and new venues across the borough.

Music Policy: The music policy is open, but we do want to see attempts to make sure line ups reflect diversity and a fair gender balance and that the performers booked reflect high standards of reputation regarding conduct.

Cost: The small commission amounts available are between £250 – £500 so please evidence costs between these amounts.

Venues: We would like the events to take place Boroughwide (Knowsley) attracting people into the town and village centres and taking place in both new and established music venues.

Line Up and Venue: Both of these need to be realistic and we will need to see evidence in your application that preliminary discussions have already taken place with talent and venues.

Marketing – If awarded, this will be considered a partnership event and your event will be listed as part of the official music festival programme.

Please note: The Knowsley Culture team will not be able to provide organisational event support but your event will be included in our Fringe marketing activity e.g. event listings, social media support.

https://www.knowsleynews.co.uk/be-part-of-the-knowsley-fringe-music-festival-2025/

The team are seeking local artists from the Liverpool City Region to work with us to co-produce a series of commissioned artworks that creatively represent data about the region.

These commissions will form a participatory programme leading up to their showcase at the Festival of Data in February.

Project Summary

They are commissioning up to 8 artists to:

● Collaborate with local children (aged 10-12 years old) to explore and present data through a participatory art activity on Day 2 of the Festival

● Create art commissions that tell compelling data stories from the activity.

● Present the in progress or complete work on Day 3 of the Festival of Data in February.

Who Should Apply

They welcome applications from:

● Artists living and working in the Liverpool City Region.

● Creatives working in any medium (e.g., painting, sculpture, digital art, film, performance, sound, etc.).

● Artists with an interest in community engagement, data storytelling, or participatory practice

How to Apply

Please submit to hello@louisegarforth.com by 17 October 2025

1. A short proposal (max 2 pages) outlining your interest, initial ideas, and relevant experience.
2. A portfolio or examples of previous work.
3. A brief CV or artist bio

Liverpool BID Company is launching its third year of the Arts & Culture Fund for projects and events taking place in Liverpool city centre.

The fund has two levels of grants; one for small grants of less than £5,000 which can cover 100% of the project, and a larger grant which can cover up to 50% of the total cost of the project which has a maximum cap of £10,000.

Eligible projects should align with Liverpool BID’s objectives, including driving footfall to the city centre, improving the city perspective, showing innovation and helping to showcase Liverpool as a thriving city, ensure the arts have a future in the city, meet both sustainable and ESG objectives, identity a commitment to equality and diversity.

Applicants can be levy payers, or non Levy Payers. This can include charities, CICs and CIOs committed to increasing public access to the arts. Organisations can include, but are not limited to, museums, galleries, historic houses, archives, libraries, agencies, local authorities, and festivals. After a successful year of funding in 2024, where we have seen local arts groups, city-wide dance projects, exhibitions, walking tours and more funded.

The next deadline is:

• 26th September 2025

To download the Arts Funding Support Pack and to apply, visit here

Timo Tierney started life at The Florrie in February 2016 as a volunteer and has remained there ever since. Hailing originally from local bands The Maybes and latterly The Tea Street Band, Timo knows music inside out and he initially offered his acumen to lead The Florrie’s guitar class which quickly flourished, leading to him establishing the full programme of Community Hub activities at The Florrie.

And now, with almost a decade of Community classes at The Florrie their importance to the Dingle and wider Liverpool community is essential. Helping to combat social isolation, improve cognitive function and to have fun, learn and create, underpins the 19 different classes every week at The Florrie. The scale and variety of these classes has grown each year, covering art, men’s walks, gardening, ukulele, Tai Chi, history, autism support, genealogy and many more, with tens of thousands of people attending since the classes began. For Timo, whose guitar class is the longest running, the Community Hub shows how essential they are to the Dingle community and wider city. He regards the incredible diversity of attendees as testament to the importance and positive impact each class has.

The classes have always been free for anyone to attend, and The Florrie are dedicated to maintaining this, too. But increasingly it’s becoming harder – there’s increasing competition for grants and funding and more people who need support than The Florrie can manage. Rising costs from utilities and suppliers also threaten the classes’ future unless more money can be raised by Christmas 2025. The Florrie relies on donations, fundraisers and sponsorship, but needs more support than ever. The target to keep our classes free for 1 year is £25,000.00.

Timo says: “Our weekly timetable is made up from what volunteers can offer at The Florrie. We never underestimate the importance of volunteers here and if we didn’t have people kindly offering their time, we would not have such a great timetable of classes each week. Because the classes are free we’re able to welcome everyone. When I started here almost ten years ago, the aim was to help combat social isolation. Then in lock down it was to keep people safe, and now we are back in full flow with the activities that improve people’s lives in meaningful ways. The Florrie brings people together from all different ages and backgrounds, from the Dingle and wider community. The classes are always inclusive, never exclusive, and it’s heartening to know just how much they’re valued. But we’re facing huge challenges, and we need to raise money and get further sponsorship for the classes by this Christmas for the classes to stay free. 

The Florrie team are focused on keeping the Community Hub activities free for all, with exciting events and fundraising activities planned for the rest of 2025 and into 2026. The Florrie’s Big Guitar-In is back on Thursday December 11th and recent fundraising events include the Celebration of Southend Football and The Magical History Tour family day event. 

Timo adds: “I’ve been here close to a decade now – The Florrie has evolved in so many amazing ways. It’s a very important place to so many people. I am a friend, social worker, carer, doer and the ‘fella who learns you how to play guitar’ – a forever charging power bank that so many people plug into. I am more than happy when I’m at work, and so The Florrie and everything I do and people I work with mean so much to me. I care endlessly in improving people’s lives.​ To keep this going as we want it to, we need as much support as possible on top of what we have got planned from The Florrie, including the Big Guitar-In.”

Direct donations can be made here: https://www.theflorrie.org/support-us/donate/ and for further info on how to sponsor a Community Hub activity, please contact Timo at community@theflorrie.org 

Future Yard is a community music venue in Birkenhead which doubles as an artist and live music industry training hub. Our role is to create rich and rewarding pathways into all aspects of the live music industry, from performers to technical staff. Sound Check is this flagship training programme, which was worked with over 300 young people from across the city region since 2021, kickstarting careers for them in the live music industry.

Sound Check focuses on three key aspects of delivering live events: event management, live sound and live lighting. Sound Check equips people with a passion for music with the skills needed to make a start in this industry, and does it through a 7-week programme of taught classes, live work experience opportunities and employability focus. Future Yard is now an independent training provider in its own right, delivering this programme as a Skills Bootcamp in partnership with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

We are offering places on the Sound Check course to staff of all member organisations in The Culture Network. We have ringfenced a number of places for our partners, for their staff or participants, who they would like to put forward for the course to improve their technical event literacy and/or experience.

Sound Check runs on rolling cohorts of 20 participants aged 19+, with two daytime sessions per week (Monday and Tuesdays, 9.30am to 4pm). Additional practical live mentor sessions are undertaken on live events, where participants shadow Future Yard’s in-house team of technical and event staff.

Participants do not need any previous experience or qualification to be eligible. Participants do need to be aged 19 as of 31 August 2025.

If you are interested in putting someone forwards for the opportunity, please direct them to the Sound Check website where there are more details on the course, and an application to form to input their details. Please also email chris@futureyard.org once they have applied, so that we know they are from your organisation.

As Black History Month (BHM) 2025 fast approaches Culture Liverpool are inviting you to share your event with them so they can help promote all that is happening .

As last year, they will have a umbrella point on their Culture Liverpool website to share Liverpool’s Black History Month programme, activities, and events. This will help to promote and shine a light on all the thing that might fall into this month and could be linked to BHM.

To be included on the Culture Liverpool Black History Month 2025 page, please submit your planned event or activities via this link: https://www.cultureliverpool.co.uk/submit-an-event/

• Make sure to pre-head the title of your event with ‘BHM25’ so they know it’s to be included as part of the listing.
• For the lead image, they ask that you use photography rather than graphic artwork. (Feel free to send a poster of your event with graphics separately to me and the email below.)
• Please submit your event by ASAP, ideally by 19 Sept to be included on the listing.

Once your submission has been approved, your event will be made live on the BHM25 page and they can look at including your event on our social media schedule.

If you have any questions about uploading your information, please email culturemarketing@liverpool.gov.uk.

Calling all musicians… 📣

Milap are looking to recruit some fresh faces to their three Indian Music ensembles!

Their application and audition process is now open until 20th September.

Head over to the link here to apply today!