National Lottery Community Fund: Leeds charity to offer free skate sessions for women and LGBTQ+ groups

LS-TEN, a Leeds charity based in an indoor skatepark in Hunslet, has received more than £8,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund. It will use the cash to continue its Street Skate Together project, running sessions across the city aimed at young people, women and gender minority groups – including meetups and creative workshops.

The charity hopes to provide a safe space for those who often don’t feel welcome in urban public spaces, to celebrate their culture and create more opportunities for female and minority skaters to join together.

LS-TEN team member Elsie Amies will be leading the community skate sessions and workshops. She said: “This project hopes to inspire more women and gender minority groups to go skateboarding across Leeds, by tackling the issues of safety and intimidation that frequently prevent us from doing so.

“Skateboarding is not only physically beneficial to our bodies, but also brings a strong sense of identity and belonging to skateboarders, this is evident in the female and gender minority skate scene in Leeds which has brought together an amazing community.

“The project celebrates and unites this small community that is often forgotten about in Leeds; and as skateboarding is now in the Olympics, we hope to inspire more women and gender minority groups into the sport. Thanks to National Lottery players for making this happen and creating a safer place for us to skate in our city”.

LS-TEN is one of more than 500 organisations in the Yorkshire and Humber region to receive a share of over £20 million in funding from The National Lottery Community Fund.

Joe Dobson, head of funding for Yorkshire and Humber at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players and the hard work and dedication of local groups and projects, this funding will make a big difference to people’s lives. 

"The quality of applications we receive speaks volumes about the care and ingenuity of local people - we’re delighted that our grants are being used to support great projects that strengthen communities and improve lives in our region in many ways.”