Part of growing up is about finding out who we are, and for some young people that means exploring their identity. All young people are welcome at CYZ, we strive to make Carlisle Youth Zone somewhere all young people feel safe to be themselves. We’re delighted that many of our young people’s stories, interests and identities are being celebrated in a whole magazine edition and local art exhibition thanks to Queer Cumbria!  Recently CYZ’s LGBTQ+ Committee were given the opportunity from Queer Cumbria (https://www.queercumbria.com/) to collate stories, pictures, artwork and interviews into a published magazine, there was too much beautiful content for the pages so CYZ members have now taken over the walls The Closet too in a public exhibition! Have you been yet?  (https://www.instagram.com/theclosetcarlisle/)

Young people had this to say about the project  “We were asked by Stevie at Queer Cumbria if we would like to make a magazine with them and we all jumped at the chance to use the pages to talk about our favourite things and share a little bit about our identity, we also decided to interview some staff members and it was so fun to help edit together the pages and have the final say for what it will all look like, it has also allowed some of us to think about the future and if we want to go into creative journalism and publishing.”

A small team of us headed over to The Closet on Saturday to put up our exhibit, which will be available to view by the public for a whole month! Huge big thanks to Mac and especially Stuart for the extra hand on the day  ❤

You can also pick up a copy of BELONG for free at The Closet (https://www.instagram.com/theclosetcarlisle/) or from CYZ on request.

If you are aged 12-17 and are interested in joining our LGBTQ+ Committee or just want to talk about things, please pop into senior club and talk to a member of staff – everyone is welcome.