BBC Children in Need awarded £15,000 to a campaign about asylum seekers not being allowed to play semi-professional football and £99,000 for LGBT youth sessions, independent journalist Charlotte Gill reported on November 5, ahead of the charity’s annual appeal on Friday, November 13.
Ethnic Minority Sports Organisation Northern Ireland was awarded £15,000 in a November 7, 2022, BBC announcement, under the We Move Fund, “to support young people in Belfast to raise awareness of young asylum seekers not being allowed to play semi-professional football” and to “influence change across Great Britain.”
The Proud Trust received £120,000 to promote transgenderism to youths, by delivering “group sessions and one to one support for transgender, non-binary and gender questioning young people, leading to increased pride in their identity, improved wellbeing, and better connection to their community.”
Derbyshire LGBT+ Ltd received a £99,000 project grant in July 2024, running to July 2027. Gill quotes Children in Need as saying the project would deliver “face to face and online sessions to LGBTQ+ young people from Derbyshire.” The charity’s youth-groups page, which thanks Children in Need, describes free groups for LGBT+ people aged 13–19 as a “fun, safe space.”
BBC Children in Need has awarded hundreds of thousands of pounds to LGBTQIA+ charities and community interest companies https://t.co/RN53aXCBzV pic.twitter.com/sUqS9cLEmN
— Charlotte Gill (@CharlotteCGill) November 10, 2026
Cumbria LGBT Pride received a £45,000 grant in September 2023 to support LGBTQ+ children and young people through “Connect with Pride” events and “access to a safe space.” Gill pointed to a pronouns page on the group’s website.
The Bahja Initiative in Accrington received a £45,000 core grant in February 2023 for “sport, craft and other youth club activities for girls in Hyndburn to develop their sense of identity.” The group’s homepage describes it as “Creating A Prophetic Community” and “an islamic [sic] organisation aiming to bring about a positive change in the community by reviving the Sunnah and upholding islamic [sic] principles.”
The four awards were made between 2022 and 2024. The Bahja grant was scheduled to end in May 2026, the Cumbria award in October 2026, and the Derbyshire grant in July 2027.
