A Message From Martyn, Founding Director - Photoshoot

Bridges recently organised their very own photoshoot with the theme of equality between Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and Straight young people.

The editorial team put on their brand new Bridges t-shirts (with our new logo designed by competition winner Nikki McDermott-Roe) and took to the Hollywood Glamour scene with make-up, camera and interviews.

You can view the pictures (with more coming soon) on our Flickr gallery.

The group chose to wear purple nails and eye shadow (provided by the immensely-talented Bethan Jones) for its significance - purple has become a colour adopted by LGBT groups such as "Day of Remembrance" in memory of those who have taken their lives because of homophobic bullying.

Gwir-Vol also attended to film some footage for their new documentary, Gwirforce, premiering in May 2012.

The promotional shoot was the first of Bridges, a new and exclusive project working with LGBT young people aged 13-17 in Rhondda Cynon Taff have had. This comes ahead of their new launch which took place in April 2012 . This photoshoot was funded by O2 Think Big with the aim to promote LGBT issues and awareness of them.

The shots you see represent visually what each term means broadly, but with the same tops and make-up there is a message, and that is that no matter who we love, we are all the same. We hope you enjoy the photos as everyone worked very hard and there are some beautiful shots.

I'd like to thank Jazmin Williams (photographer), Bethan Jones (make-up artist), Nikki McDermott-Roe (logo designer), Craig Chapman, Steve, Louise, Dan and Aled from Gwir-Vol, Gareth Aled John, Portia McGrath, Anna McIntyre, Bethan Carey Jones, Shannon Power, Josephine Eddy, Nathan Mordecai, Connor Thomas, Katie Vincent and the venue.

Photos And Surveys

Hey everyone!

First of all, Happy Easter! Hope you enjoyed a chocolate filled day! If you don't celebrate, then Happy Normal Sunday!

Anyway, we thought we would bring you up to speed with things.

Wednesday 31st March was our first ever photoshoot. It was great fun and a new experience for us. We were filmed by GwirVol,  which is a partnership made up of senior representatives from organisations with a key interest or involvement in youth volunteering, which was also pretty exciting.

Our photographers for the day were editorial member, Jazmin Williams and CLIC Admin Assistant, Gareth Aled John, who mainly worked on the behind-the-scenes side of the day. We also had our fantastic make up artist, Bethan Jones, who studies make up in a college in Cardiff. Editorial members had their make up done before going on location in Treorchy Comprehensive School.

It was the first ever photoshoot we had done and we have learnt a lot from it. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to do another one in the near future! Photos will be posted on our Facebook soon, so keep an eye out.

In other news, we recently went out around Pontypridd town to deliver surveys asking different people what they already knew about LGBT and what they were and were not aware of. We plan to go around Aberdare, Treorchy and Porth to deliver more of these surveys, so if you see us out and about and are willing to fill in a survey, come and say hi!

Our logo competition closed on 8th March and our winner, Nicki McDermott-roe, received a £20 iTunes Voucher and her design will be used for Bridges RCT. Check out the winning design here. Congrats, Nicki!

If you wish to get involved with Bridges, check out the Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. We welcome anyone to the editorial team with open arms and even if you're straight, you can still participate if you feel you want to raise awareness of LGBT bullying, etc. There is a message button on the Facebook page which you can use to contact us about any questions or queries. We have a lot planned for the year ahead and would love to have you on board!

That's all for now, folks! Thank you for checking out the Bridges blog and don't forget to 'like' our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.


See ya real soon!


The Bridges Editorial Team x