Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Charity announces opening of new hub in Aberdeen

Community relations manager at Four Pillars, Deejay Bullock
Community relations manager at Four Pillars, Deejay Bullock

A charity will open its new hub this weekend after temporarily closing when the Aberdeen Market Village shut.

Four Pillars, which is an LGBT+ health trust, previously confirmed it secured a new location due to the operators of the market going into administration in June.

The charity has now announced it will be opening up its doors at 33 Regent Quay on Saturday.

The new hub will provide a safe space for the community and boasts a store selling pride merchandise and exclusive products.

Four Pillars’ community relations manager, Deejay Bullock, said: “The first LGBT+ in the north-east of Scotland was opened on May 1 2019 inside Aberdeen Market.

“We were based there until May 2020 when it shut down due to the Market Village going into administration.

“Inside the market, we were limited to space and opening times. Sharing the space with other traders inside the market was both a blessing a curse.

“We built up great relationships with businesses around us and worked together on making the market work for everyone. However, it reduced privacy for our service users, which was always busy and noisy.

Four Pillars’ new base is situated on Regent Quay

“It was a great starting point for us and we will always be grateful to Aberdeen Market managers for giving us the start we needed. But the new hub is amazing.

“Despite the challenges getting here, we are so happy to have found Regent Quay and I’m sure when people start visiting next week they will appreciate how different it is, in a good way.

“The hub will provide a drop-in service from 10am to 6pm five days a week, where individuals can pop in, get advice, information, request a 1-2-1 for support, pick up free contraception and sanitary products, or report hate crime – through the Police Scotland Third Party Reporting Service.

“It will give the community a central place to be, meet up, make new friends, enjoy activities that are not focused around alcohol venues.

“It provides a safe space for all ages and encourages community growth, reduces isolation, improves confidence and overall health and well-being.

“There’s also our 4pride shop, which offers a range of essential pride merchandise, as well as exclusive T-Shirts designed by local artist, Hello Radical, and other pride products for the whole family.

“Our support and social groups will also run from the new hub on Regent Quay.”

Work commenced on the new premises in July last year. However, coronavirus restrictions have prolonged the process.

Deejay says the past year “has been challenging but worth it”.

Four Pillars signed the new lease for the premises in July 2020

He added: “We signed the new lease in July 2020 and apart from being open for group support, during the very brief ease of lockdown last year, and 1-2-1 work for those that have needed interventions, we have been closed until now.

“There wasn’t much work to be done and thanks to local fundraising and grants from Equality Scotland, ACC and the National Lottery we have been able to get it all ready.

“We’ve installed a new accessible toilet, technology to keep groups safe and allow people to dial in from home, and updated the flooring following a flood in August last year.

“Four Pillars’ mission is to ‘support the LGBT+ community in manners of mental, emotional, physical, and sexual health on a person to person bases’ and the hub ticks all of those boxes for us.

“We hope the hub will provide individuals with the right resources to improve their own health and well-being but also encourage growth and community so they can support others going forward and provide that all-important peer-led feel to the organisation.

“Whether you’ve been here 100 times or just walked in for the first time, it feels like you belong. It offers a warm, welcoming relaxed experience and totally feels like you can make the hub your home.”

The hub also boasts its own shop

Four Pillars is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am-8pm with the drop-in service open from 10am-6pm Tuesday to Thursday and 10am-8pm Friday and Saturday.

For more information, visit www.fourpillarsuk.org

This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.