We are Trade
Trade is a health and wellbeing charity, based in Leicester, and working across the East Midlands.
We have more than 30 years’ experience of working to prevent HIV and improve sexual health, especially with the LGBTQ+ community. We draw on this experience to provide high quality health services and advice to the people who need it most.
Our mission is to tackle health inequalities by providing high quality, person-centred health and wellbeing services (especially to the LGBTQ+ community and people living with HIV).
Where it all began
Trade began as an informal ‘gay community’ response to HIV in the 1990s, operating out of what’s now the Leicestershire LGBTQ Centre. From the beginning, we worked to ensure HIV prevention information and support reached everyone who needed it. We have a proud history of supporting South Asian men who have sex with men.
We became a registered charity in 2000 and have been supporting the sexual health of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men ever since. In 2007, we responded to community need by starting the Approach Counselling service to provide specialist mental health support to the LGBTQ+ community.
Looking to the future
Our Vision is that LGBTQ+ identity and/or HIV status will no longer be a source of health inequality or a barrier to wellbeing.
As the local LGBTQ+ community has changed, we have adapted our work to meet their needs. Our ambition is to build on our experience as a sexual health charity to become a specialist health and wellbeing service for the LGBTQ+ community.
At the same time, we recognize that we have the skills and experience to support all those impacted by HIV locally (not just gay and bi men) and to tackle inequalities in sexual health for all.
Community building and community organizing is at the heart of our work – we recognize that if people don’t have somewhere where they feel they belong, it is much harder for them to look after their health.
Our values
Compassionate
We take care of our staff, volunteers and service users. We meet people where they are at (in terms of their physical and mental health, and how they identify) and design how we work to be welcoming, so that people are valued and have their needs met.
Community-led
We value the experience, passion and knowledge of our communities which informs how, where and when we deliver services. We respond to the changing needs of our communities and provide creative solutions to meet them.
Authenticity
Everything we do is authentically and visibly queer. We create safe and radically inclusive services that meet the needs of the full range of the LGBTQ+ and HIV communities.
Courageous
We push boundaries of what safe spaces look like and lobby mainstream services to go beyond rainbow flags and performative allyship.
Affirming
We are radically inclusive. We model and lobby for services and support that meet the needs of the full diversity of the communities we serve
Where we work
Leicester
We provide our full range of health and support services to LGBTQ+ people and all people living with HIV who live, work or study in the City of Leicester.
We also provide advice on sexual health to anyone who lives in Leicester and has migrated to the UK in the last two years (including asylum-seekers and international students).
Leicestershire
We provide our full range of health and support services to LGBTQ+ people and all people living with HIV who live, work or study in Leicestershire.
We also provide advice on sexual health and HIV prevention to asylum-seekers, Black communities, and people experiencing specific inequalities in relation to their sexual health living or studying in Leicestershire
Northamptonshire
We provide peer support to people living with HIV in Northamptonshire
Rutland
We provide our full range of health and support services to LGBTQ+ people and all people living with HIV who live, work or study in Rutland.
We also provide advice on sexual health and HIV prevention to asylum-seekers, Black communities, and people experiencing specific inequalities in relation to their sexual health living or studying in living in Rutland.
Meet the team
Discover the people behind the organisation, the one's that make Trade what it is today.
Learn more about the Trade teamOur policies
Find out how we work to keep you safe and protect any data you provide to us.
Read our policies