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Sahir House: Supporting Merseyside’s LGBTQ+ Community
To mark Pride Month, our team members David and Amy visited Sahir House, one of the Liverpool City Region’s largest and longest-running LGBTQIA+ charities, to learn more about the challenges they’re facing and their ambitious vision for the future
Founded at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in 1985, Sahir House has provided support to people living with HIV for four decades. Today, the organisation stands as a beacon for the region’s LGBTQIA+ communities, offering emotional and practical support, counselling, outreach, training, sexual health services, and a growing network of peer-led groups.
a bold new initiative
Sahir House has received three grants totalling £15,966 from CFM. Including their most recent award from the Merseyside Community Cashback that launched the Queer Town Hall programme: a bold new initiative providing a safe, inclusive space for LGBTQIA+ people to meet with public bodies, service providers, and each other. Designed to foster open dialogue and build community-led solutions, the programme gives local LGBTQIA+ voices a platform to be heard.
In their own words, team members Kat and John share what Sahir House means to the community and where they hope to take it next.
“At Sahir House, my role is all about helping people live their true, authentic lives as LGBTQ+ community members. We run eleven peer support groups—eight of which I facilitate—across the Liverpool City Region, and it’s about more than just delivery. It’s volunteer recruitment, safeguarding, engagement, getting people signed up, and making sure the spaces we offer are safe and welcoming. We’re seeing a tenfold demand on our services, and it’s heartbreaking knowing we can’t always meet it. The human inside you wants to do everything—but without capacity, we risk losing who we are. We’d love to offer more, but that’s the sadder part: the need is there, but the resources aren’t. Still, we keep going. Whether it’s our asylum support, our gender-diverse and trans support through Gender Proud, or projects like Queer Town Hall and Access Pride, everything is rooted in the needs of the community. We don’t just deliver services—we create family, belonging, and visibility. And for many people, especially those seeking asylum, that’s life-changing.”
Kat
“Sahir’s big ambition at the minute is the need for an LGBTQ+ centre. Liverpool City Region is huge in terms of community numbers, and we don’t have one. A proper LGBTQ+ community centre where people can come during the day, of an evening, to use the space. A coffee shop, a little community theatre, a business incubator space for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs—that’s the plan. That’s the ambition for the next three to five years. Right now, we’re trying to adapt our funding streams so we’re not solely reliant on contracts, because that’s restricted use. Whereas with fundraising, donations, philanthropy—we shape the resource how we want to and perform the service how the community needs it, not strictly based on KPIs. Sahir has definitely been a community voice organisation in recent years. We’re not a lobbying organisation, but we will hold to account. Especially now, when it feels increasingly unsafe to be LGBTQ+, it’s definitely having an impact. We’re all feeling it. It seems like things are going backwards. But the ambition remains—and we’ll keep working to build the future the community deserves.”
Jonh
Looking Ahead
As Pride Month reminds us of both how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go, organisations like Sahir House continue to lead the conversation. Together, we can help build the inclusive, empowered future they are working so tirelessly to create.