Proud Connections Live Chat is a digital one-to-one chat service delivered by The Proud Trust (Charity number: 1161102). Proud Connections Live Chat provides support, information and referrals to other groups and services for young people and the adults who support them, with a focus on LGBT+ identities (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and related identities).

Our chat operators are experienced staff members who are available to listen and support you during our open hours. Before using Proud Connections Live Chat, please ensure you have read our Terms of Service and our Confidentiality Statement. By accessing or using Proud Connections you are agreeing to both of these. If you have any questions about these terms, please contact us by email at info@theproudtrust.org.

Keeping conversations confidential is very important to us, but keeping you, or the young people you interact with, safe and supported is our biggest priority.

So, there may be times that we need to break confidentiality, which means telling other people about our conversations. We will only do this if we think we have to in order to keep you or someone else safe. Where possible, we will always talk to you first about who we might need to tell and what information we will give them. You can read our full confidentiality statement here.

Before starting a chat make sure you have read our Terms of Service and Confidentiality Statement.

When you start a chat:

• You’ll be asked to create an account, login or join as a guest
• You will be asked to provide some information (name, pronouns, age, location and what you want to chat about). You do not need to give this information if you don’t want to but it does help the operators know a little more about you so that they can support you as best they can
• There may then be a short wait depending on how busy the service is, but you will be connected to someone as soon as possible. Don’t worry, you can still check out our resources and information while you wait. You will get a notification when the chat is ready
• Once connected you will be able to speak to an operator (this is a trained staff member, not a “bot”). You will be able to type at your own pace. We are here to listen and support you, so take your time
• We might ask some questions during the chat; this is just so that we can get a better understanding of your situation, so we can support you in the most appropriate way
• Throughout the conversation, the operator may offer you some information about other services that may be able to support you
• Everything you say to us will remain confidential, so anything you say will stay between you and the operator. The only time we would need to share some of the conversation would be if you ask us to, or if we believe you or someone else is in danger. You can find out more about this in our Confidentiality Statement

We are here to talk about anything you need to. This might be about: gender identity, sexuality, mental health, problems at school/college or relationships with friends, family or your religion.

You might not want to talk about yourself either, it might be that you want to know how to talk to or support a LGBT+ friend or family member.

There may be times that the chat cuts off due to internet connection issues, or if you need to close the chat suddenly. Don’t worry, you can reconnect again once you are ready. You might not be able to connect with the same person, but once you reconnect someone will be there to support you.

We won’t finish the chat until you are ready to, unless it is because the service is closing for the day, in which case we will give you advance notice that we will need to bring the chat to a close.

Once the chat does come to a close, there might be a few different outcomes. You might have some new information to go away and look at, you might want to come back and chat again another day, or we might have linked you up with other services that could support you.

Proud Connection Live Chat is a support service with limited opening hours; we are not a crisis or emergency service. If you need urgent support or support when we are closed, you can contact Childline on 0800 1111 or text ‘SHOUT’ to 85258.

In an emergency you should always contact 999.

We are always interested to hear your feedback about or services. Any feedback we get will be used to develop our services to make sure we are supporting people in the best way possible.

To give us feedback on your experience of Proud Connections you can either:

• Complete our feedback form here
• Email us at feedback@theproudtrust.org with as much detail as possible.

We’ll aim to acknowledge your feedback within 5 working days. If you are submitting a formal complaint about the service, we will aim to resolve the issue within 1 month. There may be times when we need longer to investigate the claims and address the issues raise. If this is the case, we will keep you informed of the progress and any updates.

If you are not happy with the outcome of the complaint you will be able to appeal the decision and we will be able to advise you on the next steps of that process.