About us

How we started

Founded in 2000, the organisation started out as a group of trans women who were using the same hairdressers in Hove. After some encouragement from the owner of the salon, the group began meeting in a back room of the salon. The Clare Project has been meeting every week in this location ever since, in what has now become our Tuesday Drop-in.

One of our co-founders was a Reverend who named the Clare Project after Saint Clare of Assisi, who supported the poor and marginalised. Although we are now a non-religious group, we still call ourselves The Clare Project, and meet at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church.

How we have grown

After many years as a grassroots group, The Clare Project became a registered charity in 2016. We moved from supporting trans women and transfeminine people to supporting everyone whose identity falls under the transgender or non-binary umbrellas. More recently, we have also started supporting members of the intersex community.

The Clare Project now provides a variety of support options for the trans, non-binary, and intersex (TNBI) community in Brighton and across Sussex. Over the years, we have welcomed thousands of TNBI people through our doors, regardless of their gender identity, gender expression, or biological sex variation.

We pride ourselves on being TNBI-led, and TNBI-orientated in both our support services and campaigning. Over recent years, we have developed a strong Trustee Board and a small but remarkable team of workers and volunteers.

Our team, members and supporters have worked tirelessly to develop ourselves as the flagship TNBI service in Sussex. We now run social drop-ins both online and in person, monthly social meals, monthly workshops and a neurodivergent group. We have a variety of 1:1 support options. We create resources for the community, deliver training and consultancy to organisations, and are involved in running various events for the TNBI community throughout the year.