Jo is the co founder of Broken Rainbows. A charity established in order to address the rising number of domestic abuse, within the LGBT community. Jo shares a harrowing experience in her past which led to her leaving her job as a social work and pursuing her quest to set up the charity. 1000 LONDONERS This film is part of 1000 Londoners, a five-year digital project which aims to create a digital portrait of a city through 1000 of the people who identify themselves with it. The profile contains a 3 minute film that gives an insight into the life of the Londoner, as well as their personal photos of London and some answers to crucial questions about their views on London life. Over the course of the project we aim to reveal as many facets of the capital as possible, seeing city life from 1000 points of view. www.1000londoners.com www.youtube.com/1000londoners www.facebook.com/1000londoners Twitter: @1000_londoners 1000 Londoners is produced by South London based film production company and social enterprise, Chocolate Films. The filmmakers from Chocolate Films will be both producing the films and providing opportunities to young people and community groups to make their own short documentaries, which will contribute to the 1000 films. Visit www.chocolatefilms.com Transcript: Hello Broken Rainbows, Jo speaking I'm the Managing Director of Broken Rainbows We're a domestic violence charity and we're the only national charity that helps LGBT people who are victims or perpetrators, or survivors of domestic violence Last Tuesday we had a women who was locked in a bathroom, with cracked ribs and a bleeding nose while her partner was trying to get in through the bathroom door. On online chat, trying to get advice and find out what to do. I came out to my parents in the same conversation were I told my father I wasn't going to go to Oxford and follow in his footsteps and go to the university he wanted me to go to. I went against all the advice my parents gave me and their wishes and went into social work. I was eighteen, I trained when I was twenty-three became fully qualified and went and worked for an organisation, for about ten years. I went to work for them because they came to me and said "we've heard your really good at what you do. We have some really difficult young people that need some help. I went and worked for them and I've always been open about my sexual orientation at work. After about six months, there was clearly an issue with other staff members that I was gay. They would make inappropriate comments and they would do and say stuff wasn't okay and I would just ignore it. And then a young women came to the organisation who was quite unwell and was what we call a prolific self harmer. So somebody that cut themselves very badly. She had over 370 scars on her body. And was struggling with her sexual orientation. And I was asked to work with her. She stopped self harming for a little while. My colleagues felt, the only reason she had stopped self harming was because of what I "must have done"with her. Which was "not natural" and therefore the organisation suspended me and then fired me for being gay. Sadly the young woman felt that was her fault and went to the top of a car park and jumped off. She is alive, but she's a paraplegic and she's in a wheelchair. I love working here because we make a difference. Every day to somebody. Whether that is a service user that needs our service, or a colleague or a partner who we train give information and knowledge to. We know we make a difference because this like morning, I was sitting in the cab on my way to the office and on my Twitter feed I received a message from someone saying "thank you" I used your service and now I'm in a much safer place. That always makes you feel good. Knowing you're making a difference to someone's life.

• published: 24 Mar 2015
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