15 Square

Here are some important updates from 15 Square! It’s been a while since we gave a full update. We wanted to share our progress, as we have been busy! There has been so much happening in the background too, and we have been making extra efforts to include members in guiding our work. We would like to thank all of our recent contributors who have given their feedback to us.

CIO Progress

Last year at our Annual General Meeting members of 15 Square voted to convert our structure into a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. We are pleased to update you all that after much back and forth with the Charity Commission we have been given final approval to move forward with this. As of now, 15 Square are happy to announce that we have officially converted to a CIO.

Working With Allies at the WWDOGA

This month we have been reconnecting with allies across the movement. Some of you may have seen our participation at this years Worldwide Day of Genital Autonomy in Cologne, Germany. If you haven’t seen the presentations and attendees giving talks then you can watch the content here on Youtube. We want to say a special thank you to Victor and the team for their tireless efforts, and to the organisations that contribute to this important event. At the event, we also announced our next partnership project with the Darbon Institute.

The Darbon Institute

For the past two years 15 Square have been gathering stories from men to collate, anonymise, and use as evidence of the harms of circumcision. We will be releasing some of those stories soon, but as part of this announcement we will also be participating in a joint project with colleagues in Australia; The Darbon Institute.

This will be a social media project that is aimed at reaching as wide an audience as possible with professionally produced information posts. These will feature quotes from people of all backgrounds discussing different aspects of circumcision.

To accompany these social media posts, we are also looking for men who are willing to share their story (400-700 words approximately), but to include their first name and a picture to add a human element to these important stories.

If you would like to contribute to these blog posts, get in touch with the Darbon Institute here. As always, for those who want to help but do not want to be involved in this campaign, you can submit your anonymous stories here.

Together, Not Alone – 7th June, 19:00 (UK time)

Members are welcome to Join us for our next Together, Not Alone meeting via Zoom! This month we are excited to introduce a friend to our organisation, Tim Hammond. Together, we will be discussing restoration and Tim will be introducing his recent success project. Last month, Hammond et al. published a paper titled ‘Foreskin restorers: insights into motivations, successes, challenges, and experiences with medical and mental health professionals – An abridged summary of key findings’.

There will opportunity for open discussion and questions. For those who are interested in 15 Square membership, you can sign up here.

This Years Annual General Meeting and Conference

We have set the date for this years AGM. All members are welcome to join us in person or online on Saturday, November 11^th. We will announce further details closer to the date. We look forward to seeing some of you in person!