Akt (stylised as akt and legally known as The Albert Kennedy Trust) is a voluntary organisation based in England, created in 1989 to serve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ+) young people who are homeless or living in a hostile environment. It started in Greater Manchester in 1989 and opened in London in 1996, and expanded to Newcastle in 2013, Newcastle upon Tyne and Bristol. History The charity is named after Albert Kennedy (31 January 1973 – 30 April 1989), a 16-year-old Social Services care leaver from Manchester who was gay. Kennedy died after falling from the top of Chorlton Street multi-storey car park. Despite an inquest the circumstances of his death remain unclear. The official version is that he died from misadventure. Kennedy had experienced a great deal of homophobia during his life. Manchester's gay community was moved into action by the Trust's founder patron Cath Hall. Cath Hall was a straight foster carer who saw the need for an organisation to be set up to support young lesbian, gay, bi and trans people who were facing homelessness because of rejection at home. She had observed that Kennedy's case was not isolated, and that many other LGBTQ+ young people in and out of the foster care system were struggling with the effects of homophobia. Hall described the founding of the trust as "an emotional response, an angry response, to what was going on". As a result, the Albert Kennedy Trust was formed, officially becoming a Trust in 1990. In 2019 the Albert Kennedy Trust rebranded as akt.
