Health resources co-created with Roma Pupils

For six weeks, four Roma pupils from Fir Vale School (Sheffield, UK) worked closely with GPs, medical staff and other professionals to co-create resources that can be reused by different services and the NHS. The girls helped produce Child Vaccinations flyers, HPV flyers and a video diary on their own journey of receiving their HPV vaccines.

GP Roma Pupils Project

Sikavas tumenge sar pes džas  te očinel pro HPV (Romanes)

Cesta počas ktorej sme sa dali očkovat’ proti HPV virisu (Slovakian)

The Roma pupils also created two flyers that are Open Access and made with the intention to share widely and be reused by different services. The HPV Vaccinations and Children’s Vaccinations Flyers are downloadable below. The flyers are in three languages: English, Slovakian and Romanes.

Child-Vaccines-Info-ENG-Brochure-Poster-Portrait-A3Download

O Očkovanie Prekalo Čhave (Child Vaccine info Romanes)

Očkovanie Detí (Child vaccine info Slovakian)

HPV-flyerDownload

O INFORMACIJE PALO HPV (Romanes)

INFORMÁCIE O HPV (Slovakian)

For more information on this and other projects go to visit https://rosasencis.org

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Census 2021 findings

Main points

  • Participants’ accounts portray considerable variation in the individual preference for a nomadic lifestyle, which impacts personal circumstances such as access to services, employment and family relationships.
  • Close relationships with family were recurrently described as fundamental to Gypsy and Traveller values and well-being, but a move away from traditional lifestyles and, with this, greater separation from family, was felt to be occurring.
  • Diverse views were expressed on gender roles, with some stepping outside of what were seen as traditional gender roles among Gypsies and Travellers, and emphasising the importance of education for young women, while others valued arrangements described as traditional among Gypsies and Travellers, such as men being the primary breadwinners, while women are responsible for care of family members and the home, with their work outside the home flexing around these roles.
  • A range of experiences and relationships were described regarding non-travelling communities; some felt comfortable and accepted while others described past negative interactions resulting in wariness of the settled community and a preference for socialising with other Gypsies and Travellers.
  • As well as a sense of loss associated with an evolving culture, some participants focused on new opportunities for themselves and the next generation, embracing new ideas and values, for example, in relation to education, housing, healthcare and gender roles.
  • Running through participants’ accounts were experiences of perceived prejudice and hostility in many aspects of life, which influenced decisions about whether to disclose or avoid revealing their Gypsy or Traveller identity with employers, educators and non-travelling people; in some cases, the choice was removed and they were “outed” either directly by others or indirectly by their accent, address or surname.
  • Throughout discussions about sharing their identity, participants recurrently expressed a desire to be recognised as an individual, not on the basis of preconceived ideas about their ethnic group.

Download full report

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Most excluded minorities

GRT Access to Education HEPI Report 151Download

The Think Tank Higher Education Policy Institute, has published a new report on access to education among Gypsies, Roma and Travellers (Gypsy, Roma and Traveller) authored by Policy Manager Dr.Laura Bressington.

Laura will join our next Education Support Network meeting on Wednesday, 30th November at 2pm online.

Gypsies, Roma and Travellers: The ethnic minorities most excluded from UK education is an informative report that looks carefully at definitions and draws attention to the dangers of homogenisation – focussing sharply on the need for careful data collection and handling. In her own use of data she demonstrates that these communities are hugely underrepresented in Higher Education.

Evidence
  • Gypsy, Roma and Travellers of Irish heritage have the widest attainment gap in measures of pupils achieving a good level of development in early years education;
  • Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils have some of the lowest rates of attendance and the highest rates of permanent exclusion from schools;
  • in 2020/21, 9.1% of Gypsy / Roma pupils and 21.1% of Irish Traveller pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in GCSE English and Mathematics, compared to a national average in England of 51.9%;
  • young people from Gypsy / Roma and Irish Traveller communities are the least likely ethnic groupings to enter higher education by the age of 19 – just 6.3% of Gypsy / Roma and 3.8% of Irish Travellers access higher education by the age of 19 compared to around 40% of all young people;
  • Gypsy and Irish Travellers are the UK’s ‘least liked’ group, with 44.6% of people holding negative views against them – 18.7 percentage points higher than Muslims; and
  • Irish Travellers face a ‘mental health crisis’, with one-in-10 deaths caused by suicide.
Recommendations
For Government
  1. Improved Data Collection.  The current lack of information means that the full scale of the problem remains invisible.
  2. Funding.  The small scale project local project  funding available at the time of writing is inadequate to the scale of the problem which is a national one.
For Higher Education
  1. Access and Participation Plans such as the Higher Education Pledge which create a welcoming environment are to be welcomed
  2. There is a need to include the history and culture of the various Travelling groups in the curriculum. Including works by members of the communities and including relevant data can improve understanding of the different Gypsy Roma and Traveller communities

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ACERT Showmen’s Working Group

Media Release (23/05/22)

The ACERT Showmen’s Working Group is a newly formed network of community members, researchers and educators, dedicated to advancing educational opportunities for Showmen throughout the UK and Ireland. Inclusive of all persons who identify as “Showman”, “Show-woman” or “Show person”, regardless of business practice, independent of the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain or heritage.    

ACERT’s charitable objectives are: 1) advance the education and the protection and preservation of the health of travellers; (2) promote good community relations by a) endeavouring to eliminate discrimination against travellers on racial or other grounds; b) encourage equal opportunity between travellers and other groups in a multi-cultural society.

The ACERT Showmen’s Working Group have chosen to uphold these charitable objectives, in additional to the following aims: 1) to establish network which can act as a collective voice with regards to improving educational practice and outcomes for Showmen; 2) to provide an additional platform which will allow Showmen to be included in consultations with the department of education or UK parliament; 3) to highlight and promote educational projects designed for Showmen; 4) to expand our individual resources by creating a shared archive and CRM; 5) to create a space in which we can provide mutual peer support; 6) to champion our individual identity, whilst working within the broader GTRSB collective; and 7) to generate/publish and publicise accurate, reliable information about Showmen’s education within the collective. 

The current members of the ACERT Showmen’s Working Group: Candace Thomas (ACERT Vice Chair), Colin Clarke (ACERT executive committee), Valdemar Kalinin (ACERT executive committee), Siobhan Spencer (ACERT executive committee), Mitch Miller (Fair Scotland), Natalie Cowie-Kayes (Fair Scotland), Joannie Peak (Future 4 Fairgrounds), Colleen Roper (Future 4 Fairgrounds), Tyler Hatwell (Traveller Pride), Sheldon Chadwick (Showmen’s Mental Health Awareness), Kath Cresswell (Teacher), and Samantha Heeson (Showmen’s Guild member). 

The ACERT Showmen’s Working Group meet via zoom on a regular basis (approx. every 6 weeks) and have a rotating chair, which allows for collective responsibility and ensures an equitable environment for all members. If you are involved in education, are a showmen or parent looking to join our group please contact: candace.thomas@acert.org.uk

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