Estimates of the size of England's Traveller and Gypsy communities vary, but it is generally accepted to be between 200,000 and 300,000 people, making it a community of a similar size to the Bangladeshi community across Britain (approx 280,000). The fact that population sizes are not known is partly indicative of the community not being accepted as a distinct ethnic group. It is therefore unsurprising that Travellers and Gypsies are seen by the Campaign for Racial Equality (CRE) as some of the most marginalised and vulnerable ethnic minority groups in England. In a recent MORI poll in England, more than one third of adults who took part admitted to being personally prejudiced against Travellers/Gypsies. Such prejudices are frequently re-enforced by the mainstream media, particularly community newspapers published near Gypsy Traveller sites and national tabloids.

Within the community young people are amongst the most vulnerable, with all available evidence indicating that their entire experience of education puts them at a disadvantage. Enrolment figures decline over the years in secondary education, with the overall figure enrolled in post-16 courses in England below 20%. With limited access to education and no appropriate forum, the ability of young people to express their ideas and reflect on social trends in their community and beyond is limited.

Furthermore inadequate space on sites has meant that a larger proportion of the Gypsy Roma Traveller community no longer move around and those that do tend to travel for shorter periods and over restricted distances. Undoubtedly this had led to a decline in community cohesion with young people in particular having little on-going contact with their contemporaries in other areas. Also dialogue between the Gypsy Roma Traveller community, particularly between English Roma and Irish Travellers, is limited and can be tense.

The Savvy Chavvy project addressed these trends by combining innovative training in social media and web 2.0 technology with the establishment of a unique social networking site specifically for young Gypsy Travellers.

The first stage of the project involved directly training 50 participants within 5 individual groups. We engaged with a representative sample of the G-R-T community working with groups composed of English Roma, Irish Traveller and Slovak Roma and young people on home school projects, attending mainstream schools and formally excluded from education. The project covered a range of social media techniques including audio (podcasting), moving image (video blogging), text (blogging), and still photography. It was felt that different forms of media suited different individuals, particularly including the use of audio/visual media for those participants who were less confident in expressing themselves through writing. Whilst delivering the training it was rewarding to see the young people approach each new task and technique with adaptability and vitality, quickly producing relevant and insightful pieces of ‘citizen journalism’.

The training culminated in each group of young people producing two films about their lives and community. The topics covered where as diverse as the community themselves and included a Gypsy boxing club, the influence of hip-hop of Slovak Roma culture in the UK and the bullying and discrimination faced by young Gypsy Travellers in mainstream education. Produced to broadcast standard the films where then promoted by the young people to both the mainstream media and placed on video sharing sites like Fourdocs and the BBC’s Video Nation. This tangible outcome of the training demonstrated to the young people the power of self-representation and built important links with a wider media world that they had generally perceived to be hostile to them.

Concurrent with training was the development of the social networking site, savvychavvy.com. The arguments in support of social networking as a contemporary means of self-expression and self-representation are increasingly well-documented (particularly amongst a younger audience), but without support and encouragement there is a real risk that traditionally disadvantaged communities will once again be excluded from an ever-changing digital age. By providing training and support the Savvy Chavvy project has given young people the opportunity to express themselves freely through newly learnt skills. Perhaps more importantly they will have gained softer skills- increased self-confidence and self-esteem, more effective and creative communication skills, and an ability to achieve results through working as a group. We anticipate that for many this will lead to an increased interest in playing a more active role within their community.

A testament to the success of Savvy Chavvy as both a project and a social network has been its rapid extension beyond the initial training group and its assimilation as a tool of day-to-day communication for young Gypsy Roma Travellers. Currently close to a thousand young people from Ireland, the UK and Slovak Republic are actively using the site. Not only are they using they site to work in small groups with the collective purpose of producing social media and citizen journalism, they are using Savvy Chavvy to make friends, plan evenings out and to chat, joke and gossip with other young people from across the UK and beyond. It is this combination of social purpose and social life that will ensure that savvychavvy.com remains a lasting legacy of the project.

The outcomes of the project will also be felt by the wider Traveller/Gypsy community. The stories produced for broadcast and the citizen journalism on savvychavvy.com have provided opportunities and built new relationships with mainstream broadcasters including the BBC. We believe that this process will continue, creating an increased awareness amongst mainstream broadcasters of the value of "citizen journalism" where people from the community can produce material that has a greater credibility - and therefore interest value - than could have been achieved by journalists from outside of the community. This seems particularly relevant to a community that is understandably very wary of wary of journalistic misrepresentation.

Click here to see the Savvy Chavvy Films →