Our Work With Gypsies & Travellers
Community Development Work in relation to Gypsies and Travellers needs to be holistic: looking at all the issues affecting these communities; working with community members to equip them with knowledge and information so that they can be mentors within their communities; working with community members and service providers to address some of the inequalities; training service providers so there is a greater level of understanding about who Gypsies and Travellers are; working with service providers to provide appropriate services.
Penny Dane is our Gypsy and Traveller Community Development Worker. Her devoted, innovative and creative work with the Gypsy and Traveller community has been nationally recognised. She is a powerful advocate for Gypsies and Travellers and continuously highlights the sorts of prejudice and racism Gypsies and Travellers experience in Devon. She is committed to raising, different statutory agencies awareness of their responsibilities to provide accessible and high quality services to members of the communities.
Penny together with members of the Romany Gypsy community in Devon produced a DVD entitled ‘The pride, the prejudice’. By the end of 2009 it had been shown to over 1,500 people as part of a training package at awareness training events for 53 different organisations, including Devon and Cornwall Police who contracted PDREC (formerly DREC) to train sergeants and inspectors across Devon, a variety of health organisations, schools and colleges, and other voluntary and statutory organisations. Penny along with members of the Gypsy and Traveller community, have been invited to speak at events all over the country such as a national Police conference in Plymouth, a national Traveller Education conference in Birmingham and a Black history month event in Wiltshire.
PDREC’s gypsy and Traveller service offers different training packages, developed according to what organisations want; some just want to see the DVD and have a question/answer session and others want a cultural awareness/rights and responsibilities training or specific training on working with Gypsy/Traveller groups. We have an excellent and committed team of trainers from Gypsy and Traveller backgrounds who are involved in all aspects of the training.
Penny, with the help of many members from the Gypsy and Traveller community, compiles a Traveller Information Pack every year. This pack gives specific and appropriate information to Gypsies and Travellers about what services are available in Devon and how to access them. This is the fourth year the packs have been produced and they are distributed by, and funded by, agencies and organisations that come in to contact with Travellers.
Penny’s role also includes a casework service for Gypsies and Travellers experiencing racism and discrimination.
For more information, please contact PDREC via email, or 01392 422566; you can also contact Penny direct on 07979838138 or penny@devonrec.org