travellers and family resource centres national needs assessment
TRANSCRIPT
Pavee Point National non-governmental organisation committed to
improving the quality of life, living conditions and status of Irish Travellers.
Partnership of Travellers and members of the majority population working together to address the needs of Travellers as a minority ethnic group experiencing exclusion, marginalisation and racism.
Our work involves research, local action, national resourcing and policy advocacy, involves a community work approach based on the principles of human rights, equality, cultural diversity and interculturalism.
Pavee Point Specialist Support Agency The appropriate inclusion of Travellers and the
Traveller agenda in the focus and work of Family Resource Centres and other initiatives.
Promoting a community development approach to working with Travellers.
Support the emergence and development of Traveller groups and to clearly place the link between national policy development and local and regional implementation of those policies.
Respond to the issue of racism within an Irish and European context
Our work
Pavee Point provides relevant information, education and training on a range of areas relating to the meaningful inclusion of Travellers including:
Cultural awareness Anti racism Issues affecting Travellers (Racism/discrimination,
health, accommodation, drugs, conflict, etc) Group facilitation Capacity building Policy/Research Collaboration Exclusion
Population and Population and DistributionDistribution
22,435 Travellers 62% under 25, 42% under 15 2.6% over 65 Only 25 Travellers over 85 years
Health Infant mortality rate 18.1 per 1000 live
births (National figure is 7.4) At birth Traveller men can expect to live
9.9 years less than settled men Women 11.9 years less than settled
women
Source: Health Board Research 1987
Health Traveller life expectancy is now that of
the general population in 1940s
SIDS rate (cot death) among Traveller families is more than 3.7 times higher than national figure
Health Board Research 1987 & Sudden Infant Death Society.
Accommodation Over 750 families live on side of the road
without access to water or electricity Forced to live in appalling overcrowded
conditions – many illnesses reported are directly related to living or environmental conditions
Local authorities fail to implement their own plans for suitable accommodation
Objections by local residents to the development of Traveller sites or to Traveller neighbours
Acommodation
40.6% Travellers live in 'temporary housing units', of which: 91% are without central heating 38% are without piped water 35% are without sewerage
Source Census 2006
Education
Participation in Higher Education among Travellers was 0.8%
Higher education participation was 30.2% nationally.
Source Census 2006
Education Among children whose age was
known, 63.4% of Traveller children dropped out of full time education before they were 15 years old
National rate was 13.3%
Source: Census 2006
What are the challenges? Exclusion at local / community level Widespread Racism / Discrimination Lack of recognition of Traveller identity Fear, prejudice, myths, misconceptions
among both communities Engaging with local services
Behaviour & Attitudes, Behaviour & Attitudes, 20002000
Travellers are most hated group on the island of Ireland
97% of Irish people would not accept a Traveller as a member of their family
80% would not accept a Traveller friend
44% would not want a Traveller as a member of their community
Needs Assessment
Survey of 101 FRCs nationwide
Conducted during September/ October 2008
Response Rate – 68 percent
Aims to look at the level of contact between
FRCs and members of the Traveller Community in the local area
to explore any barriers that may prevent Travellers from using FRC services
to identify information and training deficits which, if addressed, would assist FRCs in working with Travellers.
Findings
Questionnaire - 40 Items
Sections Profile of FRCs Working with Travellers Training Needs Assessment
Profile of FRCs FRCs were asked to identify their
locality by choosing from one of six options.
Majority of respondents were located in rural areas with 44 per cent located in either small or large villages.
Three quarters of FRCs who identified themselves as urban were located in the greater Dublin area.
Greater Dublin
Cities
Large Town > 10,000
Small Town 5,000 -10,000
Large Village 1000 - 5000
Small Village <1000
Results
Travellers living in the area
44 percent (30) – None or not aware of Travellers in the area
Travellers more likely identified in large villages or towns
Lower levels of identification in Greater Dublin area
Service Provision FRCs provide a range of services to
the community
Focus on Information Community Development Education Support / Social Activities
FRCs and Travellers
While more than half of FRCs reported Travellers using their services, use of FRC services by Travellers was still relatively low compared to other target groups.
FRCs and Travellers
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
Women
Single
Paren
ts
Older P
eople M
en
Young
Chil
dren
Teenag
ers
New Com
mun
ities
Mino
rity E
thnic
Gro
ups
Trave
llers
Drug
Users
No
of
FR
Cs
Accessing Services
Travellers most frequently make use of FRC facilities and resources and to engage information services relating to particular issues.
Travellers were also likely to access community development services.
Social inclusion policies Almost all FRCs indicated that they operated
under guidelines or policies in relation to the promotion of social inclusion
Two thirds had written guidelines
One quarter had unwritten / informal guidelines
Two thirds of FRCs surveyed believed that guidelines specifically relating to the inclusion of Travellers would be of benefit to their organisation.
Strategic Planning Although many FRCs believe that
Travellers were not living in their area this did not appear to effect their inclusion in strategic plans one way or another.
In areas where Travellers were acknowledged, FRCs were approximately 50 percent more likely to include Travellers in their Strategic plan.
Traveller Engagement with FRCs
70 percent (48) of respondents felt that Travellers could engage more
22 percent (15) were not sure.
7 percent (5) felt that Travellers could not engage more
Barriers to participation
45 percent of respondents indicated that there were barriers to participation
30 percent did not know either way.
Approx one quarter of FRCs believed there were no barriers to Traveller participation.
Rank
FRCs ranked which barriers they felt had the strongest impact on Traveller participation:
1) Not aware of service 2) Literacy issues 3) Lack of confidence
Rank
Issues perceived to have least impact as barrier Health issues Poverty or financial exclusion Accommodation Age
Interaction with Travellers Significant number (16) reported no contact
90 percent of remaining respondents reported their experience to be either very good or generally good.
5 respondents admitted to having both good and bad experiences
1 respondent felt that their experience was generally bad.
Increase in Traveller Usage
66 per cent (45) felt that they would have no difficulty
A third (21) believed that some difficulty would be encountered.
Difficulty for existing service users
54 percent believed that there would be some difficulty for non Traveller users
22 percent felt that there would be no difficulty.
No FRC felt that they could not adapt either way.
Training Needs Assessment
FRCs who received training to assist them in providing services to Travellers
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Received Training No Training Don’t Know
No
of
FR
Cs
Obstacles to Working with Travellers 54 per cent of respondents expressed
concern that there were obstacles preventing their FRC from working more closely with Travellers
18 percent were not sure
Over a quarter of respondents (28 percent) believed that there were no obstacles
Obstacles to working with Travellers
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Lack
of R
esou
rces
Other
org
s tak
ing l
ead
Lack
of sk
ills /
train
ing
Lack
of C
apac
ity on
Tra
v iss
ues
Few / n
o Tr
avs i
n are
a
Low C
onfid
ence
am
ong
staff
Canno
t acc
ess T
rave
llers
Trave
llers
not w
illing
to en
gage
Not p
art o
f our
rem
it
No
of
FR
Cs
Rank
FRCs ranked the obstacles in order of strongest impact
1) Lack of resources 2) Lack of capacity of skills /
training 3) Lack of capacity on Traveller
issues were listed in the overall top three.
Understanding of Traveller Issues
In relation to Traveller issues, respondents were asked to identify their level of understanding on specific Traveller related issues.
Apart from Anti Racism, FRCs feel ill equipped to deal with Traveller related issues.
Information and Training Needs on Traveller issues A high number of respondents listed both
information and training requirements in each of the issues listed.
Of particular note were: conflict mediation within and between
communities, cultural awareness and anti racism / diversity.
Working with Pavee Point Pavee Point provides information and
training in all of these areas to local and regional organisations.
When asked if the FRC would be interested in working with Pavee Point to address information and training needs, 77 per cent (52) of respondents said yes while a further 16 percent (11) were unsure.
Links with other organisations A perception that local Traveller
representative organisations or the local Traveller CDP will look after all issues relating to Travellers is pervasive.
FRCs were asked if they knew of any local Traveller organisation or CDP in the area. The results found that two thrids of FRCs were aware of other organisations.
Strength of those Links 53 per cent said they had links
32 per cent did not.
38 per cent said they had strong or somewhat strong links.
In contrast, 24 percent said they experienced somewhat weak or very weak links with the local CDP
Challenges
Access
Relevance of services for Travellers
Prioritising Traveller issues
How to meet Traveller needs
Opportunities SPEAK System
Research (Needs Analysis, AITHS, etc)
General good will of FRC staff and participants
Leadership of the Forum and the FSA
Pilot
Pavee Point hoping to run a pilot initiative with a participating FRC
Workshop
Roll out on a national basis