Cultural Competency Training

"The UK has come a long way since comments like "Hitler had the right idea" about ethnic minorities, right?

Wrong. April 2019 to be precise. And by a councillor no less.

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Let me introduce you to the GRT community. You might have heard of us. "pikeys" "gypos".

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 The Gypsy, Roma, Traveller community. For too long comments like these have gone unaddressed. Not just in the public realm but in all areas of service provision.

From my personal experience alone I have been told I "look clean for a gypsy" by a business advisor, accused of taking part in a charity event to mask the crimes of community members by a NHS manager and had to listen to a college tutor tell students 'the gypos come and steal everything'. If these are the stories of one, imagine those of the many.

 

It's not your fault. Like the rest of the country, you've grown up in a world that criminalises Travellers and Gypsy, makes us seem less worthy and a sub-class. But the truth is we are human. There are some good. There are some bad too, but we are human.

And we need you.

 

Travellers are 7 times more likely to commit suicide.

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Travellers life expectancy is lower than any other group of people.

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Hate Crime against the GRT community is the lowest reported form of hate crime.

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We need you to join us in our fight for equality. Not be against us. The values that have driven you to your career, be it a nurse, police officer, teacher or whatever, requires you to have sense of humanity and commitment to equality.

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Discrimination against the GRT community is so deep-rooted, professionals often don't even
consider their actions as discrimination. This is happening and things need to change. You can be that change.

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This training encourages you to step back and address your unconscious biases (we all have them!), explore how you can overcome them and identify positive steps to challenge inequality and improve outcomes for the GRT community.

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I am an Irish Traveller and campaigner for GRT Rights, writing about it, alongside Mental Health in my Top 10 UK blog. My background in Youth and Community work and community engagement has given me the experience to develop this interactive and though provoking training to help provoke real and meaningful change for my community.

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There are many, many wonderful professionals out there, if we all stand together we can make strides in overcoming these overwhelming inequalities."

- Martin Gallagher

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