The University of Worcester is one of the few UK universities to have signed up to the GRTSB into HE Pledge and has begun working closely with local community members and the Student Union to put on a display across its campuses this June.
The Romani flag will be flown and June 30th will host an afternoon event with community speakers, and academic presentations. A short video has been made by the student union involving community members and it is hoped that local people and students will attend the event.
It is hoped also that there might be enough student interest to form a student society if student community members are enabled to see their presence as a welcome and enriching factor of university life at a time when governments and establishments world-wide are openly anti-diversity and equality. Ultimately, we would all would like to see a community-led organisation developed in the West Midlands, a vast swath of England that is bereft of such organisations.
Stacey Hodgkins is a Romany Gypsy graduate of the university who regularly contributes to student education and she has helped the Association’s ally member, Peter Unwin, garner interest in Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller month. Stacey had done all the hard work with the Union in arranging the space and the displays attached to this blog.
We hope that the professionals and politicians attending what is the first such celebration at the university will continue to work with us to bring about greater inclusion of Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities in both university life and in our wider local communities.
This last month saw Peter Unwin attend the Moving for Change conference in Hertfordshire where he spoke about the importance. It was great to see such a good turnout and to have the craic around the fires at night.
Abi Smith is an advocate from Worcestershire whom Peter met at the event and Abi will join the work with Stacey Hodgkins and Chris Smith to try and get a local organisation off the ground. Shortly after the conference speech on data. NHS England announced a recommendation to bring the NHS Categorisation of ethnicities into line with the 2021 Census, which is a step in the right direction – let’s hope the dismantling of NHS England doesn’t serve to put this cause back another decade.
Salisbury Cathedral was the fine venue for last month’s ‘Sanctuary Roads’ conference, hosted by the Bishop of Salisbury and attended by many organisations we work with who supplied talks, stalls and a performance of ‘Crystal’s Vardo’. The Gypsy -Friendly Churches movement is concerned with making all churches more welcoming of community members, and was formed after a General Synod motion in 2019.
Encouraging and welcoming as the event was, there are still more words than actions on behalf of the churches –‘In my father’s house there are many stopping places’ was the biblical quote on the event programme but there are less and less stopping places for Travellers across the UK. No-one was able to point to any land that had been freed up for stopping and much of the day’s debate was about how to turn good intentions into deeds. Problems were discussed such as a mismatch between the upper echelons’ values and wishes and the objections from parishioners, as well as the time it takes to get any decision made at Synod level translated to ground level.
At least the churches role with Gypsy, Roma, and Traveler communities is coming up the agenda and we met many sincere people on the day – it was encouraging to have received a social work invite and several people there knew our very own Chris Kidd, whose work in Wiltshire was ground-breaking with the communities.
