TRAVELLERS' BREAKFAST STORY

PROMOTING COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT in collaboration with The Traveller’s Trust, Clifton Children’s Centre and Arts Action York

As told by Kirstie Briggs Bateman, textile artist

The aim of this project was to answer a recognised need to assist the travelling community from the Clifton Moor Travellers’ site to integrate more with the wider community, first recognised by the Travellers’ Trust. Health visitors, early years' workers and traveller support staff all helped to assist with this progression.

The Travellers group first began to meet weekly at a house in the local area to gain support from health workers in general health and child support issues. Each week the Group had a cooked meal made by the health visitor, hence the name of the group meeting, ‘Travellers’ Breakfast’.

It was recognised by everyone involved in supporting the group that the next positive move would be to meet at the Clifton Children’s Centre, thus providing more space for the group and more opportunities to access other services.

The group was asked which other activities they would like to do if they had more space and general facilities. They expressed a very keen interest in arts and crafts. It was at this point that two freelance artists were invited to visit a session and discuss with the families the sort of things they would be interested in doing.

The artists did six sessions each, providing a high level craft activity. One artist was a ceramic artist, Penny Phillips, the other, Kirstie Briggs Bateman, a textile artist specialising in felt work. These sessions were seen as an opportunity to move the group to a place were more space was available to work in and after a couple of sessions at “The House” the group moved to the Clifton Children’s Centre.

The new room at Clifton Children’s Centre provided a warm, stimulating, child friendly environment where messy art activities could be enjoyed to their full potential. These activities were also used as a tool to help the parents involve themselves and their children in doing things together.

The overall move has been a huge success and now 18 months later the travellers are still meeting weekly at the Children’s Centre. It was hoped the move would help the travellers take ownership of the sessions and feel part of the Centre and have a sense of belonging there. Within the first few sessions of the move the group decided to change the name of the meetings from Travellers’ Breakfast to ‘Jumping Jacks’, which they felt fitted better into the general sense of the Children’s Centre.

The group discussed with the health visitor and artists what they would like the opportunity to make. They expressed an interest in quite traditional objects from diverse cultures that they could use to decorate their homes, such as wind chimes and dream catchers and other personal keepsakes for the children. It was decided this would be a really positive, engaging approach.

The felt sessions happened first and among other things the families made cushions and dream catchers out of raw sheep’s wool. The dream catchers were made of long, long worms of felt wool - very much fun too make in washing-up bowls full of soapy water! Next came the ceramic sessions where wind chimes, clay tiles with the children’s feet and hand prints and ceramic name plates were made. Everything was a very high quality, the parents had great talent and were very imaginative and creative. The children in the group at the time of the session were mostly under the age of 3 and the parents sat them on their knees or crouched beside them actively helping them get involved.

All the pieces were put together in an exhibition in the Clifton Children’s Centre reception area. This was a lovely ending to the project and everybody was really pleased with what they had achieved. The Group asked for a continuation of the art sessions and after the Christmas holiday they had a few more textile sessions and produced a beautiful felt wall hanging to hang permanently in the Children’s Centre. Thus further enhancing ownership of the centre.

The Group still meets every week and has all the original members. Some of the original children are starting full-time education in mainstream school in September. Some of the children have also been attending a nursery local to their site, in the community church.

New mums are expected to be coming in the new academic year, which will keep the numbers consistent when others leave. It has been decided by the group they would like to continue to meet through the holidays. Therefore provision has been made to accommodate older school age siblings and provide appropriate activities.

The group has created a wonderful vegetable garden at the back of the Children’s Centre. They cultivated the garden throughout the summer. The tradition of a cooked lunch has continued and each week the travellers or staff share a recipe and these have been put together in their own recipe book.

The success of this project has been brought about by communication with the group from the outset. The group has been a marginalised community within society for along time and the main obstacles preventing them from accessing services was the fear of other people’s judgment of them. With constant consultation from the beginning the group have been given full control and therefore ownership of the sessions and as a result their destiny. It is important to consider how this communication is best achieved with different groups. Some groups may prefer to fill in a questionnaire or talk to a childcare worker on a one to one basis, or with other people when they are available. For this particular group the best approach was to bring every one together for informal chats, this was because literacy skills in the group are very low. A friendly more informal approach seemed less hostile and more appropriate.

The art sessions were used as a method of breaking down perceived barriers and creating a shared enjoyed activity, with the goal of having the celebratory exhibition at the end of the project. The exhibition was fantastic because it was in the Children’s Centre reception and was almost a statement of arrival. Everybody was so proud of his or her work and in this particular group many had never had work of their own shown to others in such a public way. To the mum’s it felt like a form of acceptance at the centre.

In working with different groups in society workers must always be aware of maybe the limited opportunities other people have had and hence an appreciation of other people’s sense of achievement. The slow gradual approach to the move to the Children’s Centre supported the group’s needs due to their fear and lack of experience of anything like this before.

The mums have said that as children they stayed very much within their community, doing everything together and not going to playgroups or other such community activities at all when they were children. As the group chose to have the art and craft sessions it gave them ownership of their activities from the start. The group continues to be consulted each week on what they would like to do and what they would like to eat. Some weeks the health visitor cooks and sometimes the mums share and cook traditional traveller meals.

When the group first moved to the Children’s Centre they used a very small room, which was perhaps originally a living room. At first the families felt they were being hidden away or kept from the best facilities. This room was only used for a few weeks and when the group moved to a bigger much more child friendly room with all the facilities needed for a stimulating pre-school environment they felt much more welcome and part of the centre. The group is thrilled with the move and how the group has continued to grow. They feel as their children are now accessing pre-school activities they are going into main stream school much more well prepared and on a social and educational level with other children from the wider community.

The group is now completely settled in the centre and feel a sense of pride. They recognise how the group is changing their lives and creating opportunities. They feel the next step would be other people from outside their community joining their group and accepting them. This is one of the reasons it has been proposed to change the group’s name from ‘The Travellers’ Breakfast’ to Jumping Jacks - so the group would lose their label as a traveller group and would be open to other members of society. This could be done by arranging joint sessions with other groups or inviting the community to try the exciting traditional recipes or visit the group’s beautiful vegetable garden!!

This story has been captured with special Thanks to the following people:

The families from the Traveller’s community in the Clifton area
York Traveller’s Trust
Health Visitor, Vivienne Lumley
Early Year’s Worker, Louisa Wilson
All Clifton Children’s Centre Staff
Arts Action York, City of York Council (now Inclusive Arts)
Film Maker, Simon Collins
Ceramics Artist, Penny Phillips

Story told by Kirstie Briggs Bateman, Textile Artist

Storycatch and project supported by City of York Council (Inclusive Arts, Arts & Culture) - July 2010