Introduction:

Meath Travellers’ Workshops is a voluntary Community Development Organisation, which is a partnership of Travellers and Settled people working together. Our Programmes include Traveller Heritage and Culture Awareness, Childcare, Youth and Community Development and addressing Traveller issues such as Education, Accommodation and Employment also providing family supports and citizen information.

History:

Meath Travellers’ Workshops was established in 1965. The organisation was set up as result of the Commission on Itinerancy Report of 1963. The main motivation for the setting up of Navan Travellers’ Committee (St. Jude’s, as it was known at that time) was the deplorable living conditions that Travellers lived in and the issues that arose from these conditions such as Health, Education and Life expectancy. The main thrust of the work of the Committee at this stage was focusing on trying to meet the basic needs of the Travellers in the area.

In the late seventies, the Committee’s philosophy changed from that of trying to meet the basic needs to one of Community Development. They employed a Community Worker to work alongside the Travellers to help them to identify their own needs and to formulate strategies to meet the needs of the Travelling Community in general.

The focus now is mainly on educating and facilitating Travellers to get more involved and participate in their own self-determination. The organisation has developed and expanded over the years to its present form and shape. In December 2010 the organisation changed it’s name to Meath Travellers Workshops to reflect the countywide brief.

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Our Credo is a follows:

“We recognise that meaningful change for Travellers can only take place when we have both the skills and confidence to organise ourselves and articulate our own needs and this Organisation can best achieve this by supporting the appropriate inclusion of Travellers with area-based Programmes of Local, Social & Economic development”.

The aims of Meath Travellers’ Workshops are:

  • To prevent the erosion of the economic base of Travellers.
  • To enable participation of Travellers in the Education system.
  • To develop Programmes that will encourage ownership and empowerment.
  • To promote respect for Traveller identity and culture.
  • To provide sufficient validation to create an atmosphere of self-determination and Reduce dependency

Mission Statement:

Meath Travellers Workshops is proud to be a Traveller-led community
development organisation that is approachable and accessible to all.
We cherish and promote Traveller values and identity, and through
partnership, training and education, seek to promote equality for all.

Meath Travellers Workshops facilitate a wide range of programmes,
these include:

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  • Traveller Heritage and Culture
  • Culture Awareness Training
  • Traveller Living History Exhibition
  • Community Employment Programme
  • MTEI Meath Travellers Employment Initiative
  • Community Events and working with other groups
  • Community Development
  • Work experience opportunities
  • Family Supports –
    Education
    Health
    Social Work
    Mediation
    Accommodation
    Information Service providers
  • Health – supporting Meath Primary Healthcare Project
  • Little Angels Childcare Service
  • Involve Youth Project Meath
  • Traveller Prison Links – Wheatfield Place of Detention
  • Carnaross Kells Co. Meath