Margaret Ó Riada, Bridget Kelly, Kathleen Sweeny, and Martin Ward work with Galway Traveller Movement: Principles of Community Development Assignment, NUI, Ireland

Margaret Ó Riada, Bridget Kelly, Kathleen Sweeny, and Martin Ward work with Galway Traveller Movement, a community development organization in Galway City and County. Community work is about empowering the community to take a stand for their rights.

We can see many positive changes that have come about since the organization began in the 1990s, but it is a slow process and people need to understand that community work is slow, but the changes achieved are long-lasting.

Key to our community work approach is a commitment to empowerment and participation – working with the Traveller community to analyze and take action in relation to their own issues. Galway Traveller Movement has established a number of Traveller Action Groups in the city and the county to support people in this. For us, autonomy and the independence to be able to respond to the issues that present themselves are critical.

In response to the high suicide rate amongst the Traveller community, for example, Galway Traveller Movement developed a whole community approach to mental health and wellbeing that has resulted in a resilience project.

At the same time, we work with agencies to try to ensure their services are more responsive to the needs of the Traveller community. Like many other Traveller projects, Galway Traveller Movement runs a Primary Health Programme, a peer-led program for Travellers in the city and the county.

What works here is the community work approach, using the social determinants of health as a framework and addressing health and well-being issues in a holistic way.