• Early Years & Youth Work
• Education
• Advice/Advocacy & Support
• Health
• Community Development

This is delivered through six staff: Project Manager, Project Administrator, Community Development Worker, Education Support Worker, Early Years worker and Early Years Support Worker.

Our organisation supports the Traveller community in the Craigavon area, which typically consists of 40 to 50 families (250 people) at any time, about 40% of whom are housed (i.e. Travellers living in Craigavon) and 60% nomadic.

Our Vision

Creation and Promotion of a society that accepts, respects and support the Travellers choice to be nomadic.

Aims and Objectives

The overarching aim of CTSC is to improve the quality of life of Travellers in the Craigavon area by achieving the following:

• Adopting a community development approach which will enable Travellers to articulate their needs and to support them to ensure those needs are met
• Engaging the range of statutory and voluntary bodies in order to ensure provision of appropriate and culturally sensitive services
• Highlighting the problems arising from lack of recognition / acceptance of Travellers as an ethnic group and the consequences of this in terms of experiencing racism at an individual and institutional level
• Building relationships between the Traveller and settled communities
• To assist in alleviating prejudice and misunderstanding

Outcomes of CTSC Work

• Increased educational achievement of Traveller children and young people
• Increased health of Traveller children and young people.
• Increased socio-economic and employment opportunities for Traveller children and young people.
• The promotion of positive community relations between settled and Traveller communities and within the Traveller community.
• Increased integration of Traveller children and young people.
• The creation of an environment and mindset among young Travellers of taking effective steps to eliminate existing health conditions that have resulted in them living shorter lives then their settled community counterparts.
• Better parenting skills among Travellers. Numerous researches into child development all highlight the importance in providing young parents with support to equip them for parenthood.
• Increased mental health of Traveller children and young people, e.g., by addressing bereavement. There are many ways that Traveller children and young people can suffer loss and bereavement. Imprisonment of a parent. Death of a close member of their family (Traveller families have close extended family ties and, as a consequence, a child can suffer the same traumatic effect with the death of an uncle, aunt or cousin for a parent or sibling). A sudden move from a place or area were they may have felt secure and safe, which can be a frequent occurrence as many Travellers will be issued with eviction notices giving them only days to move on. The Breakdown of a parent’s marriage. Craigavon Travellers Support Committee will work with voluntary groups such as Cruse Bereavement counselling services and a local group of spring well family support unit.
• Increased awareness of citizenship amongst Traveller children and young people.
• Increased awareness of criminal justice system and crime prevention amongst Traveller Children and Young People.

Operational Structure