York Travellers Trust

York Travellers Trust was established as an independent UK charity in 1999, having operated under the auspices of York Council for Voluntary Service before then. We work primarily with York's historic Gypsy & Traveller community (GTC) which we estimate to comprise some 350 families with a total population well exceeding 1,000. As a project comprising both Gypsy & Travellers and settled residents of York we promote dialogue and community cohesion and are working for a re-evaluation of how the city of York views its oldest and probably most disadvantaged ethnic minority community. Our aims are to: * advance education and promote health, social and economic well-being for Gypsies and Travellers; * challenge prejudice, discrimination, harassment, and social exclusion of the Gypsy & Traveller community and dispel negative images of the GTC culture; * promote diversity and create more harmonious relationships between the GTC and the settled community; * encourage a collaborative multi-agency approach to enable the GTC to access relevant services; * empower the GTC to challenge unacceptable and inadequate service provision, and support York's GTC to engage with local, regional, national and European forums advocating for minority rights and social justice. We run a range of services from our project centre including: * health and well-being programmes, acknowledging the high incidence of physical and mental health problems experienced by York's GTC. * training on literacy, parenting, healthy eating, mindfulness and employability; * developing GTC advocates to offer representation to service providers; * developing a 'tool-kit' for partner agencies on how to work with the GTC; * the collection and analysis of data from our front-line casework and peer advocacy to help influence the policies and practices of our partner agencies. YTT is an outward looking agency which aims to work in partnership with other York based agencies and also with regional and national organisations promoting human rights and equalities. We are engaged with York Human Rights City network, regularly take part in the local Holocaust Memorial Day events; and our Director currently chairs a new national initiative working on the development of negotiated stopping places for Gypsies & Travellers across the UK.