There and Back Again 

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Tom Tom Hendry

 

Tom Tom is a Gypsy who has worked in equality since 2008. He was born and grew up living on the side of the road and travelling around many parts of the UK. During his time growing up Tom Tom experienced many roadside evictions. He has also lived on sites and his family now reside in Wales on a family site.

 

His understanding of life on the road, on sites, working the traditional jobs such as collecting scrap and tree work to making the transition into bricks and mortar provides a wide scope of lived experiences which Tom Tom is willing to share. All these factors place him in an excellent position to speak about his culture, from the hardships to the richness of diversity.

 

Tom Tom has worked as an Equality Officer in a community development role for Gypsies and Travellers. He has been part of consultations on a number of documents which have been developed in Wales by the Welsh Government such as Travelling to a Better Future, Travelling to a Better Health, Enabling Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, and working as a policy mentor lead in Welsh Government for the development of the Race Equality Action Plan, later renamed the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan. Tom Tom was also the secretariat for the Cross Party Group on Gypsies and Travellers for Julie Morgan MS and later Jenny Rathbone MS. Along with Julie Morgan MS, Tom Tom organised a number of Holocaust Memorial Services at the Senedd. Each year a piece of art was created in collaboration with Gypsies, Roma and Travellers across Wales.

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To date Tom Tom has successfully delivered his training to local authorities, Show Racism the Red Card who he also collaborated with to provide training for further and higher education professionals, Sports Wales, Meithrin, Gwent Police, Cardiff University, University of South Wales, Cardiff Metropolitan University and BASW. The training is well established and effective with positive feedback across the board.

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Rhiannon Jones

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Rhiannon is a settled person and has been working closely with Gypsies and Travellers in Wales since 2006, when employed by Cardiff Traveller Education Service to develop and manage a site based early years setting on Shirenewton. She worked closely with families on site to ensure the provision was meeting their needs and expectations. This setting provided employment for community members and student placements for young people. The provision grew while under her lead with the 20 available places all filled with children aged 2-5 years. During her time in this role Rhiannon attended university and completed a FDA in Learning Support and a BA (Hons) in Educational Studies and Early Childhood Studies. She used her professional role and time working with families to focus as much of her studies on the needs of Gypsies and Travellers as possible. Rhiannon's dissertation was titled ‘The Importance of Early Years Provision and the Impact for Gypsy and Traveller Children’, and she received great support from the families on Shirenewton to complete this and will be forever grateful for their help through the years.

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After 9 years Rhiannon joined Save the Children working for the Travelling Ahead project. This was a young people's project, and provided the opportunity for Rhiannon to work across the whole of Wales and develop her skills and abilities. Her time in this role saw the events flourish and grow, and enabled her to work in partnership with a wide range of professionals, and more importantly young Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, through the organising of national and regional events. She later became the South Wales Engagement Officer supporting families in a wide range of issues including housing, homelessness, planning, education, health, discrimination, and family courts.

 

Rhiannon played an active role in sharing valuable insights on the issues faced by families in Wales with the Welsh Government during the development of the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan and ensured families views were shared honestly and with emotion. Rhiannon is very passionate about standing up for the rights of Gypsies and Travellers and empowering them to speak out and have a voice on the issues that they feel are important.