'Trust' QPR To Deliver For Travellers

From Queen's Park Rangers Official Website

Representatives from professional Football Clubs, County Football Associations (CFAs), and local community and educational groups descended on Loftus Road for Kick It Out's 'Working with Travellers' conference earlier this week.

Hosted by QPR in the Community Trust, the event gave attendees an insight into how they can engage with their local Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community more effectively through a series of presentations, interactive workshops and practical coaching sessions.

Having launched 'Moving The Goalposts', a groundbreaking initiative set-up in partnership with the Football Foundation and Ealing's Gypsy Roma and Travellers Achievement Service (GRTAS), back in 2006, QPR have been able to give people within their local GRT community the opportunity to gain coaching and refereeing qualifications.

Kicking off with a number of keynote speeches, Gareth Dixon, QPR Community Trust's Inclusion and Diversity Officer, welcomed attendees to the Club. "At QPR, we like to think we're quite innovative with what we do. This subject matter needs tackling and the GRT community needs to be supported. We ran a consultation last year and the numbers have risen dramatically."

The GRT community is heavily under represented in the professional game. Tottenham Hotspur and Holland midfielder Rafael van der Vaart, and Southend United striker Freddy Eastwood, on loan from Coventry City, are the only two players currently plying their trade in the Premier League and Football League with Traveller roots.

With this in mind, Lord Herman Ouseley, Kick It Out chair, praised the Club for their proactive approach to working with the GRT community.

"This project is unique," he said. "The Club is getting engagement from the GRT community and by giving them the chance to interact with others, they are building relationships which allow people to develop a better understanding of their background.

"Football allows you to raise awareness, to challenge hatred and to highlight different opportunities. We have to keep engaging with minority and marginalised communities. We recognise that there a whole range of groups at the bottom of the pile, and as organisation, we've evolved for this reason. We need to open up the door so that people can be heard."

Jake Bowers, former editor of the Travellers' Times newspaper, acted as compere throughout the day and encouraged fellow professional clubs - with staff from Everton, Norwich City, Crystal Palace and Wycombe Wanderers all in attendance - to follow in QPR's footsteps: "This project is a real inspiration. If you are thinking about working with the GRT community, don't hesitate - just do it.

"We face enormous challenges as a community. If there was an Olympics in terms of statistics, we'd have a gold medal. We have the worst educational attendance and achievement of any group, worst health, lowest life expectancy, and the highest child mortality rate. Yet, Gypsies have never been more at the forefront of people's minds. It is down to individuals and organisations to come together to provide these types of opportunities, and to bring an end to discrimination."

Making a special appearance at the event, Arthur Ivatts OBE, a former HM inspector for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller education in the UK, and the government's representative on the Council of Europe's Roma education working group, pointed out that the issue is much more widespread: "There is conflict all over Europe of people discriminating against the GRT community.

"We need to further invest in Kick It Out, and similar campaigns. They are doing great work around creating equal opportunities for the GRT community, and we need to provide extra funds, grants and scholarships. This conference is making its own contribution, and I will have lasting memories of it.

"I am grateful to have had the opportunity to have come here to meet people and make new links."

During the afternoon, Ealing's GRTAS, a service providing advice and support for schools and other agencies concerned with the inclusion of the GRT community, ran an educational workshop, and Jason McCarthy, a Traveller who lives in Southall, ran a practical coaching session.

The 23 year-old, who acquired his FA level 2 coaching badge through the 'Moving The Goalposts' project and now manages his own team, spoke about the barriers he has encountered during his time playing football. "I hope eventually it's not even about being a Traveller, that it's just not a big deal. When I was a kid going to play football, I'd always get excuses from teams saying they were full, that they had enough players.

"When you hear that, it feels very disappointing, it feels like you're being left out of stuff. I reckon it could have been they were worried that as a Traveller, I might get into fights or cause trouble, cause problems for the team. With the team I manage now, we have players from all different backgrounds and we are one."

Dixon, who leads the Moving The Goalposts project, concluded: "At QPR, we like to think we're quite innovative with what we do.

"We're not scared of working with anybody, we pride ourselves on our inclusion work."