Savvy Chavvy - a social network for young Gypsies and Travellers

Summary
In 2008 On Road Media is trained 50 young Gypsies and Travellers in social media skills in Kent, Cambridgshire and Surrey. It's a Mediabox funded project led by Unltd the foundation for Social Entrepreneurs in partnership with Media for Development. Read about how we set the project up here.

What we did
On Road Media set them up with their own social network - www.savvychavvy.com and taught them how to podcast and produce video blogs. The idea is that they can report on what's going on in their own communities and keep in touch with other Travellers who have largely stopped Travelling.

Why it's important
www.savvychavvy.com has over 4000 young people on it which demonstrates the need for dedicated spaces like this on the web for marginalised groups. Spaces like these do not alienate the group concerned from the rest of society - they allow the young Gypsies in this case to communicate freely amongst each other in a safe place away from the discrimination and prejudice that many of them face daily.

Gordon Brown presented us with the Catalyst communities award for www.savvychavvy.com - it's an exciting project we've worked on for Media for Development & Unltd, funded by Mediabox.

Article on Savvy Chavvy in the Guardian
Click here to read the article