There and Back Again 

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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.