Meath Travellers Workshops Ltd was originally called Navan Travellers Workshops Ltd. It was established in 1965. The organisation was set up as a result of the Commission on Itinerancy Report of 1963.
The main motivation for the setting up of Navan Travellers Committee (St Jude’s) as it was known at that time, was the deplorable living conditions that the Travelling People were forced to live in. The people involved with the organisation at that time worked hard to elevate the harsh deplorable conditions that Travellers lived in and the issues that arose from these conditions such as Health, Education and Life Expectancy. The main thrust of the work of the Committee at this stage was focusing on trying to meet the basic needs of the Travellers in the area.
In the late seventies the Committee’s philosophy changed from that of meeting the basic needs to one of Community Development. They employed a Community Worker to work along side the Travellers to help them to identify their own needs and to formulate strategies to meet the needs of the Travelling Community in general.
The focus now is mainly on educating and facilitating Travellers to get more involved and participate in their own self-determination. The organisation has developed and expanded over the years to its present form and shape.
Our Motto is:
“We recognise that meaningful change for Travellers can only take place when we have both the skills and confidence to organise ourselves and articulate our own needs and this organisation can best achieve this by supporting the appropriate inclusion of Travellers with area based programmes of local, social and economic development.”
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