Gypsy and Traveller Community-Led Research
Gypsy and Traveller communities are frequently researched but rarely control the questions, funding, interpretation or final report.
Proud Gypsy Traveller CIC conducts research with communities, not on them.
We combine trusted community relationships, lived experience and professional research skills to produce evidence that is credible, culturally informed and capable of creating change.
Research should not extract and disappear
Our communities have repeatedly shared difficult experiences with researchers and institutions, often without seeing what was written, what changed or who benefited.
A focus group added after the research has been designed is not co-production. Recruiting community members to support a conclusion that has already been reached is not community leadership.
Trust is not a free resource. It has been built over generations within our communities and damaged repeatedly by institutions. We treat it accordingly.
Ethnicity changes the question
Research about Gypsy and Traveller people is often framed through nomadism, caravans, homelessness or mobility. Those issues matter, but they do not explain the whole picture.
Romani Gypsies, Irish Travellers and Scottish Gypsy Travellers are ethnic communities. A family does not stop carrying the effects of racism, exclusion or intergenerational experience because they live in a house, have a permanent address or are not currently travelling.
That matters when we research health, education, housing, social care, policing, employment or public services. If the question starts with “how does travelling affect this?”, we may never ask what racism, mistrust, cultural erasure, low expectations or generations of unequal treatment are doing.
The lens matters. If ethnicity is missing from the question, it can be missing from the answer too.
What real community leadership looks like
Community leadership begins before the first question is written.
Shape the questions
Community members should help identify priorities, challenge assumptions and decide what is worth asking.
Share interpretation
People closest to the issue should help interpret what the evidence means, not only provide the raw material.
Resource involvement
Community researchers and people contributing substantial time or expertise should be properly supported and, where appropriate, paid fairly.
Return and act
People should know what was found, how it will be used and what action the commissioner intends to take.
How we research
Written surveys and formal interviews do not work for everybody. PGT uses methods that fit the people and the question—not simply what is easiest for the commissioner.
Our work may include one-to-one conversations, listening sessions, focus groups, community events, oral histories, peer research, case studies, documentary and policy analysis, qualitative coding and thematic analysis.
We recognise oral communication, trusted relationships, family structures, different levels of literacy and digital access, and the importance of cultural safety when people are being asked to discuss difficult experiences.
Ethics, ownership and payment
Before work begins, we expect clarity about consent, confidentiality, safeguarding, data protection, withdrawal, publication and who will have access to the evidence.
We also ask harder questions: Who controls the research? Who owns the material? Who is named as an author or contributor? Who receives the funding, professional credit and opportunities that follow?
Community members should not carry the emotional burden of sharing painful experiences while institutions keep all of the funding, authorship and professional benefit.
PGT’s own research, facilitation, recruitment, analysis, reporting and project delivery are commissioned professional work. Budgets should also include fair payment or appropriate recognition for community researchers and others contributing significant expertise.
Partnership can be powerful
Community-led does not mean community-only.
PGT works with universities, health services, local authorities, charities, funders and other research organisations. External academic and professional expertise can strengthen a project, just as community knowledge can reveal what formal systems have missed.
The issue is not whether outsiders are involved. It is whether power, resource, interpretation and credit are shared honestly.
Commission research with PGT
Bring us in while the questions, methods, budget and outputs can still be shaped.
We can lead or support research design, community engagement, interviews and facilitated discussions, peer-research approaches, qualitative analysis, reports, policy briefings, recommendations, presentations and evidence submissions.
If a project has already been fully designed and you only need somebody to recruit Gypsy and Traveller participants or provide community approval, that is not community-led research.
If you are prepared to share control, resource involvement properly and act on what the evidence reveals, we want to hear from you.