Case studies : Community development worker: Lisa

Lisa completed a social work degree as a mature student, having already gained experience in community work settings. She is a community development worker who specialises in working with the traveller community in her local area.

Lisa currently works for the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Achievement Service within a local authority. The service is particularly focused on supporting young people within the traveller community in accessing full-time education but also supports wider community activities. Lisa grew up in the traveller community herself, and a major motivation for her to do this type of work was getting the opportunity to support and empower the community she grew up in.

A particular focus of her role is engaging young people from the travelling community in positive activities. Lisa supports members of the community in a variety of ways. She encourages community members to access services, particularly education and training, which can aid them in gaining employment, learning new skills and gaining confidence.

Lisa goes out to the community on-site and has established women's and children's groups focusing on their concerns as well as arranging on-site meetings and activities.

Lisa's role also involves acting as an advocate between the traveller community and professionals within education, health services and the police. She keeps community members informed of what support these services provide, while also raising awareness of travellers' issues among professionals who serve them. An example of this would be contributing to in-service training courses on cultural awareness.

Lisa gains a great deal of satisfaction from being able to give something back to her community and finds her day-to-day work immensely rewarding. 'I love my job and am very passionate about it. The travelling community is a very needy, deprived group who can encounter a lot of discrimination. It is very rewarding to see them benefiting from having the confidence to use services and gain training.'

Volunteering, site visits and work shadowing are recommended by Lisa for anyone aspiring to enter community development work. Communities like the one Lisa works with can be intimidating to those with little knowledge or experience, and work shadowing someone who knows community members can be a great way to gain experience and test out whether community development work is a suitable career choice.

The most important thing about this kind of work, says Lisa, is to be prepared to get stuck in and roll your sleeves up in order to get to know families and individuals within the community.