As part of STAG’s work to raise awareness that people will now need accepted forms of photo ID to vote in elections, with the support of funding received form the Greater London Authority (the GLA), we’ve been working with our communities to involve them in designing the best ways to get the message across to Gypsies, Roma and Traveller Londoners.
In September we held a focus group to ask how we could campaign better to make sure that our communities knew that this information was meant for them. Seven of the Gypsies, Roma and Travellers we work with spent a couple of hours telling us how they thought we could use images, wording and different ways of communicating to raise awareness. And 11 members of our Youth Group designed posters to show how they would like to see the messages about the new accepted forms of photo ID. We’d like to thank them all for helping us raise awareness of the new requirements for voting amongst GRT communities.
The take home messages were that our clients wanted to see more pictures relating to Gypsies, Roma and Travellers on the campaign materials. Things such as caravans, Traveller sites, horses and wagons were all mentioned. They wanted few words in clear and simple English. But, reflecting the diversity of our communities, they thought we should use as many different ways of getting the message out as possible, from videos on social media to face-to-face meetings, stalls at events and WhatsApp. Over the next few weeks we’ll be working to produce pictures, posters and videos based on what we’ve been told.
You can register to vote online and apply for a Voter Authority Certificate (for those who don’t have an accepted form of photo ID).
Please get in touch if you are interested in this work by emailing manager@southwarktravellersaction.org.uk or ringing 020 7358 6818 (please leave a message if no one answers). STAG can help with voter registration or accepted forms of photo ID, if you have difficulty getting online.
