Community Spotlight: Shining a light on Friends, Families and Travellers
Lessons from Gypsy and Traveller Engagement – Invisible in Emergency Planning
By Abubaker Adam, Partnership Lead at VCS Emergencies Partnership
When I arrived in Brighton, the sharp coastal wind was a reminder of how exposed Sussex can be. At the Friends, Families and Travellers HQ, Sarah Mann, CEO, welcomed me into a warm, bustling VCS community space filled with the kind of civil society groups that quietly keep communities standing strong. She spoke candidly about the Gypsy and Traveller families living between Brighton and rural Sussex, describing the challenges they face every day - surface flooding risk, scarce and poor-quality accommodation, and isolation that make life unpredictable.
As we talked, a familiar pattern emerged. Gypsy and Traveller communities, here and across the country, continue to feel the weight of discrimination - unequal treatment in public services, tense policing relationships, and a deep mistrust in statutory bodies. Without secure stopping places, many remain invisible in emergency planning, despite being among the most vulnerable during crises.
I was also told about a historical incident involving families on a local authority Traveller site. The memory recalled the 2015 Shoreham Airshow disaster, where a Hawker Hunter T7 crashed during an aerobatic loop, tragically killing 11 people and injuring many others. Most victims were motorists travelling on the A27, caught in a sudden fireball. What wasn’t noticed, was that the crash happened immediately adjacent to a local authority Traveller site. Debris fell on the families’ homes and access to the site was closed, but nobody responding to the crash visited the site or checked in with the families. For Traveller families, the idea that their experiences might have gone unrecorded feels entirely plausible.
Driving deeper into East Sussex, the scenery shifted to long rural roads, and coastal landscape here, storms, flooding, and power cuts hit harder, especially for people on Traveller sites or on the roadside. This is why the funded pilot project between Sussex Resilience Forum and Friends, Families and Travellers is so important: together, they are working to reshape emergency planning, so it finally includes those disproportionally impacted. The work will start, as it must, by ensuring that resilience planning processes are inclusive of Gypsies and Travellers, ensuring lived experience informs local resilience work, and stronger coordination between local authorities, voluntary and community sector partners and local communities. This is the foundation of trust-building, which is an essential prerequisite for developing culturally relevant communication tailored to Traveller communities, improved communication and alert messages that reach residents in remote or transient locations
By the end of the visit, it felt like the Local Resilience Forum and Friends, Families and Travellers partnership had that the potential to make real change. A shared aim to make resilience planning in Sussex more human, more inclusive, and more reflective of the lives of Gypsy and Traveller families who are living in our communities.
If you would like to find out more or explore opportunities to engage with Gypsy and Traveller communities, please get in touch with:
Friends, Families and Travellers, Community Base, 113 Queens Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 3XG
Tel: 01273 234 777
Email: Sarah Mann, Chief Executive: fft@gypsy-traveller.org