Savvy Chavvy was originally designed as a media training project, under which young gypsies and travellers would learn to become citizen journalists producing podcasts and videos about their communities.The initial objective was to help young people living in marginalised communities find a stronger voice in the world by using social media.The Mediabox fund provided support to a consortium of Unltd, Media for Development, and On Road Media for equipment and two trainers early in 2008.While these organisations succeeded in training 50 young people to produce compelling content, they soon found the project taking on a different direction, and a life of its own.The young people found their voices - but preferred to converse in the safe space of a closed online social network, where they would not be subjected to racist abuse common on the open web. By the end of 2008 the community had grown to more than 2000 users, won an award and praise from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and gained media coverage for their ability to reclaim the term "chav" as their own traditional description of a young gypsy or traveller.During development of the social network, new volunteer facilitators and ambassadors for its work have emerged. With additional training they have set their own rules for access. The network uses a free commercial system, and this combined with the enthusiasm of users and facilitator means that it has a strong chance of sustaining its activity without any substantial outside support.
