Savvy Chavvy: social entrepreneurs engage gypsies

Gordon Brown made a surprise appearance at a new showcase for social entrepreneurs in London this morning.

Social networks will appeal to the next generation of travellers

Called the UK Catalyst Awards, they’re designed to promote people who are using modern communications technology to deliver social services and enable different communities to help themselves.

Now these events can be painfully worthy but this lot are dynamic and worth a look (and the venue is pretty special too).

The winner of the community award was Savvy Chavvy, an online network for young gypsies that was set up in February and already has more than 1,000 members (’Chavvy’ being the old Romany word for ‘youth’.)

Apparently even travellers have the internet these days and the idea behind the site is to enable young people to share their culture and feel less isolated.

The site is registration only because some abusive profiles have recently been set up. But despite this Savvy Chavvy and Brown’s public support for it makes for a refreshing contrast to what is going in Italy.