Director of One Family, Karen Kiernan and EBS’s Aidan Power, awarded €1,000 to Edenmore Day Care Nursery, Dublin 5. All of the children who attend the nursery,  their parents and nursery staff took part in the ‘Big Night In’ campaign  run  by One Family and EBS to mark UN International Day of The Family and raise money for askonefamily, One Family’s national helpline. Edenmore Day Care Nursey submitted a photograph from their Messy play Day event and were randomly selected as the winners of the €1,000 prize money. One Family would like to thank everyone who joined with us in celebrating families this year.

Fair City actor, Dave Duffy, speaking at the launch of the Annual Report and Client Graduation.

Click here to see Dave speaking to the graduates of our 2010 courses.

On Monday’s edition of RTE’s Frontline, Karen Kiernan, Director of One Family spoke about the structure of the family, click here to view.

One Family has been working for the past four years with the Department of Social Protection (formerly Social & Family Affairs) to influence how lone parents on social welfare should be engaged with and supported towards attaining sustainable employment.

We conducted the only national survey ever done of people on the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) and we found that 84% are working, seeking work or in education or training. This means that there is a huge willingness on the part of lone parents on social welfare to improve their circumstances and to move into sustainable employment.  For the summary and full report see: 

http://onefamily.ie/wp-content/uploads/Lone-Parents-Employment-Report-Summary12.pdf

http://onefamily.ie/wp-content/uploads/Lone-Parents-Employment-Research-Full-Report2.pdf

One Family will continue to work to influence the legislation as we still believe that these measures should not be mandatory and that has always been our position. It would be very helpful to our future work if you could share your concerns and ideas with us about what supports you think the government should put in place should they proceed with these changes. Please contact us on 01 6629212 or email info@onefamily.ie

You may have heard in the media of the plans to change the One Parent Family Payment and this has prompted lots of calls to our helpline Askonefamily* as parents are concerned and confused about what these changes will mean for them and their children. To find out more about what the changes will mean for you, click here.

For recent media on the topic see below:

One Family Director Karen Kiernan on The Last Word with Mike Soden, Today FM 31 May http://www.todayfm.com/Shows/Weekdays/Matt-Cooper/listen.aspx and go to The Last Word 5pm hour Monday: 31/5/2010 , click on the second item on that day’s show

Sunday Times 31 May http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article7140295.ece

Irish Independent 31 May http://www.independent.ie/national-news/fury-at-heartless-o-cuivs-plan-to-cut-loneparent-payments-2200541.html

Irish Independent 31 May http://www.independent.ie/national-news/fianna-fail-under-pressure-anger-over-cuts-to-welfare-2201180.html

Seminal research by One Family which calls for a network of child contact centres in Ireland was launched this week by Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Barry Andrews, TD, and the media response - including the front page of The Irish Examiner,  three pieces in The Irish Times and other print coverage, along with a feature on RTE Radio 1’s Drivetime, interviews on TodayFM, Newstalk and FM104 – as well as many regional stations - proves just how important this research is. Candy Murphy, One Family Policy Manager and author of the report explains, ‘Child contact centres provide a safe, neutral and welcoming environment where regular contact between parents and children that do not live together can be supported and developed in a range of situations.’ For media coverage and information:

Read more »

Ireland AM’s Aiden Cooney had an interesting chat with lone parent Rachel Sullivan and One Family Director Karen Kiernan about parenting alone and sharing parenting in Ireland…you can view it here

RTE Radio’s Tubridy Show heard from some fathers who parent alone about how they manage parenting – and the dating game – One Family client John McCann told his story. Listen here to join the debate….

On 27 January The Tubridy Show on RTE Radio One heard from some mothers who parent alone about the trials and tribulations of the dating game, One Family client Deborah told her story and got such a great reaction that they plan to do a show on dating for dads soon – to listen to the show click here…

One Family is now on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. Our website is becoming more interactive, you may now register and participate in online discussion here, commenting on anything we publish from now on.

The site now has an RSS feed for those who have newsreaders. Please become a fan on Facebook and let your friends know how you feel about Our Family. Or simply follow us on Twitter, username 1familyireland, so you are always kept informed as to what we are doing.

Later in the year, we are planning to give our website a facelift.

As part of this transition, our Privacy Policy has changed – this website now uses “cookie” technology, in order to enable us to obtain accurate and informative visitor statistics, and to enable members of One Family to be recognized and to log on.