At the launch of their 2009 Annual Report Karen Kiernan, One Family Director reported that the national askonefamily helpline recorded a 24% increase in calls in 2009 as a direct result of the recession. Click here for more

Money raised from Big Night In will go towards the running of the askonefamily helpline

To mark UN International Day of the Family on 15 May 2010, One Family and EBS Building Society are inviting everyone in the country to celebrate families by hosting a Big Night In. Big Night In is a new fundraising event in aid of the askonefamily national helpline, which supports people who are parenting alone or sharing parenting.

Speaking about Big Night In, Aidan Power, Head of Marketing at EBS Building Society, said: “This year, EBS is celebrating 75 years serving Irish people and their families. Family is and has always been at the heart of EBS throughout those years. In recognition of the ‘EBS family’ which now has over 450,000 members, we decided to partner with One Family to celebrate International Day of the Family on 15 May. We are calling on you to spend some fun quality time with your family whilst at the same time raising money for the askonefamily helpline which supports people who are parenting alone or sharing parenting.” Power continues, ”EBS offices all over the country are promoting Big Night In and asking people to register on www.bignightin.ie. People are holding all types of events – from games nights to karaoke nights to storytelling evenings – the list is endless. I hope families across Ireland will take part in this great excuse to have fun at home on 15 May.”

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One Family welcomes the new Minister for Social Protection Minister Éamon Ó Cuív T.D’s efforts to improve the economic situation and social wellbeing of people in one-parent families. However they remain gravely concerned as to the whether the reforms of the One-Parent Family Payment as recently announced will result in improved outcomes for lone parents and their children.

Candy Murphy, One Family Policy & Research Manager said “Given current and projected very high levels of unemployment which are putting extreme pressure on our education and training systems coupled with the serious inadequacies in our childcare system, especially after-school care, we believe that the proposed changes will mostly result in the movement of lone parents from one welfare support to another.”

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Ground breaking research by One Family, the leading service provider for people parenting alone and sharing parenting, launched 12 April 2010 at Dublin Castle by Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Barry Andrews, TD, has called for a network of child contact centres throughout Ireland. The research entitled Supporting Child Contact: the Need for Child Contact Centres in Ireland was researched and written by Candy Murphy, Policy & Research Manager with One Family.

Candy Murphy explained, ‘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.’ 

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Candy Murphy, Policy & Research Manager of One Family said: ‘while we continue to welcome the development  of effective supports for lone parents aimed at reducing the unacceptably high rates of poverty and social exclusion in one-parent families, we would like reforms to be grounded in good policy and evidence. We remain very  concerned at any proposal to introduce mandatory work requirements for lone parents particularly in the current economic climate and in the continuing absence of adequate child care and other supports.

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One Family , the leading provider of specialist support services for one-parent families in Ireland today expresses its concern that lone parents on welfare will face further cuts in their income as a result of Budget 2010. One-parent families are already experiencing four times the level of poverty found in the general population and the measures introduced today along with those introduced in the last two budgets will , in One Family’s view , increase this inequality.

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Italian business community rallies to support…