Family Day Fest sign

All Families Celebrated at Family Day Festival 2014

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One Family’s fourth Family Day Festival took place yesterday and was enjoyed by thousands of happy people, children and adults alike, in Dublin’s beautiful Iveagh Gardens – despite the rain.

The annual free Festival is the highlight of One Family’s ongoing campaign for a nationally celebrated Family Day, similar to Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, but which would include all children irrespective of their family make-up. We have been celebrating Family Day for a decade. The Festival, which takes place every year on the Sunday following UN International Day of Families on 15 May, presented a fun, jam-packed programme of workshops from acting to yoga, and butter making to boxing with Olympian Michael Carruth; main stage entertainment with MC Aidan Bishop including magician Brian Daly, Musicantia Roma Children’s Choir, the Nepalese Cultural Group (NCG) and singer Sinéad White; pop-up play opportunities and traditional sports and games; and many of Ireland’s leading cultural organisations for children with fun activities such as puppet shows, arts and crafts, storytelling and more.

The Family Day Festival is a fantastic day out but as the Irish Times noted this week, it also ‘carries a subtle message‘. This message is that all families should be cherished. We know that it is the quality of relationships in the home, not family make-up, that is most important for children’s well-being and Family Day celebrates all the different types of families that make up today’s Irish society. One Family, GLEN, Marriage Equality, Treoir, BeLong To, New Communities Partnership, ISPCC and Children’s Rights Alliance were among the organisations working with and for families who were on hand in the Information Village to have fun and engage with families about their services.

A favourite of this year’s event was the new One Family Talking Tent which presented parenting talks by One Family, Marriage Equality, GLEN and BeLonG To. The Talking Tent line-up also featured powerful spoken word performances from Colm Keegan and John Cummins, and comic verse for children with Paul Tubb. We were delighted to host the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Oisín Quinn. Minister John Hayes TD and Senator Averil Power also attended and joined in the fun.

Ireland’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of UN International Year of the Family 2014 was a great success.

View the Family Day Festival 2014 photo album for lots of fun photos!

If you were there, please take a short anonymous survey by clicking here to help us make next year’s Family Day Festival even better.

Thank you to all the performers and entertainers who created magical memories for so many families throughout the day. Thank you to the participating organisations, to the production staff, and to all of the incredible Family Day Festival volunteers.

The Family Day Festival is kindly supported by the Community Foundation for Ireland, Dublin City Council (DCC) and Today FM. The Iveagh Gardens is provided courtesy of the Office of Public Works (OPW). One Family is grateful to all.

If your organisation would like to get involved in 2015, we’d love to hear from you. Email familyday@onefamily.ie or call us on 01 662 9212 to find out more.

 

Family Day Festival Takes Place on 18 May

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Press Release

Family Day Festival celebrates family diversity of today’s Ireland on 18 May

Sunday, 18 May 2014 | www.familyday.ie

(Dublin, 18 April 2014) One Family – Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families in Ireland – celebrates the diversity of families in today’s Irish society with the free one-day Family Day Festival in Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens on Sunday, 18 May 2014 from 11am to 5pm.

This is the fourth year of the annual celebration, which attracted almost 10,000 attendees in 2013, and also the 20th anniversary of UN International Year of the Family which encourages a refocus on the role of families and on family policy development, offering the opportunity to share good practices in family policy making and to review challenges faced by families worldwide and recommend solutions. UN International Day of Families, the inspiration for One Family’s founding of the Family Day Festival, takes place on 15 May annually.

Everyone is invited to celebrate their family and all families on Sunday 18 May in acknowledgment of the wonderful diversity and reality of families in today’s Ireland. Families are not all the same and Mother’s Day and Father’s Day exclude many. The Family Day Festival embraces the UN definition of family which refers to two or more people, bound together by mutual consent, birth and/or adoption or placement who together care for each other. It celebrate all types of family – one-parent families, step families, the traditional married family, adoptive and foster families, blended and extended families, those with opposite and same sex parents.

The Festival offers free entertainment and fun for every age. Adults and children can enjoy arts and crafts, performance and storytelling workshops from organisations such as the National Print Museum, The Ark, Imaginosity, Fighting Words and the Gaiety School of Acting; create their own masterpieces to take home; and participate in traditional sports and games.

They will be entertained by performers including MC Brian Daly, magician extraordinaire who can tickle the funny bones of every age, and musicians, dancers and performers. They can avail of the opportunity to engage with organisations providing services for families from advice to family-friendly holidays, and chat with those working towards equality for all families in Ireland. Tasty food from around the world will be on sale or families can bring their own picnics. The Family Day Festival aims to provide a brilliant, packed day out with a great variety of fun activities accessible to all without the need to spend any money.

Karen Kiernan, Director of One Family, commented: “Although our Constitution still does not acknowledge the reality of the diversity of families and this must change, this is a landmark time with the new Children and Family Relationships Bill intending to provide legal clarity on parental rights in diverse family forms, and Better Outcomes: Brighter Futures, the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People 2014-2020 published this week. The Family Day Festival creates a chance to celebrate all families while having a lot of fun. Everyone around the country can enjoy it with their family members and friends and wish everyone a Happy Family Day!” 

Those who cannot attend the festivities in the Iveagh Gardens are encouraged to host their own Family Day event which can be included on the Family Day site by emailing details to familyday@onefamily.ie.

The Family Day Festival is supported by the Community Foundation of Ireland, the Office of Public Works and Dublin City Council.

Further information is available on www.familyday.ie where the full programme of events will soon be available.

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About One Family

One Family was founded in 1972 as Cherish and is Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families, providing services to people parenting alone, sharing parenting and going through family transitions. Its policy work is rooted in its extensive family support work over the past four decades. Children are at the centre of this work and the organisation helps all the adults in their lives, including mums, dads, grandparents, step-parents, new partners and other siblings, offering a holistic model of specialist family support services. These services include the lo-call askonefamily national helpline on 1890 622 212, counselling, and provision of training courses for parents and for professionals. For further information, visit www.onefamily.ie.

Listings

Family Day Festival | A celebration of the diversity of the family with free entertainment, games, workshops and fun for all ages | Sunday, 18 May 2014 | Iveagh Gardens, Dublin 2 | 11am – 5 pm | Free | 01 662 9212 | www.familyday.ie

For Images or Further Information

Shirley Chance, Director of Communications, One Family | t: 01 662 9212 or 087 414 8511 | e: schance@onefamily.ie

 

Family Day Event Survey

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If you attended Family Day 2013 celebrations in the Iveagh Gardens, Dublin 2 on Sunday 19 May, we would really appreciate if you could take a few minutes to complete our survey. It is completely anonymous and we will use your feedback in planning for Family Day 2014. We value your opinions and want to make next year’s event even better.

The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.

Click here to take the Family Day survey.

Thank you.

One Family and EBS announce Family Day celebrations and national art competition

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Press Release

ONE FAMILY AND EBS ANNOUNCE

FAMILY DAY CELEBRATIONS

AND NATIONAL ART COMPETITION

 

Family Day | Sunday, 19 May 2013 | www.familyday.ie 

Celebrate families, celebrate your family.

(Dublin, 18 April 2013) One Family, Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families and EBS celebrate the diversity of families in Ireland with Family Day 2013. This free, family-friendly day out takes place in Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens on Sunday, 19 May from 11am to 5pm. Family Day celebrations also include a national art competition for young people.

Family Day was launched today by Anton Savage of Today FM. All family types are invited to enjoy Family Day including one-parent families, step families, the traditional two-parent married family, adoptive and foster families, blended and extended families, and those with opposite and same sex parents. UN International Day of Families is held on 15 May annually and inspires the Family Day celebration. This is the third year for events to take place in the Iveagh Gardens and it is growing every year, attracting over 5,000 visitors in 2012.

Family Day offers entertainment and fun for all ages. All activities are free. New events specially designed for Family Day in 2013 include a pop-up participatory installation by artist Michelle Browne in partnership with IMMA, which invites families to compete in a buggy assault course.  Michelle is currently in residence at IMMA’s studios and this Family Day event comes from an ongoing research project with mothers who have young children, exploring how they experience and negotiate Dublin city with their buggies.

MC Al Kazam, magician extraordinaire, will enthrall all ages while overseeing the smooth running of the music and dance performances on the stage, and arts workshops from organisations including Fighting Words, Imaginosity and The Ark will intrigue young children and teenagers. The FAI’s goal scoring challenge and a traditional sports arena will keep everyone on their toes and when it’s time to take a well-earned rest, Family Day-goers can enjoy their own picnic or visit the food village on site where tasty treats can be purchased.

This is the fourth year that EBS has partnered with One Family to acknowledge International Day of the Family.  Barry Delaney, Head of EBS Marketing, said: “EBS has worked closely with One Family over the past four years to build and develop a flagship event which celebrates families in Ireland. We are delighted that it continues to get bigger and better every year and that more and more families get to come and celebrate together on this day. The focus on families is in keeping with our positioning as an organisation that is helping all kinds of families get on in life. This is a great partnership for EBS and we are delighted to play a part in its continued success.”

Karen Kiernan, Director of One Family, commented: “One Family has been promoting International Day of the Family in Ireland for the past decade and building on Family Day for the past three years. Mothers’ Day is for mums and Fathers’ Day is for dads but not every child can celebrate those days. Family Day is for everyone to celebrate all types of families. We invite every family, workplace and school in Ireland to celebrate Family Day.”

Those who cannot attend events in the Iveagh Gardens are encouraged to host their own Family Day event which can be included on the Family Day site by emailing details to familyday@onefamily.ie.

The Family Day art competition is open for entries until 31 May 2013 to young people up to the age of 18 with a prize of €500.  Entries can be submitted at local EBS offices nationwide or emailed to familyday@onefamily.ie. Last year over 1,200 entered the art competition with their wonderful family portraits. This year’s theme is ‘My family is …’ Full details are on www.familyday.ie.

Family Day is presented by One Family and EBS, with the support of Today FM, OPW and Dublin City Council.

Further information about Family Day is available on www.familyday.ie.

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About One Family

One Family was founded in 1972 and is Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families.  It offers support, information and services to all members of all one-parent families, to those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and to those working with one-parent families. Children are at the centre of One Family’s work and the organisation helps all the adults in their lives, including mums, dads, grandparents, step-parents, new partners and other siblings, offering a holistic model of specialist family support services. These services include the lo-call askonefamily national helpline on 1890 622 212, counselling, and training courses for parents and for professionals. www.onefamily.ie.

Listings

Family Day | A celebration of the diversity of the family with entertainment and activities for all ages | Sunday, 19 May 2013 | Iveagh Gardens, Dublin 2 | 11am – 5 pm | Free | 01 662 9212 | www.familyday.ie

Press

Pics released today by Photocall Ireland.

For further information or images, please contact:

Shirley Chance for One Family | t: 01 662 9212 / 087 414 8511 | e: schance@onefamily.ie

Claire McGovern, Q4PR for EBS | t:  086 379 7291

 

 

Volunteers wanted for Family Day!

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One Family is looking for volunteers to help plan our Family Day which takes place on Sunday 13th May in the Iveagh gardens from 11-5pm. Family Day is a national celebration of the diversity of families and family life in Ireland. ‘Mothers’ Day is for mums and ‘Fathers’ Day is for dads but Family Day is for everyone to celebrate all types of families. We are looking for enthusiastic and friendly people to fill four roles. Programme assistant – helping sell advertising space for our programme; Raffle assistant – helping find prizes for our raffle; Stage assistant – helping to organise great entertainment on the day; Arts and Crafts assistant – someone to oversee the arts and crafts area.These volunteer roles would be ongoing until May 13t but could be mostly done in your spare time. Please contact noconnor@onefamily.ie if you can help us!