Karen Kiernan, Director, One Family, Dr. Maureen Gaffney, Chair, National Economic and Social Forum and John O’Reilly, Board, Gingerbread Ireland.

Speaking at the event to celebrate the merger today at Dublin Castle the Chair of the National Economic and Social Forum, Dr. Maureen Gaffney, said ‘At a time when economic difficulties are causing such strain for Not For Profit organisations supporting those in our society who are most excluded it is heartening to see two respected organisations that work with the growing number of one-parent families in Ireland pool their resources in order to meet these needs more effectively. This strategic merger will enhance One Family’s ability to access support as they can now offer a more effective and expanded service for those facing increasing challenges parenting alone or in shared parenting situations.’

John O’Reilly, Board member and PRO of Gingerbread Ireland said ‘After widespread consultation Gingerbread made the decision that we needed to merge with another organisation, pool our resources and thus improve services for one-parent families. We are delighted to have found such a good fit and we are happy to hand over the operation of Gingerbread Ireland to such a recognised and successful organisation as One Family. We look forward to
further innovation and creativity in the next phase of our work in supporting families in Ireland.’

Karen Kiernan, Director, One Family, said ‘on this important day we are also delighted to be launching our Annual Report for 2008 and congratulating 80 graduates of our One Family Parenting and One Family Futures training courses’.

Editors note:
Gingerbread Ireland was established in 1978.
One Family was established as Cherish in 1972 and re-branded to One Family in 2004. See www.onefamily.ie for further information.
Facts about one-parent families:

• In Ireland 1 in 8 people live in a one-parent family (Census 2006)
• 1 in 6 families are a one-parent family (Census 2006).
• 1 in 5 children live in a one-parent family (Census 2006).
• 18% of all families or 190,000 families in Ireland today are one-parent families.
• One-parent families are at greater risk of poverty than most other families. You are 4 times more likely to live in poverty if you live in a one-parent
  Family (EU-SILC 2006).

One Family services include:

– One Family Parenting: Building Strong Families
– One Family Futures: Progressing parents to Education, Training or Employment
– One Family Supports: Sharing through Difficult Times
– askonefamily* : Providing information to One-Parent Families
– One Family Training & Consultancy: Spreading the Learning
– One Family Policy: Working for Fundamental Change
– One Family can*: Membership that Makes a Real Difference
– We can be contacted on 1890-66-22-12 or www.onefamily.ie

Advertising campaign will be repeated.

Our national radio and print advertising campaign in conjunction with McConnells Advertising got a great response.  Both the radio and print advertisements recognised that one-parent families can be headed up by either mum or dad and alternating voice and print advertisements reflected this More