Minister for Children & Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald TD launches One Family’s Links event
Minister Frances Fitzgerald launches the Family Communications Manual with Pat Bennett from the Family Support Agency and Karen Kiernan from One Family. Photo by Audrey Walshe
Minister Frances Fitzgerald TD today launched a brand new networking event for people who work in the areas of family and parenting supports for one-parent families.
The Links event, organised by One Family, Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families, was the first of its kind and provided the opportunity for people who work with one-parent families to promote their services and to swap information and experiences.
Speaking at the event, Minister Fitzgerald commented: ‘I am delighted to see the establishment of events such as this one, which encourage the exchange and sharing of expertise in this vital sector.’
Minister Fitzgerald went on to launch two publications for One Family – ‘Family Communications – Coping with Family Life and Communicating with Teenagers’, a comprehensive guide to effective family communication, and One Family’s unique iPad application entitled, ‘Parenting Well’.
Karen Kiernan, One Family Director, explained: ‘We wanted to create a type of services trade fair atmosphere – somewhere where people who support those parenting alone and sharing parenting could compare notes and exchange valuable information.’
As well as a wide range of information stands, taken by community and voluntary sector organisations, the well attended event featured a series of talks and key note speeches from Gordon Jeyes, HSE’s National Director of Children and Family Services and Dr John Sharry, parenting expert.