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Minister for Children & Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald TD launches One Family’s Links event

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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.

 

 

Family Day a huge success – thanks to everyone who took part

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Today is UN International Day of the Family, an annual celebration of the diversity of families and family life across the    world. To mark the day One Family and EBS Building Society came together to celebrate Irish families and family diversity by hosting The Family Day picnic in Iveagh Gardens, a free event with entertainment for all the family. Hundreds of families joined the fun for Family Day by either attending the picnic in Iveagh Gardens or by hosting their own event with their family to mark the day. All families who registered for Family Day are still in with a chance to win €1,000 by simply submitting a photograph from their ‘Family Day’ to www.familyday.ie. Pictured enjoying the fun today were Hunzah Alraqi(5) and Shafeeq Alraqui taking part in the wheelbarrow race, Jamie Duffy (2) with Twinkle Toes the owl from Dublin Zoo and Rocio & Belen Gonzalez (3) enjoying the face painters. Thanks to everyone who has helped to make Family Day such a huge success.

 

Family Day enjoyed by hundreds of families at Iveagh Gardens

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INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE FAMILY CELEBRATED WITH FAMILY DAY PICNIC & FREE ENTERTAINMENT IN IVEAGH GARDENS

PICNIC HELD BY ONE FAMILY AND EBS BUILDING SOCIETY TO CELEBRATE FAMILIES IN IRELAND

Sunday 15th May, 2011 – Today is UN International Day of the Family, an annual celebration of the diversity of families and family life across the world. To mark the day One Family and EBS Building Society came together to celebrate Irish families by hosting a free family day picnic in Iveagh Gardens. Hundreds of families joined the fun for Family Day by either attending the picnic in Iveagh Gardens or by hosting their own event with their family to mark the day.

Speaking about International Day of the Family, Aidan Power, Head of Marketing at EBS Building Society, said: “EBS is delighted to be partnering with One Family to celebrate International Day of the Family. It’s great to have so many families in the one place enjoying the day. Families are important to EBS and that’s why we partnered with One Family in the lead up to today. I’d like to congratulate One Family on all their hard work in making today a huge success.” Read more

Visit from US Cultural Ambassador to Cherish House – May 5th

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One Family Director Karen Kiernan and US Cultural Ambassador, Dr. Brenda Flanagan at Cherish House

Thanks to everyone who came along to hear Dr Brenda Flanagan’s inspiring talk at One Family. Brenda is one of the US’s premier women writers, and a cultural ambassador, she talked about Accomplishing your Goals as a Single Parent. Everyone was touched, moved and inspired by her story – how she achieved her own success, both as a writer and as a parent, and her secret advice for would-be writers or anyone who needs to juggle life’s demands with their own dreams – get up at 4am! See here for more information.

US Cultural Ambassdor gives talk at One Family, 6 May

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In association with the United States Embassy Dublin, One Family welcomes US Cultural Ambassador Dr Brenda Flanagan to Cherish House, Dublin 2

This is a unique experience to hear one of the US’s premier women writers

You are invited to join One Family on Friday 6 May from 10am until 12 noon to hear Dr Brenda Flanagan speak on Accomplishing your Goals as a Single Parent.

Known for her inspiring talks and her performance abilities, Brenda will weave in her experiences as a writer, so anyone with an interest in writing should attend. Places are limited so early booking is vital.

Brenda Flanagan was born in Trinidad in 1949, the twelfth of fourteen children in an impoverished family. Her father was a barman, her mother a laundress. Brenda recalls having a hunger for involvement with the wider world and dreamt of being a writer. She started writing poetry at the age of ten and by thirteen she was singing calypsos and earning money for it. However, at the age of fourteen she had to leave school to help support her family, by then only parented by her mother. She worked for a time in a factory, then was taken on as a trainee reporter of The Nation, the newspaper of the then ruling People’s National Movement led by Dr. Eric Williams. Read more

One Family election manifesto published

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One Family’s election manifesto has been sent to all the political parties and we will keep you up-dated of any feedback. You can read our manifesto here

Top 3 questions for election 2011

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Please make one-parent families an issue in the election by asking canvassers these questions:

1 What will your party do in government to reduce the very high poverty rates experienced by one-parent families?

2 What are your views on the recent social welfare changes that require lone parents whose youngest child is over 14 to go on to Jobseekers Allowance rather than on the One-Parent Family Payment?

3 Do you believe that the definition of the family in the constitution should be changed? (Currently only the marital family is recognised in the Irish constitution). If not, why not?

For a more detailed list of ten questions and helpful up-to-date statistics on one-parent families see here

Children in One-parent Families the Real Victims of Budget

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One Family, the leading provider of specialised support services for one-parent families in Ireland today, 7th December 2010, gives its response to Budget 2011. At a time when cutbacks were inevitable One Family had called on the Government to protect those already experiencing high levels of poverty and social exclusion from any more cuts.

‘But today’s many cuts – coupled with increases in taxes to be paid by those on low incomes – will have a devastating effect on one-parent families, many of whom are already living in poverty and struggling to combine work and caring responsibilities. In the absence of any clear jobs strategy the government has clearly not met its commitment to protect the most vulnerable from the effects of the crisis,’ says Candy Murphy, Policy Manager, One Family. Read more