Parents
One parent families
Please sroll down for Exhibition information
You can now join FREE of charge as a lone parent. Ring up their helpline below and join straight away. This is the best advice for any lone parent. You can also ring up if you need to speak to someone. This is an excellent organisation working for the best welfare for you and your children.
They provide a voice for lone parents on the things that matter and offer information that you can trust, enabling you to help yourself and your family.
Not only do they provide friendly information and advice but they also work in the community to develop new solutions to changing needs. They really do make you feel that you are not alone (indeed, you are not) and that help is at hand.
Their varied publications, easy to read and to the point, are excellent and really do make a difference! Just ask if they have one related to your problem.
Chances are that they will and it will be specifically written with you in mind.
Please kindly say that you found them via this site.
Their free phone helpline also provides a vital service:
Lone Parent Helpline: 0800 018 5026
Opening times: Mon-Fri 9am to 5pm and open until 8pm on Wednesdays.
Free information for lone parents on: benefits, work, education, relationship breakdown and child maintenance, children and holidays. Information on other helpful organisations and groups throughout the UK is also available.
Lone
Parent Help Desk
Searchable information for lone parents on a range of topics, available
online, 24 hours a day.
Other people may also join by becoming a supporter. This is a very useful
way to support a friend or relative as you will be able to assist them
by keeping abreast of the current news and publications, at a time when
it is difficult for them to concentrate fully. The cost is £20 a year.
Money booklets
Bank accounts: managing your money.
Debt: managing your money.
Separation: managing your money. An updated booklet on "Holidays" is
now available with ideas for everyone from holidays with other lone
parents on a shoestring to house swapping. Everyone needs a break.
‘Moving’ exhibition on lone parents launched at
The Women’s Library
‘Moving’ and ‘touching’ were just some
of the heartfelt comments expressed by guests at last night’s
launch of The Women’s Library’s latest groundbreaking exhibition
Sinners, Scroungers, Saints: lone mothers, past and present, which featured
special appearances by One Parent Families|Gingerbread Ambassadors,
comedienne Arabella Weir, author Martina Cole, yachtswoman Tracy Edwards
MBE, ‘Bob the Builder’ creator Kate Fawkes, and actor Neil
Pearson.
Opening the exhibition, which was viewed by more than 120 invited guests and runs until 29 March 2008, Arabella said she became an Ambassador for One Parent Families|Gingerbread because she herself was raised by her mother after her parents divorced.
’I remember so well when I went to secondary school the terror and embarrassment of telling people that my parents were divorced,’ she said. ‘This is a fantastic exhibition which gives a real picture of what has, and what has not, changed for lone parents.’
Also speaking at the launch, Chief Executive of One Parent Families|Gingerbread, Chris Pond, said the exhibition was being staged in the run-up to the charity's 90th anniversary next year. Established in 1918, the campaigning charity was initially called the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child.
’Many of the challenges facing lone parents today are the very same as those depicted in the exhibition. On current trends, it is estimated that between one-third and one-half of all children will spend some time in a one-parent family; half of them will live in poverty and that is a scandal for one of the richest countries in the world,’ Chris said.
Professor Zenobia Nadirshaw, Chair of The Women's Library Council and Governor of London Metropolitan University, also welcomed guests to the launch of Sinners, Scroungers, Saints, as did exhibition curator Tanya Evans. According to Tanya, visitors to the private view found the exhibition emotional as well as inspirational.
’Some exhibits, including contraceptives and abortifaceants from the early twentieth-century, and the stories of adoption and family secrets, were clearly disturbing for some people,’ Tanya said.
‘The life-stories shared by One Parent Families’ celebrity Ambassadors such as John Amaechi and Lisa Aziz, ex-Unison leader Rodney Bickerstaffe, and the oral history subjects interviewed by London Metropolitan University’s MA students were an eye-opener for many. Visitors learned about the heartbreaking hardships experienced by many lone mothers and their children as well as their myriad achievements.’
Sinners, Scroungers, Saints addresses the ways in which lone mothers have been represented over time. Developed in collaboration with One Parent Families|Gingerbread, the exhibition showcases new research and tells the stories of lone mothers from the 1700s to the present day, challenging perceptions and questioning stereotypes. It is supported by a season of events, including an academic symposium on new research into lone parenthood.
The exhibition explores the many reasons why women become lone parents, from relationship breakdown to forced separation and widowhood, or, although rare, the independent choice to ‘go it alone’. From First World War widows to families divided by asylum and exile, from the fictional characters represented in 1960s’ novels and films such as A Taste of Honey to the‘Vicky Pollard’ stereotype of teenage mothers, the exhibition contains archive material as well as personal testimonies that tell a rich and wide range of stories.
Sinners, Scroungers, Saints: lone mothers, past and present will feature at The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University, Old Castle Street, London E1 7NT from 17 October 2007 – 29 March 2008. Exhibition opening hours are Monday to Friday 9.30am - 5.30pm (late night opening Thursday 8pm), Saturday 10.00am - 4.00pm, Sunday closed. For further information visit www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk
"Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends."
John Lennon
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