8th February 2010
Calling all Members - do you need to update your contact details with us?
Many of our lone parent members contact details are out of date. This negatively effects communication between Gingerbread and their lone parent members. If your address, telephone and/or email address is not updated with us you may not receive mailouts from us, including the 'Gingerbread Times' and we can not contact you by phone in relation to training programmes and events that our lone parent members are being invited to.
If you think you may need to update your contact details, please email Gingerbread's Membership Officer Mairead- mairead@gingerbreadni.org or phone 028 9023 1417.
19th January 2010
Make sure you’re correctly licensed!
Did you know that you can be fined up to £1,000 if you are caught watching TV without a licence?
TV Licensing has contacted Gingerbread NI to inform their members that they have a legal responsibility to have a TV Licence. Put simply, you need to be covered by a valid TV Licence to receive or record television programmes as they are being broadcast. This is the case whether you are receiving the programmes via TV or any other device, such as a mobile phone or a PC. TV Licensing understands that some people can find it hard to pay the annual fee of £142.50 for a colour TV Licence or £48 for a black and white licence in one go. For this reason, there are a number of different ways to pay for a TV Licence, including a payment card. Visit the TV Licensing website for details on how to pay by double clicking the link below.
http://ad-emea.doubleclick.net/clk;215901167;43388418;k
11th January 2010
A New Year, A New You, So Get Motivated!
‘Motivate' Training to boost confidence and motivation Monday 1st February - Friday 12th February 2010.
Discover your strengths and the skills that you have to offer an employer. Training takes place in a group setting and will be led by an experienced trainer. Over the ten days, you will learn:
- Tips for building self-confidence
- What employers are looking for
- Tricks for successful interviews
- How to present yourself positively
- How to communicate
- Dressing to impress
- Making the most of your skills and experience
If you are interested please contact Orla Tel: 028 9023 1417 Email: orla@gingerbreadni.org
2nd December 2009
Gingerbread Times December 09
9th November 2009
‘Succeeding in Challenging Times’
The training achievements of lone parents from throughout Northern Ireland were recognised during a special Awards event which followed Gingerbread’s Annual General Meeting on Friday 6 November 2009. The Annual General Meeting allowed lone parent members to consider the significant work carried out by the organisation on their behalf over the past year. Members also welcomed the incoming Board who will work with staff on the development of the organisation in the coming year. Hosting the special Awards event at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Belfast, local journalist and broadcaster, Letitia Fitzpatrick, commented: ‘Being a parent is the toughest job there is - being a single parent is doubly tough. It's fantastic to see so many lone parents achieving so much, with Gingerbread's help.’ Sir Reg Empey, Minister for Employment and Learning delivered a keynote address at the award ceremony and congratulated all ofthe lone parents who has worked toward and achieved qualifications.
‘The experience you have gained at Gingerbread will be of great help to you in your quest for future employment. Your efforts and your commitment to your chosen course of training have been thoroughly worthwhile and these awards deserve both our recognition and celebration’, said Sir Reg. The Minister also commended the work of Gingerbread saying: ‘Gingerbread has a long and well-respected track record in helping lone parents into work, dealing with the obstacles and inequalities they face and developing innovative ways of overcoming these. The importance of attaining skills and qualifications inthe current economic downturn cannot be under- estimated. There are considerable long term benefit from skills development for the individual, the economy and society as a whole.’
Over the past year, the organisation has assisted over 140 lone parents to achieve recognised qualifications in subjects ranging from Access to University, IT, Training for Trainers, Mentoring in the Workplace and NVQ’s in a range of occupational areas. Gingerbread’s Director, Marie Cavanagh commented: ‘We are very proud of the fact over 90% of the lone parents that we have worked with have completed their courses, despite all ofthedemands which parenting alone makes on them. Almost one in five have found work while over two thirds went on to further training or education. We deliver six different training programmes including European funded, mainstream and pilot programmes supported by the Department for Employment and Learning. Gingerbread provided support to lone parents including; vocational skills training, childcare, careers guidance, welfare rights advice and work placement opportunities with local employers.’
The Awards ceremony, which had ‘Succeeding in Challenging Times’ as its theme, was also an opportunity to celebrate one of Gingerbread’s newest developments the success of Possibilities NI - a wholly owed subsidiary of the charity and a social enterprise. Possibilities NI provides high quality training, mentoring, and consultancy services to individuals and companies locally and internationally. The revenue generated by Possibilities NI contributes to supporting Gingerbread’s work with one parent families.
Anne Sweeney, Assistant Director of Gingerbread and Managing Director of Possibilities NI said, ‘I am delighted on behalf of the Board of Possibilities NI to be able to gift aid the profits of our first six months trading to Gingerbread. We are pleased with these results and hope to build on these in the future.’
Gingerbread NI would like to highlight that the aim of Possibilities NI as a social enterprise is to raise money for the work of Gingerbread, therefore we would urge all of our members to promote the new company and its services wherever possible. Our trading company Possibilities NI provides; Training for individuals returning to work through DEL’s Steps to Work initiativeTraining for staff within organisations and companies (for example, coaching and mentoring training, equality training etc).
Consultancy and research services locally and throughout Europe. Our new marketing leaflets are now available and our website will be launching within the next few weeks. If any of our members would like to receive a copy of our new Services and Information pack in order to promote the training services that Possibilities NI has to offer please contact Gingerbread NI on 028 9023 1417 or visit www.possibilitiesni.com for more information.
2nd October 2009 Have your Say! Gingerbread often get requests from the media enquiring if any of our Lone Parent Members would be interested in taking part in news articles and T.V interviews concerning issues that affect One Parent Families.
If you are a Lone Parent Member of Gingerbread who would like the opportunity to speak out for lone Parents in NI please email Máiréad- mairead@gingerbreadni.org and have your say! 27th June 2009
‘Group pictured at Gingerbread’s Open Day in Ballymena with Therese Milligan, Lone Parent Support Worker, (centre)’ Gingerbread held an Open Day on Wednesday 24th June at it’s Northern Area Lone Parent Centre in Ballymena to promote its new advice and support service for lone parents across the Northern Health and Social Services Board area. The new service offers a one stop contact point to help guide lone parents through many of the difficult issues that they face and ensure that they are able to take up opportunities available to them. The service offers free, confidential and impartial generalist advice and support to lone parents across a wide range of issues
For more information and full details, 'click here.' |
