October - November 2007
The advent of the ninth national Parenting Week in the middle of October was marked here in Northern Ireland by the fifth annual Parenting Forum seminar, this year entitled Getting It Right For Families.
Hosted at the Park Avenue hotel in Belfast, the half-day event attracted around 70 professional delegates.
Alison Loughlin, regional manager for Parenting Forum NI, said that her organisation was very pleased with the turnout: ‘We don’t target this event at parents, it’s for professional family support practitioners in fields such as education, health and community development”, she told ni4kids recently. “This year’s event looked at how we can raise standards in family support services.”
Delegates at the event heard from a series of speakers, among them Wendy Buchanan, NI co-ordinator for the Circles Network, a voluntary organisation that aims to help build inclusive communities; Ann Hardy, who works in children’s services planning for the Northern Health and Social Services Board; Brian Henry, NI director for Lifelong Learning UK and Hazel Deeney, manager of First Housing Aid and Support Services, based in Londonderry.
There will be a full report on the seminar in the Parenting Foum’s regular newsletter, which will be carried in the December edition of ni4kids.