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Please see further information below about working for Gingerbread.
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Working for Gingerbread
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<font class="titleid1siteid0">The Charity</font>
The Charity
Gingerbread is an independent charity working nationally and locally, for and with single parents families, to improve their lives. Single parents are facing major challenges. The group most affected by child poverty, isolation and social exclusion, they also find themselves at the centre of public debate around 'the family' and employment. Gingerbread is there to champion their voices and needs and provide practical support services.
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<font class="titleid1siteid0">Our history</font>
Our history
In May 2007 the two leading charities for single parents, One Parent Familes and Gingerbread, merged to create a new organisation with a powerful mix of campaigning expertise, highly respected support services and extensive grassroots reach among single parents.
One Parent Families was established in 1918 as 'The National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child'. The charity's name changed in the 1970s to reflect a changing society and the broadening scope of our work, to include one-parent families created as a consequence of divorce or bereavement, including lone fathers, who constitute one in ten lone parents.
Gingerbread was formed in 1970 by a lone mother in London - Tessa Fothergill - her marriage had recently broken down and she found being a lone parent such a struggle she decided to set up a self-help organisation. The Sunday Times featured an article on her and hundreds of parents in similar situations got in touch with her. This response gave birth to Gingerbread.
And the name? Tess lived near a restaurant called 'The Golden Age of Gingerbread' and felt that Gingerbread would make a good name.
• 'Ginger' for gingering up support or getting help from the authorities
• 'Bread' the money and resources one-parent families need to support themselves and each
other.
The merged organisation relaunched as Gingerbread in January 2009, and is committed to a society in which single parent families are valued and treated equally and fairly.
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<font class="titleid1siteid0">Services for Lone Parents</font>
Services for Lone Parents
We run the 'Gingerbread Single Parent Helpline', a freephone, confidential, independent information and advice service for single parents. The service is run in partnership with One Parent Families Scotland, our 'sister' charity.
Our website offers a wealth of information for lone parents, including the "Single Parent Helpdesk', an inter-active information service.
We publish a wide range of free and low cost information for single parents, ranging from guides on benefits & tax and child support, through to booklets on holidays and books for children.
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<font class="titleid1siteid0">Policy, Research and Campaigning</font>
Policy, Research and Campaigning
We are the leading policy organisation in the UK representing the interests of lone parents to government and the media. We are widely seen as the centre of expertise on single parents and key issues such as poverty, employment, tax & benefits, family law. We work with Ministers, officials, academics, think tanks and other voluntary organisations, to address key policy issues and to press for change. Our campaigning work is based on a combination of what single parents tell us through specific research projects, feedback and evaluation from our services, and detailed policy analysis.
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<font class="titleid1siteid0">Membership</font>
Membership
We are a membership organisation, with 14,000 individual single parent family members and several groups and organisations, which are affiliated to us. Our aim over the next 3 years will be to expand our membership base and services for members, both as a means to meet the needs of single parents, but also to increase the level of active involvement of single parents in campaigning, service delivery, publicity, and fundraising.
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<font class="titleid1siteid0">Professional Services</font>
Professional Services
We promote good practice in working with lone parents through training and consultancy, and through the development of pilot projects and innovative programmes to test out new ways of working. We also offer professional resources.
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<font class="titleid1siteid0">Development and Skills</font>
Development and Skills
We run training, employability and confidence-building progammes for single parents, advisers and practitioners. We promote good practice in working with lone parents through training and consultancy, and through the development of pilot projects and innovative programmes to test out new ways of working.
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<font class="titleid1siteid0"><br>Finance and Funding</font>
Finance and Funding
The charity's turnover stands at around £2.1 million. Income derived from charitable trusts, companies, individuals & events and grants from government departments.
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<font class="titleid1siteid0">JK Rowling and our Ambassadors</font>
JK Rowling and our Ambassadors
Gingerbread has a number of Ambassadors. JK Rowling, was our first 'Ambassador', has donated over £1 million. In 2004, JK Rowling was appointed the organisation's President.
We now have six 'Ambassadors', Kate Fawkes, a lone parent who is the person behind Bob the Builder, Lisa Aziz, former Sky News Anchor, Arabella Weir, comedian and author, the actor Neil Pearson, Basketball star John Amaechi and Tracy Edwards MBE, a single parent who was part of the all female crew to compete in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race.
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<font class="titleid1siteid0">People</font>
People
Our staff are our biggest and most important resource by far. We are committed to becoming an inclusive, diverse organisation, and a learning organisation. We have an approach to supervision & appraisal, which we call 'Personal Development', which focuses on how each member of staff can contribute to achieving the charity's aims and objectives in our business plan, and ensures that members of staff can express their own views about their work and that of the organisation. We commit 1.5% of what we spend on salaries to our staff training & development budget each year, and encourage staff to work with their managers to identify their own training & development needs. We are a hard working and creative organisation, and we are always looking for ways to work smarter and more effectively. We work hard to be 'Family Friendly' and help people achieve work-life balance. This includes generous annual leave and maternity arrangements as well as dependent care leave, flexi-time, and working at home and sabbatical policies. We also have an attractive pension scheme. We offer a 5% employer contribution for employees who contribute 1.25% or more.
Most staff work in our main office in Kentish Town, London, and we also have offices in Manchester, Accrington and Cardiff.
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<font class="titleid1siteid0"><br>Transport Links</font>
Transport Links
The nearest tube station is Kentish Town (Zone 2), which is 3 minutes walk from the office. It is on the Northern Line, High Barnet branch, with regular trains through to the main interchanges at Kings Cross, Euston, Leicester Square, Charing Cross & Embankment.
The ThamesLink service also runs through the same station, linking Kentish Town to Kings Cross, Farringdon. 5 minutes in the opposite direction leads to Kentish Town West. This provides overland rail services to Richmond, Highbury and Islington, North Woolwich.
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