Supporting Families

This page has plenty of information and further reading around the theme of supporting families. You can use this page to come up with ways to take action.

What is Supporting Families?

You can download the NICCY policy briefing on Supporting Families here
For a child and young person friendly resource and campaign briefing on supporting families click here
Click here to download the facilitator plan for NICCY's Supporting Families workshop for primary school aged children
Click here to download the facilitator plan for NICCY's Supporting Families workshop for secondary school aged young people
To find out how to use the Make It Right Campaign as an action project for the GCSE in Learning for Life and Work click here
For further information on family support see further reading section below

Make it Right !

Once you have learned all about poverty, we want you to take action. There are a number of ways you can do this:

Inform / educate others:

Raise public awareness of issue (e.g. by making a video or writing to your local paper)
Educate a specific group (e.g. take a school assembly or deliver the NICCY workshop (primary and secondary) on the issue
Try to get others involved in campaigning on the issue

Influence change:

Affect legislation (e.g. Send a petition to the government or letter to your local MLA)
Influence public opinion (e.g. publish an article in your local newspaper)
Change school or local policy (e.g. Ask your school council to get involved, write to your School board of Governers / local MP / councillor asking them what they are doing to help families in need)

Create something:

Write a story or poem about how being a young carer affects people
Create piece of art or drama about young carers or smacking

Community Involvement:

Help others (e.g. volunteer with a young carers group)
Address a need (e.g. raise money for a charity which works on supporting families)

You could do something completely different. There are many ways to help with supporting families, and many organisations who can help you.

Tell us about it

It’s really important that whatever you decide to do, tell us so we can use the information to influence government and make change. You can feedback to us in the following ways:

You can use the online postcard here to tell us what you think Government should do to make it right
You can use these forms (group feedback, individual feedback)to feedback on any action that you have taken
You can use the child and young person friendly briefing to encourage young people to take action individually.
E-mail us copies of documents or resources created to uncrc@niccy.org.
You can post it to us at

Make it Right Campaign
Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People
Millennium House
17-25 Great Victoria Street
Belfast
BT2 7BA

Please Note - information we receive will be used on the NICCY website and in NICCY publications. Please ensure you have the appropriate consent from parents/carers and young people to send us the information

Workshop links

For some suggestions and to do a workshop on supporting families use the links below:

NICCY workshop (primary or secondary) - These workshops are specifically focused on children’s rights, young carers and the role of the Children’s Commissioner
http://www.carersnet.org.uk/pdf/ycresourcepack.pdf

If you or someone you know are affected by any of the issues you have been reading about, then please follow the links below for some organisations that can help:

NICCY: Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People