Families Need Fathers

Families Need Fathers (FNF) is a registered UK charity, founded in 1974. It provides information and support to parents, including unmarried parents, of either sex.

Overview

FNF is a self-help support group, educates the public on research into shared parenting, and is involved in political lobbying. [ [http://www.fnf.org.uk/about-us About Us] , Families Need Fathers website. Retrieved February 19 2008.] It produces a regular newsletter, "McKenzie", which is sent out to members of the charity and to people whom the charity considers influential. It has over 30 self-governing branches throughout the United Kingdom and provides other services to members.

FNF is chiefly concerned with the problems of maintaining a child's relationship with both parents during and after family breakdown, and has acquired over 10,000 members in its 30-year history. Undoubtedly, the majority of parents apart from children are fathers, but the charity supports both fathers and mothers and other family who have lost contact with children, and works with MATCH (Mothers Apart from Their Children), and the Grandparents’ Association.

The group's volunteer members offer advice to parents, which aims to be child-centred. Hence the advice here originally worked out by children who took part in a divorce survival class:

* Don't ask us what happened while with the other parent
* Don't ask us to keep secrets
* Don't put us in a position where we have to tell lies
* Don't ask us to take sides
* Don't take out your anger on us
* Don't get into competition with one another
* Do allow us to love both parents without being got at by either
* Don't ask us to choose between you

By encouraging its members to take a non-adversarial stance with their ex-partners and without expensive legal representation in court, FNF has attained considerable success in meeting its objective of ensuring that both parents remain involved in their children's lives in spite of one parent (usually the mother) being against it. Rt Hon Lord Justice Wall, a senior family court judge, has said, "Families Need Fathers has become a key player in the debate about on-going contact and joint residence." [ [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmconst/116/116ii.pdf Family Justice: the operation of the family courts] , UK Parliament Constitutional Affairs Committee, March 2 2005, page EV9. Retrieved February 19 2008.] Many have found that an FNF McKenzie Friend has made all the difference to their and their children's lives.

ee also

*Case Law
*The Children Act
*Divorce
*Domestic violence
*Family
*Family law
*Family law system in the UK
*Father
*Fathers' rights
*Fathers' rights movement in the UK
*Fathers' rights movement in Italy
*Parenting
*Parenting plan
*Pressure groups in the United Kingdom
*Shared parenting
*Spousal abuse

Organizations

*Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS)
*Child Support Agency (CSA)
*Department for Constitutional Affairs
*Department for Education and Skills (DFES)
*Family Justice Council
*Fathers Direct
*Fathers 4 Justice
*NYAS

References

External links

* [http://www.fnf.org.uk Families Need Fathers web site]
* [http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?remchar=&chyno=276899 The Charity Commission's entry on FNF]