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Grandchildren & Their Grandparents are delighted to announce Grandchildren First, our grandchild-focused campaign here​

 

Following months of preparatory work, we are delighted and proud to launch our Grandchildren First campaign. A UK-wide effort to secure legal, policy and practice change for all estranged and alienated grandchildren. 

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Although Grandchildren First was ‘born’ in the English Midlands in mid-2023, a sibling campaign 'Grandparents United for Children (GUfC)' following that milestone report launch was added in November of that year. Much thinking, shaping and effort has gone into both campaigns since, including the now much wider grandparent offer and a more focused grandchild campaign and work programme.

 

That reflection and reshaping also recognised the challenges of e.g. establishing a telephone helpline - as even with funding available, it was not a viable or sustainable proposition for such a small organisation. 

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We are grateful for the advice from relevant academics and public figures, family and academic lawyers, family court and mediation personnel as well as charity sector advisors. Additionally, existing grandparent community leaders continue to shape and focus our approach as do our child-related professionals who view what we do through the lens of the grandchild. 

 

The latter in particular required the need for an alternative approach as, despite various promises from ministers and prime ministers in the past, legal, policy and practice change has yet to come to fruition. We are grateful to learn from and build on their experiences.

 

Accordingly, our wider grandparent campaign ‘Our Grandparents’ includes our GUfC work to date as well as a set of broad self-help activities and guidance. Our Grandparents is now part of the Grandchildren First campaign and programme alongside the upcoming Midlands Model pilots and other activities to inform national policy and practice change. In addition, we have a scheduled Lobby Your MP programme to secure legal change, our Grandchild-to-Grandchild activities, and of course we continue with both grandparent and grandchild-related webinars’ series.

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We are excited by this significant progress in the last 15 months and we look forward to working with you as adult grandchildren, grandparents, families, professionals and organisations.

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Please update your bookmarks. We look forward to seeing you there! 

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If you are a grandparent looking for support, please click here for our help pages.