Our aims

Single Parent Action Network (SPAN)’s aims are to:

Support single parents to empower themselves and take control of their lives
Give a voice to one parent families from diverse backgrounds and cultures living in poverty and isolation
Support the development of user-led one parent family groups
Work with organisations and decision-making bodies. Develop partnerships to improve policies for one parent families in the UK and internationally
Celebrate our diversity, our children, our lives

To achieve our aims we have developed an organisation that:

Enables disadvantaged families to strengthen their well-being through improving self-esteem, parenting support, mental health and learning opportunities
Strengthens families and communities, supporting parents and children from different cultures and family backgrounds to come together for learning and fun activities, self-help groups and community actions
Develops model actions that create stepping stones for single parents and other disadvantaged families on benefits to improve their chances of sustainable employment
Facilitates advice and support for more isolated parents, including sign-posting them to supportive agencies
Works with government agencies at a local and national level to give a voice to single parents and disadvantaged families on low income to help improve policies and services that impact on their lives
Challenges policies and attitudes that create poverty, discrimination and stigma; celebrates single parents and their children for their achievements.

Our Values

We asked members of our SPAN how they would describe us and the most commonly used words were: