Gingerbread: Supporting Single Parent Families Across the UK

Based in England and Wales, Gingerbread is a national charity dedicated to supporting and improving the lives of all single parent families in the UK. Single parent families account for a quarter of all British families but still face tremendous challenges. With 95 years of experience helping single parents and their children, Gingerbread operates a helpline manned by expert advisers, runs a website packed with useful information, and offers training and courses, all for free. Additionally, Gingerbread campaigns on behalf of single parent families. The organization's goal is to create a society where single parents and their children are valued and treated fairly.

Gingerbread's history began in 1918, when Lettice Fisher founded the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child (and for the Widowed or Deserted Mother in Need). The organization changed its name to the National Council for One Parent Families in 1970, the same year a new charity called Gingerbread was founded by Tessa Fothergill. In 2007, the National Council for One Parent Families and Gingerbread merged to form an organization with campaign expertise, highly regarded support services, and extensive grassroots reach – the organization that is now known as Gingerbread.