Welcome.


Hi everyone and welcome to Bristol Grandparents Support Group blog. Although we are Bristol based we have grandparents from all over the UK and beyond as members.

It is estimated that over one million children in the UK are denied contact with their grandparents due to family breakdown which may have been caused by divorce/separation, alcohol/drug dependency,domestic violence,bereavement or family feud.
Every child has the right to have contact with their grandparents
if they wish and unless proven unsafe for them to do so. To deny contact from a parent or grandparent has to become as socially unacceptable as drink driving.
I hope to keep you up to date with what is going on in BGSG and I shall continue to campaign for the rights of children to have a loving and meaningful relationship with both parents and their extended family. So please join in as good to hear your views, not just mine!
I also will support via Skype.
There is no membership fee to be part of Bristol Grandparents Support Group.
Esther Rantzen says, " To every grandparent, links of love can never be broken in our hearts."

Please contact during office hours.
07773258270


Thursday 10 April 2014

Local groups are a Life Line.

I would like to thank everyone who has so generously given BGSG donations, it is quite amazing.
The group was set up in 2007, and it has just grown out of all proportion, I wish I could say it hadn't, that there is no need for support groups such as ours, but we all know that is not the case.
As long as there is adult conflict affecting children there will always be a need.
There are a great many organisations all over the UK, and beyond who are giving wonderful support to those who need it, and it is at local level that it is so effective.
When someone is in trouble, they need help, somewhere close to home, another human being they can confide in, not an answer phone, or a call that keeps you hanging on for 30mins, or a call back system that takes a week to respond.
I salute all of the local volunteers who give of their time freely and with commitment, without them many organisations would simply no longer exist.
I don't think that the general public have any idea how important these groups are, they are in many cases a life line to someone.
What does annoy me is, why it is so very difficult to become a registered charity, so many documents, forms let alone the £5thousand to apply, it is such a shame and I am sure many, many people get put off, we should be encouraging it not making stumbling blocks all along the way.
A grandparent said to me recently, " I just know when it is time for another meeting, a need to come and unload all this pain, I don't need to put the dates in my diary I just feel it is time."

Jane
www.bristolgrandparentssupportgroup.co.uk

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