'It Takes a Village' is launched

"I'm glad to have been in at the beginning of something that has done so well," Mary Berney said at the launch of a parents/children resource publication by the Carer & Toddler Group in The Hideout last night.



Mary was the prime mover behind the group from 1995 to 2004, and had been asked to officially launch 'It Takes a Village', a publication produced by the group in conjunction with The Bridge, which is to be the basis of a developing resource for carers of young children in the community.



The 'Village' was developed by six members of the group, Jen Wilson, Siobhan Purves, Darina O'Brien, Iseult O'Donoghue, Lynn Worrall, and Leonie McNabb. "It was put together at our kitchen tables, with kids running around or at our feet," Iseult recalls. "But it was a great experience, both making the publication and working with the other women."

The publication includes listings of places to go out and about with the family in the area, available leisure activities and services, articles on a number of parent-child matters, recipes, and the results of a survey of parents, teenagers and primary school children in Kilcullen.

The title is based on an African proverb which says 'it takes a village to raise a child'.