Friends of Stony Stratford Library: Parents, Poverty and the State

On 25th February at 7pm, we are delighted to welcome Naomi Eisenstadt who will be talking to us on the subject of: 'Parents, Poverty and the State'. 

Over the last two decades all Governments have taken a keen interest in family policy.  Fears of the nanny state seemed to have evaporated and the State has no end of advice on how to raise children.  The differences tend to be in terms of the support on offer and the narrative on what it takes to be a 'good' parent.  Naomi Eisenstadt and Carey Oppenheim have written a book exploring these issues.'

Naomi Eisenstadt is currently a Research Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute at LSE and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.  Naomi set up the Moorland Children’s Centre on Beanhill, and ran it for 5 years, before taking up a post at the Open University designing parenting education for secondary schools.

In 1999 Naomi became the first Director of the Sure Start Unit. The Unit was responsible for delivering the Government’s commitment to free nursery education, the national childcare strategy, and Sure Start. After Sure Start, Naomi spent 3 years as Director of the Social Exclusion Task Force in the Cabinet Office.  Since retiring, Naomi served for two years as Independent Advisor on poverty to the First Minister of Scotland. She has published a book about Sure Start, two major reports for the Scottish Government and several articles and blogs. Her latest book, written with Carey Oppenheim came out in October 2019, Parents, Poverty and the State.

Tickets for this talk will be available from the library from Tuesday 4th February. You can reserve your ticket either by telephone on 01908 562562, or by visiting in person. As usual the talk will be followed by the opportunity to ask questions, and then we invite you to join us for a glass of wine or a soft drink plus delicious home made cake. We do not make a charge for these tickets but we do appreciate your donations on the evening in order to help cover the cost of the speaker and hire of the venue, as well as helping to support library services. 

For further information about the Friends of Stony Stratford Library, please contact fosslmk@gmail.com.