Family routes - trustee recruitment

Family Routes is a charitable company registered with the Charities Commission for Northern Ireland (Charity no. 101826) and regulated and inspected by the Regional Quality Improvement Authority and the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority.

BACKGROUND

Family Routes was established in 1990 as The Church of Ireland Board for Social Responsibility (Northern Ireland) and was reconstituted as Family Routes in late 2018.  The objective of the charity is to provide advice, guidance and practical help through the agency of trained and qualified workers to men, women and children who need the support of Christian standards of care and concern. 

Family Routes provides social work and counselling services to persons affected by adoption and infertility.

• Adoption- provision of an adoption assessment service, supports adoption placements, post adoption counselling and provides support and counselling to all persons affected by loss in adoption. These services are provided under the titles Adoption Routes and Next Step.

   

• Fertility - provision counselling and support to persons considering, undergoing, completed and/or affected by infertility investigations and/or treatments. These services are provided under the title Fertility Counselling Service NI.

To provide these services the Board has links with statutory bodies, such as the Department of Health and Social Care, Health and Social Services Trust and the Regional Fertility Centre. The Board also has links with other voluntary agencies in the same field - Infertility Network UK, Adoption UK and Adopt NI.

TRUSTEES

The charity has a volunteer management committee (Trustees) which is responsible for strategic direction of the charity and the delivery of, and accountability for, services through a Chief Executive Officer and a team of professionally qualified social workers and counsellors and supporting services.

The current Trustees wish to seek expressions of interest from individuals residing in Northern Ireland who are experienced and sympathetic to the aims and objectives of Family Routes to serve as a Trustee for an initial period of five years.

The role of Trustees are detailed in Appendix A.

NEXT STEPS

If you are interested in becoming a Trustee of Family Routes, please send an email or letter outlining your experience and what you can offer as a prospective Trustee of the charity to the Acting Chairperson, Joe Copeland (joe.copelandbt8@gmail.com) or contact him on 077 0467 9563 for an informal chat.