Open Afternoon Takes the Cake!

We were thrilled when over 500 local families turned out to enjoy our 5th annual Open Afternoon on Sunday 19th September. Newsround presenter Sonali Shah, who lives locally, was on hand to draw our raffle and present local school girl Scarlett Davidge with the cake made from her prize winning design.

Activities on offer included mirror making, magic tricks with magician Kim Robinson, face-painting and a juggling workshop. Comedy Store's Neil Mullarkey and author Anne Bryant entertained children with story-telling.

The afternoon, which was run by the Centre's Fundraising Committee, staff and a team of volunteers, was "an excellently organised multi-cultural and happy event" according to one attendee. Thanks to everyone who volunteered, contributed raffle and tombola prizes and cakes for the cake stall. And last but not least, a big thank you to everyone who came along!


Thanks to Ben Williams who took the photos at this event. Ben is interested in doing more informal shoots free-of-charge, so please contact him via his website if you have an event coming up and would be interested in his photography Ben's website.

Studying Twins Helps Us to Understand

Adolescent Development

Adolescence is a crucial time in our lives. It is the period when we go through enormous change socially and emotionally, and these changes are often accompanied by dramatic shifts in our relationships with our parents. Research indicates that parents do play a huge role in their children's adaptation and welfare in adolescence.

Anna Freud Centre is working to uncover the link between genes and environment in parent-child attachment in a new two-year study funded by The Leverhulme Trust. Over 650 twin pairs will be assessed to try to find out the connection between genes and our surroundings and the relationship parents are able to have with their children. The study will also look at how the shared environment influences adolescent antisocial behaviour.

Anna Freud Centre is a registered charity which needs funding to continue its work. If you are interested in supporting our work with adolescents, please click here to request an information pack.

Clive Reaches the Summit!

Anna Freud Centre runs postgraduate studies programmes in collaboration with University College London and Yale University in the United States. We would like to congratulate all the students gratuating from these programmes in 2010. Eleven of the thirty-five students graduating from our MSc in Psychoanalytic Developmental Psychology and MSc in Psychodynamic Developmental Neuroscience got distinctions.

Forty-seven students from all over the world have just started a new term as part of these courses at the Centre.  We wish everyone involved a successful year.

If you would like to know more about postgraduate study at Anna Freud Centre, please click here.

C is for...

Child

Children are at the heart of everything Anna Freud Centre does. Whether we are working with a family to put their lives back on track or researching new ways to help mothers with postnatal depression to bond with their babies, we always have the best interests of the child in mind.

Charity

Anna Freud Centre is a charity which needs to raise funds for its work. We need to raise £1.8 million in voluntary donations each year. We expect this target to rise significantly as budgets for services, research and training are cut. Help us to make a difference to children and donate today.

Over 2,000... 

Congratulations to Anna Freud Centre's Chief Executive Professor Peter Fonagy who has been selected as a recipient of the Mary S Sigourney Award for 2010. The Sigourney Award annually recognises individuals or organisations that have significantly contributed to clinical psychoanalysis or psychoanalytical research. A panel of distinguished judges reviewed a large number of highly qualified nominations and chose Peter and three other outstanding individuals for this year's Award. Peter is generously donating the $25,000 prize money to the Centre.