It’s National Family Week (25th to 31st May) in Britain, a new idea that has the simple aim of bringing families together and has the support of leading commercial brands, charities and all political parties.

Each day of National Family Week will be themed around an activity encouraging families to spend more quality time together, whether that is playing or watching sport, preparing and eating a meal together, playing family games or watching family-orientated films.

Today sees an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Picnic in multiple locations across the nation.

With sponsors, schools, community organisations, government bodies, charities, local councils, sports clubs, associations, celebrities and even the Prime Minister behind the week, the only thing missing is your family! Families like yours all across the country can enjoy hundreds of events and competitions, offers and promotions to make National Family Week fantastic fun for the whole family. Family is something we all have in common. Regardless of age or stage, shape or size, belief or background, National Family Week promises something for everyone!

National Family Week is already the largest coalition on family issues in the UK. Charities, community groups, statutory bodies, schools, sporting and faith networks are all coming together to celebrate family life.

One of its many facets is the search for an “exceptional family” to receive the Family of the Year Award. Among the four finalists is the Blackwell family:

Mark (54) and Eppie (55) Blackwell and their seven children were nominated under the active category by Valériane Mistiaen of the Home Renaissance Foundation. The family are described as great motivators for the people in their community and believe home is the best school for life. They are involved in various projects to encourage parents to build an agreeable and constructive environment at home and founded a new independent school based on an ethos that sees parents as a child’s first teacher and school staff as parents’ partners in the education of a child.

Mark and Eppie have successfully transmitted their values to their children with son Peter (28) managing a charity that arranges for university students to tutor children from underprivileged backgrounds. In addition to this, he has set up a football league and with a little help from friends, organized for them to travel to Madrid to see a live Real Madrid game funded through sponsorship. Mark Blackwell comments; “Don’t be discouraged when failures and setbacks occur. Love the struggle. Heroes are not perfect people, they are people who keep getting back up and trying again.”

Sounds great advice.

The founder of National Family Week is Henley Media Group (HMG), a publishing and marketing company that specialises in developing events and publications on social and business issues in partnership with governments, UN agencies, multilateral organisations and the corporate sector. HMG also owns one of the country's leading sampling agencies, Brands in Hands. Henley Media Group has a strong family ethic and is investing around £900,000 to establish the first "week". ~ Hat tip to Ignacio Socias.