Pennsylvania | Michigan - 9/17/07

[Smartmarriages]

This is my kind of Monday morning - exciting times for Marriage Education!
And these are just two of many.   - diane

- GOVERNMENT PUMPS MILLIONS INTO PITTSBURG MARRIAGE INITIATIVES
- MICHIGAN ORGANIZATION IS WORKING TO MAKE MARRIAGE MATTER

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- GOVERNMENT PUMPS MILLIONS INTO PITTSBURG MARRIAGE INITIATIVES

Government pumps millions locally into marriage initiative
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
By Craig Smith
September 16, 2007

> Critics who once questioned the relevance of marriage education have changed
> their minds, said Bill Coffin, special assistant for marriage education at the
> U.S. Administration for Children and Families. . . .
> 
> "The fewer strong, healthy families in the community, the more social services
> you need," Coffin said.

Ken and Di Loomis didn't really need someone to tell them how a marriage is
supposed to work.

After 34 years together, they had pretty much figured it out.

But the former pastor and his wife from Penn Township jumped at the chance
to join a marriage enrichment class at their church in Export. It was
something they looked forward to for some time.

"I came away with a better understanding of her needs," Ken Loomis said.
"Sometimes when you know someone so well, you can lose sight of that."

The course was offered through TWOgether Pittsburgh, an $8.35 million
federally funded, healthy marriage initiative that hopes to work with 5,500
couples over the next five years in a five-county area around Pittsburgh.

It is one of two programs costing almost $9 million that the federal
government is funding here as part of a Bush administration initiative to
encourage states to strengthen marriages.

Ayo Siegfried, 27, of Ross, who took the TWOgether Pittsburgh program with
her husband, Dan, also 27, described it as a marriage "tune-up."

TWOgether Pittsburgh offers marriage enrichment, divorce prevention,
mentoring, parenting and fatherhood training to high school students,
married and unmarried couples and individuals at 29 churches in the region.

"Nationwide, there is a real recognition that this is an issue," said Terry
Mann, director of TWOgether Pittsburgh.

The second marriage training program, Marriage Works, began two years ago
with $600,000 in federal money. It has targeted what it calls "fragile
families" -- those with unmarried parents -- in Pittsburgh's East End, where
single-parent-headed households outnumber those of married couples by 4 to
1, said Shawn Pinkston, project director.

"Couples need help; couples need skills. It's not therapy, it's training,"
he said.

The programs could be beneficial if they teach those hoping to tie the knot
that marriage is not all champagne and roses, said Dan Romesberg, a senior
lecturer in sociology at the University of Pittsburgh.

"One of the biggest contributing factors to divorce is unrealistic
expectations," he said.

Critics who once questioned the relevance of marriage education have changed
their minds, said Bill Coffin, special assistant for marriage education at
the U.S. Administration for Children and Families. The agency funds about
$46 billion worth of programs, including TWOgether Pittsburgh, Marriage
Works and Head Start.

"The fewer strong, healthy families in the community, the more social
services you need," Coffin said.

Healthy marriages can result in healthier couples and children, increased
productivity at work and higher school achievement, said Patty Howell, vice
president of the California Healthy Marriage Coalition, which will spend
$2.34 million a year for the next five years to strengthen marriages.

Pinkston said 95 couples from Homewood, East Liberty, Garfield,
Lincoln-Lemington and Wilkinsburg have been through the Marriage Works
program.

"There is a need. Just 3 percent of African-American churches in America
have marriage training at all," Pinkston said.

Catholic bishops also have a multi-year campaign aimed at developing
programs to strengthen, sustain and restore marriages.

"Healthy marriages are the bedrock of our church and our society," said
Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, chairman of the Marriage and Family
Life Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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- MICHIGAN ORGANIZATION IS WORKING TO MAKE MARRIAGE MATTER

Organization is working to make marriage matter
Citizen Patriot (Jackson, Michigan)
September 17, 2007

By Christina Hildreth

Maybe you've seen their pamphlets or attended one of their seminars. You've
probably driven past one of their "Get It Married" billboards.

The leaders of Marriage Matters Jackson have a message, and they are pushing
it hard. What are they saying? A strong marriage will make you happier,
richer and healthier.

But they're not just advertising. They're seeking a cultural change.

And they're trying to accomplish this with help from those present at the
beginning of every marriage: clergy and judges.

Marriage Matters is working to put together a community marriage policy that
would recommend a list of premarital practices. A final draft is expected by
May 1, and will try to convince local clergy and judges to sign on.

Supporters say the effort brings communities together to support something
they say everyone agrees on: Healthy marriages are good for a community.

"This gives us a chance to be the forerunners, to be at the head of battling
something that destroys our community," said Leroy Sullivan, a pastor from
Kansas City, Kan. "We can rally around marriage."

Sullivan and fellow pastor Jeff Myers, who have been working on a similar
initiative in the Kansas City area since 1996, spoke to a group of Jackson
County clergy last week at the Cascades Manor House.

Sullivan and Myers formed an interdenominational collaboration of pastors --
urban and suburban -- to proclaim the benefits of marriage. They based their
model on Marriage Savers, a national organization.

Their document encourages couples to seek counseling, have at least a
six-month engagement, and refrain from living together before tying the
knot. It also suggested pastors institute mentoring programs for engaged
couples and marriages on the rocks. They got more than 500 pastors to sign
on.

The results, according to their parent organization, were affirming.

Divorce rates in Johnson County, Kan., where one of the churches is located,
fell 65.9 percent at a time when rates in other counties were rising.

In Myers' church, mentors counseled 36 engaged couples before marriage, none
of whom have divorced in the past six years. Mentors also helped save 10
troubled marriages.

Sullivan used the pulpit to challenge seven cohabitating couples in his
church to marry or move out. Five married, two separated. None of the
marriages has since dissolved in four years.

Both pastors have taken a strong stance on the recommendations, at times
even refusing to marry couples who won't adhere.

But Scott Schmidt, Full Circle Development coordinator for the United Way,
said Jackson County's document may not include all of the elements of the
Kansas City plan, particularly since the Jackson effort is more broad,
including not just the faith-based community but secular judges as well. In
an effort to draw more people in, Jackson's plan might go easier on things
like cohabitation.

"Whether it will be prominently featured is yet to be seen," Schmidt said.
"We don't want to be exclusively Christian. It's probably going to be fairly
general."

[Marriage Matters Jackson broght a team of 5 to the Denver Smart Marriages
Conference, Contact them at: 517 784 0511]

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