NARME deadline! / Facebook Campaign / Coffin at Ideals / FREE Webinar /Suicide / Prevention through Divorce Education - 1/20/11

[Smartmarriages]

- MON/JANUARY 31st LAST CHANCE FOR NARME PRESENTER SUBMISSIONS!!
- SUPPORT THE KEEP YOUR MARRIAGE VISIBLE (ON FACEBOOK) CAMPAIGN
- BILL COFFIN NAMED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF IDEALS
- VALENTINE¹S WEEK COUPLES CHECK-UP & LIVE FREE WEBINAR
- Parental divorce linked to suicidal thoughts
- DIVORCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS

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- MON/JANUARY 31st LAST CHANCE FOR NARME PRESENTER SUBMISSIONS!!

Monday, Jan 31 is the deadline for presenter submissions for the National
Association for Relationship & Marriage Education (NARME) conference
scheduled for Houston, TX June 27-30, 2011. Visit the website for conference
information and applications and a list of the seven conference topic
tracks: Training & Certification Programs, Marriage, Fatherhood, Family,
Youth & Single Adults, Tools & Resources, and Research.
http://www.narmeconference.com/

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- SUPPORT THE KEEP YOUR MARRIAGE VISIBLE (ON FACEBOOK) CAMPAIGN

January 14, 2011 
Keep Marriage Visible Campaign tells Facebook, My Spouse Exists!

Facebook's new profile structure does not allow a married Facebook user to
link anywhere that is visible (at first glance) on their profile to a spouse
who is not a Facebook user. The "old" Facebook profile format at least
allowed you to prominently state that you were "MARRIED" on your profile for
the world to see. The Keep Marriage Visible Campaign is asking Facebook to
change this glitch in and allow a spouse to be listed at the top of the
profile the same way other family members are able to be listed in the
sidebar--whether they are a Facebook user or not.

The Campaign¹s solution would be to allow users to include the name of their
spouse, without a click-through link if the spouse is not on Facebook.
Simple!

The Keep Marriage Visible Campaign is urging Facebook users to "LIKE" their
campaign page and invite their friends to "LIKE" the Keep Marriage Visible
Campaign Page too. 

LIKE the Keep Marriage Visible Campaign at
http://tinyurl.com/keepmarriagevisible

Pass this one on! - diane
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- BILL COFFIN NAMED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF IDEALS

Bill Coffin has taken the post of Executive Director at the Institute for
the Development of Emotional and Life Skills (IDEALS), a non-profit founded
by Bernard Guerney in 1972. Bill will coordinate national Relationship
Enhancement initiatives, with three IDEALS programs under his supervision:
NIRE (The National Institute of Relationship Enhancement; IDEALS of
Kentucky; and AFREM (The Association for Filial and Relationship Enhancement
Methods).  Rob Scuka will remain Executive Director of NIRE and Mary Ortwein
will remain Executive Director of IDEALS of Kentucky. Bill recently retired
as the Special Assistant for Marriage Education at the Administration for
Children and Families (ACF).  He lives in Silver Spring, MD, with his wife,
Pat. You can reach Bill at billcoffin68 at gmail.com or through his website
http://billcoffin.org

Relationship Enhancement -  http://relationshipenhancement.org
Ideals of Kentucky - http://skillswork.org
NIRE - http://nire.org
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- VALENTINE¹S WEEK COUPLES CHECK-UP & LIVE FREE WEBINAR

Peter Larson, PhD  &  Ron Deal, MMFT
Sunday, February 13th   |  8pm ET |  90 minutes
FREE webinar with purchase of online Couple Checkup ­ usually $29.95 but
reduced to $19.95 if you take the inventory between Feb 7-14.
This is a live event only; the webinar will not be available by recording
after the event. 
For dating, married, & remarried (stepfamily) couples. Info and
registration:  http://www.couplecheckup.com/webinar.html

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- Parental divorce linked to suicidal thoughts
     
 By Joyann Callender,
 Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Adult children of divorce are more likely to have seriously considered
suicide than their peers from intact families, suggests new research from
the University of Toronto.

In a paper published online this week in the journal Psychiatry Research,
investigators examined gender specific differences among a sample of 6,647
adults, of whom 695 had experienced parental divorce before the age of 18.
The study found that men from divorced families had more than three times
the odds of suicidal ideation in comparison with men whose parents had not
divorced. Adult daughters of divorce had 83 per cent higher odds of suicidal
ideation than their female peers who had not experienced parental divorce.
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/4fnsduf
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- DIVORCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Ahhhh, this article from the UK brings back memories.  This is all we talked
about in the early Smart Marriages days ­ how to enlighten policy makers and
community leaders about the enormous benefits in providing preventive,
upstream Marriage Education and Divorce Education programs and preventing so
many problems like suicide as mentioned above.  - diane

- IDS backs shock courses to stop couples splitting up
Parents who are on the brink of splitting up could be told to ³walk through²
the impact that divorce would have on their children under a radical plan
being considered by ministers.

The Daily Telegraph, London/UK
By Tim Ross 
28 Dec 2010 
 
Britain has among the highest divorce rates in Europe and growing numbers of
single parent families as more couples have children without getting married
and are increasingly likely to separate as a result.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has been studying a
state-sponsored relationship education programme in Norway, under which
couples are forced to ³think again² and confront the reality of divorce
before separating. 

The policy has been credited with reversing Norway¹s trend for rising
divorce rates and halting the decline of marriage in the country over the
past 15  years. 

Mr Duncan Smith told The Daily Telegraph he was keen to explore ways in
which similar approaches could be encouraged in Britain.

Officials point out that such a programme would be expensive at a time when
state funding is scarce. But such an approach could reduce the long-term
cost of family breakdown, which has been estimated at up to £100 billion
when crime, unemployment, lost taxes and other factors are included.

Mr Duncan Smith said couples heading for separation in Norway were able to
³work through what is going to happen with their children², which has ³a
very big effect on their thinking².

³Many of them think again about what they are going to embark on once they
really understand the consequences of their actions subsequently,² he said.

"This is an excellent approach and exactly the sort of thing we should be
looking into. 

³Too many couples break up without understanding the consequences for their
families. We should encourage people to face up to reality and make proper
arrangements that ensure the best outcome for their children."

In 1994, the Norwegian ministry of family affairs set up a scheme to provide
grants for relationship education programmes, teaching couples communication
skills and how to resolve conflicts. By 2008 the Norwegian government was
dispensing funds worth £600,000 to relationship charities and private
counselling groups.

The government also launched its own state-run programme for relationship
education for parents in the first year after the birth of their first
child, which is often the most difficult period in a marriage.

In recent years, more couples have been getting married and fewer have
divorced as relationships education programmes gain a higher profile in
Norway. 

Relate, the British relationship support group, backed the Norwegian
approach and welcomed Mr Duncan Smith¹s remarks.

Jenny North, Head of Public Policy at Relate, said too many couples only
turn to support when their relationship breaks down, when earlier education
could stop problems arising.

"We are particularly pleased to see that the Norway example explicitly set
out to reach couples who are cohabiting, before they even decide to get
married,² she said. ³This is vital given the statistics that show that
couples who cohabit with children, are more at risk of relationship
breakdown than married couples.

"Norway's government have taken an innovative approach to relationship
support and have even gone so far as to call couple relationships part of
public health. Relate has been putting pressure on recent governments to
share this view and it seems that our new government are certainly taking
this issue seriously.²

The article url: http://tinyurl.com/4c2zlsb

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