FAITH-BASED Organizations
IF NOT YOU, THEN WHO?
(ANY faith-based organization-not limited to Jewish or Christian faiths)

Marriage was a Bad Word

Interesting... "marriage" has not been a word that has been popular for a long time. Many are too afraid to offend those -who are not married- to mention (without hesitation) marriage in a pronounced manner as a noble institution. The entertainment industry certainly downplays its benefits while emphasizing its pitfalls and hardships.

What the Liberal and the Conservative Think Tanks Say

There is much research on the effects of the decline in marriage on our society. This research is done by liberals, conservatives, faith-based and secular, but the result is the same. Individuals tend to have greater measures of health when part of safe healthy marital unions. Is the Bush administration encouraging people to get married? No (there are all kinds of reasons why marriage may not be a good choice). For those who have seen relationship failures, or abuse, but who desire healthy relationships, the government is providing education to increase skills for success to those who want to learn. Most people say they want to be in loving relationships. So why not help people learn to make those relationships healthy, happy and safe?  Is FAR encouraging people to enter into relationships with people who are abusive or to remain in a marriage if the partner becomes abusive? Absolutely not. Above all people should be safe.

Relationship education is for all people old or young, for all educational levels and socioeconomic groups, including people who have already been or are in healthy relationships. There is always more to know!

Health Marriage Initiatives Provide Educational Tools

What the Healthy Marriage Initiative is meant to do is to increase the pleasure and stability of marital unions, especially for children that the commitment of marriage can bring. But bad marriages are not good for individuals or families. FAR hopes to provide avenues for the staff of faith-based organizations to become trained to lead educational seminars that provide tools for families to create stability and safety and increase the pleasure that a marriage can offer. These programs include teaching individuals how to think in healthy ways to achieve outcomes that bring a sense of competence and good feelings, how to manage emotions and differences of opinions when life is difficult and how to manage conflicts in strategic and effective ways. Some programs teach tools for mentoring of couples by couples in faith based organizations.  Other programs teach tools for relationship enhancement throughout the life of the family, in good times and in times of distress, including programs that teach children to make healthy choices in choosing peers with whom they wish to associate.

The Government Became Smarter

Faith-based organizations are powerful in the lives of their congregations in too many ways to count. President Bush recognizes that the separation of faith-based organizations from traditional federal funding has been a tradition in much need of change. Faith-based organizations can reach far more people than the government agencies alone can do. Faith-based organizations are a powerful key to curbing the tide of family dissolution through education, compassion and care of families. The welfare reform legislation is likely to pass by early spring 2004. This will enable faith-based organizations, who are part of Healthy Marriage Initiatives, to apply for federal funding as a broad-based community effort. This funding can assist faith-based organizations in reaching their congregations with relationship education that can be a kind of vaccination to lessen marital discord and to strengthen families.

Join along with FAR the Dallas Fort Worth Healthy Marriage Initiative

See FAR's "Partner" page to learn how to become a collaborative partner with FAR. FAR can provide your organization services on several levels. Your requirement is only that you do what you are already doing!  And FAR hopes that you will set out to help strengthen families that you already serve by initiating programs of your choice to lift emotional literacy and practical relationship skills. Once your organization becomes a partner of FAR, you can even post your events on FAR's website to let the community know when you are having marriage and family strengthening events! The website will become a clearinghouse for events to help Dallas Fort Worth families!

See FAR's upcoming TRAININGS and Ready Your Members to Apply for Federal Funding through the Broad-based Community Effort to Strengthen Dallas Fort Worth Families

Watch FAR's schedule of events on our website or call for more information. SEE FAR's UPCOMING FAITH-BASED MARRIAGE MENTOR TRAINING (February 20-21, 2004) for faith-based settings to set up mentoring systems for couples by couples within your organization or congregation!  Or, if you want to get a faster jump on the educational seminars for relationship skills, call FAR and discuss a training specifically for your organization or congregation.

FAR look forward to working with you. If we work in a wonderful collaborative spirit, we can surely move mountains and help thousands of Dallas and Fort Worth families have safe, happy homes!

***Great News: The national SMART MARRIAGES conference will be in Dallas, Texas on July 8-11, 2004!
Visit: www.smartmarriages.com for more information