Getting Involved

Community Organizing

Overview

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is committed to helping communities build comprehensive Community Healthy Marriage Initiatives (CHMI) designed to help couples, who choose marriage for themselves, form and sustain a healthy marriage. This initiative is central to ACF's mission of ensuring the well being of children.

Additional information about developing CHMIs can be found in the Technical Assistance section of the website.

Healthy Marriage Education

Over the past few decades researchers have discovered a wealth of information about the Benefits of Healthy Marriages for women, men, children and communities. We need your help in educating the public about the positive outcomes that are associated with healthy marriages.

Another way to become involved in this initiative is by providing marriage education services. Marriage education services teach individuals and couples the basic relationship skills and knowledge researchers have found help couples to form and sustain healthy marriages.

You don't need to be a mental health professional to become trained in delivering marriage education services. Marriage education is not the same as marriage counseling. Researchers found that lay leaders, when properly trained and supervised, can be as effective at delivering marriage education services as mental health professionals.

If you are interested in providing marriage education services, we recommend that you become trained in a research-based program.

Events

• ACF Annual Welfare Research And Evaluation Conference: Promoting and Strengthening Healthy Marriages and Families through TANF, June 5-7, 2005

Additional Information

• Building Strong Families
• Oklahoma Marriage Initiative
• Healthy Ma3B33Brriages, Grand Rapids
• Americanvalues.org
• Smart Marriages, The Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education, L.L.C
• Association for Couples in Marriage Enrichment (ACME)
• Keys to a Healthy Marriage New!