Office of Family Assistance
Healthy Marriage Demonstration Grant

Allowable Activities: Pre-marital education and marriage skills training for engaged couples and for couples or persons interested in marriage (#4) and marriage enhancement and marriage skill training programs for married couples (#5).

Organization Description: Samaritan Counseling Centers (SCC) was founded in October 1983, as a non-profit organization by men and women at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Their mission is to promote psychological and spiritual health and wholeness through accessible, highly competent pastoral counseling, psychotherapy, and education. SCC is a certified mental health agency and has seven locations across the Portland metro area, each of which is located in a church (representing different denominations).

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: SCC plans to provide pre-marital education and marriage skills training for engaged couples and for couples or individuals interested in marriage, as well as marriage enhancement and marriage skills training programs for married couples. They will hold nine classes and serve 80 couples in year one (30 pre-marital, 50 married). They will Hold 19 classes by Year five and serve 50 pre-marital and 103 married couples. Couples will gain skills needed to attain and maintain a healthy marriage, including improved communication, improved conflict resolution abilities, and strengthened commitment to increasing marital stability. Five types of classes will be provided in order to meet the variety of needs of couples and booster sessions will be offered for couples to increase their skills. In addition, couples may take multiple classes based on their needs and interests. Couples will attend three two-hour classes and three one-hour individualized trainings, although couples in acute distress or serious conflict will receive 15 hours.

Office of Family Assistance
Healthy Marriage Demonstration Grant

Allowable Activities: Public advertising campaign (#1); education in high schools on the value of marriage (#2); marriage education, marriage skills, and relationship skills programs for non-married pregnant women and non-married expectant fathers (#3); pre-marital education and marriage skills training for engaged couples and for couples interested in marriage (#4); marriage enhancement and marriage skills training programs for married couples (#5); divorce reduction programs that teach relationship skills (#6); and marriage mentoring programs which use married couples as role models and mentors in at-risk communities (#7).

Organization Description: “NWFS is a non-profit, non-sectarian corporation dedicated to providing excellent educational materials, resources, and services that enhance and protect the dignity of the human person and successful family life.” NWFS will be partnering with Catholic Charities and Multnomah County Health Department to provide services.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The program grant funds will be used to conduct a media campaign on the value and skills of marriage to reach approximately 1,000,000 residents of the Portland metropolitan area per year; will provide outreach to 5,000 high school and college students to educate them on relationship skills including abstinence education classes annually; will provide skill-based marriage education classes for 175 non-married pregnant parents, 800 – 1,000 engaged couples, and 1,000 – 1,500 married couples per year. NWFS will establish a culturally competent mentor couple program with 50 – 60 couples per year.

Office of Family Assistance
Healthy Marriage Demonstration Grant

Allowable Activity: Marriage enhancement and marriage skills training programs for married couples (#5).

Organization Description: The Northwest Marriage Institute has a staff with over 20 years of experience in marriage education and will partner with organizations in the Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon areas. The project director, Dr. Robert Whiddon, has also developed two marriage education workshops for married couples and couples interested in marriage.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The Healthy Marriage Demonstration Grant for the Northwest Marriage Institute will serve low-income married couples by providing them with marriage enhancement and marriage skills training programs. Some of the objectives of the program are to offer successful marriage education workshops to couples and help married couples apply the marriage skills that are taught. Desired outcomes include an increased number of low-income couples acquiring the skills for a healthy marriage and an increased availability to low-income couples of opportunities for continued training. The program will implement the following activities: recruiting couples in the targeted area for marriage training; providing relationship skills training in communication and conflict resolution; and providing opportunities for booster sessions to reinforce the skills that have been learned.

Allowable Activities: Public advertising campaign (#1); education in high schools on the value of marriage (#2); marriage education, marriage skills, and relationship skills programs for non-married pregnant women and non-married expectant fathers (#3); pre-marital education and marriage skills training for engaged couples and for couples interested in marriage (#4); marriage enhancement and marriage skills training programs for married couples (#5); and marriage mentoring programs which use married couples as role models and mentors in at-risk communities (#7).

Organization Description: Teen-Aid, Inc., a non-profit organization, was established in 1981 to promote character and abstinence-until-marriage by helping children and their parents work together to teach life skills. Teen-Aid also has a curriculum related to its mission that has been sold in 50 states and 30 countries. Partner organizations are Healthy Families Inland Northwest, Whitworth College and Spokane County Domestic Violence Consortium.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The program funds will be used to equip small communities and rural populations with the skills its residents need to raise the awareness of the value and importance of marriage and reduce the divorce rate in this geographic area. Some of the activities to be implemented are a public advertising campaign to reach all the residents in this target population; presentations to 1,500 local high school students in their Economics and Consumer Science classes to teach relationship skills; to reach 100 non-married pregnant women and non-married expectant fathers to teach them relationship skills; provide marital education classes to 200 pre-marital, 200 married and 50 struggling couples and to provide a marriage mentoring program to a minimum of 50 engaged and/or married couples.