Office of Family Assistance
Healthy Marriage Demonstration Grant

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

Organization Description: The Sioux City Indian Education Committee was established in 1982 to provide services for meeting the unique needs of Indian students attending public schools. The two components of the organization are tutoring in academic subjects and a cultural enhancement program to emphasize Native American arts, music, literature and history.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The Sioux City Indian Education Committee plans to provide marriage enhancement and marriage skills training programs for low-income married couples residing in Siouxland. The Siouxland region consists of Indian reservations in adjacent parts of Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Some of the objectives of the program are to improve communication and communication skills between couples, improve marriage skills through culturally-appropriate workshops and increase family access to health and social services. The Healthy Marriage Education and Enrichment Program has four components, which are a Traditional Peacegiving/Peacemaking Initiative, Family Advocacy Program, marriage skills-building workshops and a referral to appropriate health and social services.

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 mentoring programs, which use married couples as role models and mentors in at-risk communities (#7).

Organization Description: Since 1996, Iowa Family Policy Center (IFPC), a nonprofit organization, has been dedicated to equipping, empowering, and encouraging Iowans to build communities where families and marriages are valued and strengthened. IFPC and partners will spearhead the healthy marriage initiatives and will continue to promote the formation and maintenance of marriages.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: Resulting from collaborative efforts, the grant funds will be used to expand and strengthen premarital and marriage enrichment and develop regional collaboration support centers that will expand marriages and premarital efforts into communities.

Office of Family Assistance
Healthy Marriage Demonstration Grant

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

Organization Description: Catholic Charities of Wichita, Kansas has been involved with the community for 63 years and will be partnering with the Kansas Department of Social Services and Rehabilitative Services, Newman University, the Kansas Healthy Marriage Institute, Catholic Charities of Salina, Inc., Diocese of Dodge City-Catholic Social Services, Catholic Charities-Catholic Community Services of Kansas City, Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, and the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita to reach its mission of serving low-income married couples in various regions throughout Kansas. Through this partnership Catholic Charities

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: Catholic Charities, Inc. plans to provide marriage enhancement and marriage skills training programs to 500 married couples in the programs’ first year. The goal of the Healthy Marriage Demonstration Project is to strengthen existing marriages of low-income couples and their families. Some of the objectives are to improve communication between couples, improve conflict resolution skills and improve marital satisfaction among participants. Marriage enhancement and enrichment activities include workshops on effective communication with ones spouse, relationship commitment and emotional intelligence as supplements to the healthy marriage curriculum.

Office of Family Assistance
Healthy Marriage Demonstration Grant

Allowable Activities: Marriage education, marriage skills, and relationship skills programs that may include parenting skills, financial management, conflict resolution, and job and career advancement for non-married pregnant women and non-married expectant fathers (#3).

Organization Description: The Healthy Families and Counseling Support (HFCS) is a non-project organization with a network within the counties of Clay and Platte, Missouri. Since 1997, HFCS has provided family support services to first-time at-risk parents.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The Healthy Families Counseling and Support plans to provide marriage education, marriage skills, and relationship skills programs that may include parenting skills, financial management, conflict resolution, and job and career advancement for non-married pregnant women and non-married expectant fathers (#3). They will use a program as a cultural model to essentially reach out to 100 couples per year by teaching a 21 week couple’s workshop. In addition, family support services will be provided on an ongoing basis.

Allowable Activity: Marriage education, marriage skills, and relationship skills programs that may include parenting skills, financial management, conflict resolution, and job and career advancement for non-married pregnant women and non-married expectant fathers (#3).

Organization Description: The Curators of the University of Missouri is a non-profit organization located on the campus of the University of Missouri. Their primary goal is to increase couples’ odds of achieving a healthy marriage within the state of Missouri.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The Curators of the University of Missouri plans to provide marriage education, marriage skills, and relationship skills programs that may include parenting skills, financial management, conflict resolution, and job and career advancement for non-married pregnant women and non-married expectant fathers. They will use the “Love Cradle” curriculum as a cultural model to essentially reach out to 660 couples per year. In addition they will (1) Provide a two-day marriage retreat, (2) Provide 11 follow-up educational meetings after the marriage retreat, (3) Provide WarmLine contact with the couples and approximately 4,120 other individuals to coach, reinforce lessons, refer to community resources, and offer ongoing support. (4) Create and distribute a modular Connecting for Baby (CFB) Toolkit with healthy marriage literature and curricula for professionals throughout Missouri reaching an estimated 16,500 people and, (5) Create and distribute public education via television, radio and web to raise awareness among 825,000 individuals about the benefits of a healthy marriage.

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); and divorce reduction programs that teach relationship skills (#6).

Organization Description: Forest Institute is an institution of higher learning in the field of clinical psychology with extensive experience in marriage education. Forest Institute is a direct service provider for this grant. Partner agencies include: Pregnancy Care Center, Ozarks Marriage Matters, ADsmith Communications, and faith-based and community-based organizations.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The program grant funds will be used to increase public awareness of the importance of healthy marriage, increase adolescents’ ability to form and sustain healthy relationships by serving 8,000 teens over the course of 5 years, and increase the ability for couples to form and sustain healthy marriages and relationships. Over the course of the 5 year grant, it is anticipated that 1,000 unwed expectant mothers and fathers, 1,000 persons interested in marriage, 500 premarital couples, 1,000 married couples and 500 couples at risk for divorce will be trained in marriage education.

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: St. Louis Healthy marriage Coalition is a collaboration of 16 organizations. These organizations include: Taylor Communications, Nurses for Newborns, Lutheran Family & Children’s Services, Our Lady’s Inn, St. Louis University, Grace Hill Head Start, and St. Charles Lwanga Center, etc.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The program grant funds will be used to implement a culturally competent public advertising campaign to reach 400,000 people; educate 540 high school students annually on the value of marriage and relationship skills; educate 300 non-married expectant parents annually on marriage and relationship skills; educate 60 engaged couples annually on marriage; educate 334 married couples annually on marriage; and implement a mentoring program that trains and supports 75 mentoring couples in year 2 of the grant and up to 87 couples in year 5.

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: Better Family Life is a non-profit organization, established in 1983, to provide solutions to problems that arise within the American family. BFL has forged partnerships with many private, corporate, civic, and community-based organizations. For this grant, BFL will serve as the fiscal agent, the project director and will employ the project coordinator. Partners for this grant are: University of WI, Milwaukee – for evaluation and training; Father Support, Inc. – to provide marriage education; A New Cornerstone – to provide marriage education; and Sullivan Community Capital – financial education.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The program grant funds will be used to launch a city-wide healthy marriage social marketing campaign, deliver marriage education to 400 youth using the “Keys to a Healthy Marriage” curriculum, deliver marriage education to 300 TANF-eligible recipients using the “PREP” curriculum, deliver pre-marital education to 200 participants using the “PREP” curriculum, deliver marriage education to 50 unmarried fathers using “PREP” curriculum, deliver marriage education to reduce divorce rates for 50 couples using the “PREP” curriculum, and will deliver a marriage mentoring program to 150 couples also using the “PREP” curriculum. (All of these numbers are annual numbers.)