Healthy Couple and Marital Relationships
The future health and stability of families and the prosperity of communities can be strongly influenced by the health and stability of marriages. Furthermore, the welfare of Georgia’s children can be greatly enhanced when their parents develop healthy relationship skills that result in healthy and stable families. The skills needed to develop and maintain a healthy and stable marriage can be learned! UGA Cooperative Extension is collaborating with community and state partners to offer programs and resources to help individuals and couples develop the skills needed to form and sustain healthy relationships. This website describes programs and resources for individuals and couples to develop and maintain healthy couple and marital relationships.
For more information about any of these programs or projects, please contact Dr. Ted Futris at tfutris@uga.edu
What are you interested in?
Helping Teens Develop Relationship Smarts
Relationship education is developmentally relevant and timely for youth because they are just beginning to have and understand romantic relationships. While some youth may have witnessed and learned about positive couple interactions from good models, many may have witnessed only poor models of couple relationships. Research has shown that educational programs on healthy relationships and marriages can help youth develop positive communication and conflict-management skills and reduce their risk for intimate partner violence and teen pregnancy. The decision-making and relationship-building skills youth can learn through this programming can also spill-over into other relationships (e.g., parent-child, teacher, peer, co-worker) as well.
Relationship Smarts is a research-based curriculum that incorporates hands-on activities to focus on skills and knowledge necessary for healthy dating relationships. The curriculum, developed by The Dibble Institute, offers developmentally appropriate information that address identity development, personal goals and values, what healthy (vs abusive) relationships look like, current relationship dynamics, important communication skills, and the promotion of future-orientated thinking about relationships.
College of Family and Consumer Sciences and 4-H Extension County Agents across Georgia are trained to provide Relationship Smarts workshops – find a trained agent near you.
If you are interested in more information, please contact your county College of Family and Consumer Sciences agent at 1-800-ASK-UGA1
Georgia Personal Responsibility and Education Program (PREP)
UGA Cooperative Extension has also partnered with the GA Department of Human Services (DHS) Division of Family and Children Services, the GA Department of Public Health and the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (GCAPP) to administer Georgia's Personal Responsibility and Education Program (PREP). Georgia PREP is designed to educate youth about healthy relationship development and on both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STI’s), including HIV/AIDS. Programs are being offered to high risk youth ages 10-19 through after-school programs in 10 counties across Georgia. For more information about Georigia PREP click here.
Preparing Couples for Marriage
Estimates suggest that each year in Georgia, one couple files for divorce for every two couples who get married. Couples who participate in premarital counseling or educational programs and use the skills they learn tend to feel more satisfied in marriage and are at lower risk for divorce. Did you know that Georgia couples who receive at least 6 hours of premarital counseling or educational services before filing for their marriage license can receive a $35.00 discount on their marriage license fee? If you live in or near Clarke, Colquitt or Forsyth County and you are engaged to be married or considering marriage, participate in our PREPARE program!
Athens, GA (Clarke County)
Indiviual sessions are available at the UGA ASPIRE Clinic. Call 706-542-4486 for more information and to schedule
an appointment, or complete and fax/email the registration form.
Moultrie, GA (Colquitt County)
Contact Andrea Scarrow, FACS County Extension Agent, for more information: 229-616-7455 or ascarrow@uga.edu
Cumming, GA (Forsyth County)
Contact Michele Melton, FACS County Extension Agent, for more information: 770-887-2418 or msmelton@uga.edu
Weekend Workshop! February 8-9, 2013
Engaged and married couples are invited to attend this PREPARE/ENRICH program in Cumming, GA.
For more information and to register, click here.
Healthy Relationship and Marriage Education Training (HRMET)
Improving the Lives of Chidlren through Healthy Couple Relationships and Stable Homes
Children whose parents have healthy relationships are at less risk for abuse, experience greater stability, and fare better on a broad range of child outcomes.
The Healthy Relationship and Marriage Education Training (HRMET) project is a five-year $1.2 million federally funded multi-state cooperative agreement with the Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children's Bureau. The goal of the HRMET project is to meet the safety, permanency, and well-being needs of vulnerable children in the child welfare system by increasing child welfare workers’ access to and implementation of relationship and marriage education. Through a partnership among Cooperative Extension Specialists in Human Development and Family Studies from land-grant universities in Missouri, Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa and Arkansas, a curriculum has been developed to train child welfare professionals to assess and serve the relationship needs of the individuals and couples they work with. Currently, this training curriculum is being piloted through graduate course seminars and community workshops. As well, online courses and training modules will be developed to facilitate accessibility to the information and to reinforce in-person trainings.
The HRMET curriculum, based on concepts developed by the National Extension Relationship and Marriage Education Network (NERMEN), provides information and tools that child welfare workers can use in their direct work with families. This curriculum addresses healthy marriage and relationship skills for populations underserved in the general population and overrepresented in the child welfare system. Specific target populations include families who have few resources, single parents, immigrant families, and ethnically diverse families. Training participants are being prepared to teach skills that reinforce essential characteristics of healthy relationships and marriages.
For more information contact Dr. Ted Futris, State Extension Specialist in Family Life and Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Family Development at the University of Georgia, at tfutris@uga.edu or 706-542-7566.
Upcoming Trainings in Georgia
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UGA Cooperative Extension Contact |
April 25, 2013 |
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Ted Futris, Email: tfutris@uga.edu |
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May 8, 2013 |
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May 9, 2013 |
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May 16, 2013 |
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June 6 , 2013 |
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June 11, 2013 |
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August 1, 2013 |
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Funding for this project was provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Grant: 90CT0151. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.
National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families
In partnership with ICF International, and a service of the Office of Family Assistance, Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services, the National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families promotes the value of healthy marriage and relationship education (MRE) skills and encourages their integration into safety-net service systems as a holistic approach to strengthening families. MRE consists of the following core skills: communication, relationship (interpersonal), parenting, financial literacy, and conflict resolution. These skills can be successfully integrated individually or collectively into social service delivery systems to enhance and support program goals. Integration strategies can range from simple information dissemination to full engagement where curriculum is integrated into existing service delivery systems.
The National Resource Center offers a variety of tools and resources designed to educate interested stakeholders in the benefits of integrating MRE into existing social service systems. We also provide a range of training, services and support to interested state, local and tribal government agencies as they work to integrate these MRE skills into their existing services in order to best support the families served in their community.
For more information and to learn about upcoming training opportunities, visit https://healthymarriageandfamilies.org/
Smart Steps for Stepfamilies
Nearly half of all marriages consist of a remarriage for one or both partners. It is estimated that one in three children will spend time in a stepfamily-like household. The research is clear that stepfamilies experience unique family developmental patterns and face unique issues that are related to healthy marital and family functioning. Healthy couple and stepfamily functioning requires negotiating clear roles and rules, forming realistic expectations, strengthening the stepparenting-stepchild relationship, and navigating relationships with children’s other parent(s).
Smart Steps is a research-based program that recognizes the complexities and the interdependent nature of relationships within stepfamilies. This comprehensive and interactive educational program is for couples in stepfamilies and their children. Each class focuses on the unique issues that stepcouples and stepfamilies face and the knowledge and skills that build relationship and family strength.
College of Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agents in various counties across Georgia are trained to provide Smart Step workshops - find a trained agent near you. If you are interested in more information, please contact your county College of Family and Consumer Sciences agent at 1-800-ASK-UGA1.
Related Links and Resources
Below are links to other websites with more resources you can access to support the development and maintenance of healthy couple and marital relationships.
Staff
Ted Futris
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