09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Training Marriage Education Practitioners

Marriage educators are the face of your marriage and relationship education program. Proper training is critical to your program’s success. These individuals must have the knowledge and skills to appropriately respond to questions about the curriculum, identify unhealthy (and potentially violent) relationships, set boundaries, and effectively facilitate and/or present information. This is no small task, […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Intake and Assessment: An Approach to Serving Couples

There is not consensus among practitioners or researchers as to who is/is not appropriate for MRE. However, most MRE programs are not generally designed to work with highly distressed couples (Retrouvaille is one such program) or those requiring intensive intervention (for issues related to substance abuse, mental health problems, infidelity, etc.). In fact, MRE is […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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When an Incentive Isn’t an Incentive

An incentive, for purposes of this Tip Sheet, means a reward available for participating in a marriage education program. An incentive may have direct value, like a restaurant gift card, or may have an indirect value, like a certificate of completion for a free/reduced marriage license. Incentives can be for each couple, participant or just […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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A Win-Win Partnership: MRE and Child Protective Services

Many social service programs share common goals although they may vary widely by funding stream, service delivery strategy and/or target population. The marriage and relationship education (MRE) field and the child welfare system both strive to strengthen families and improve child outcomes. MRE practitioners may want to consider building partnerships with child protective services (CPS) […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Writing a Press Release for a Healthy Marriage Program

A press release is a common way to promote an upcoming event or share important news. These are especially important tools for publicly funded healthy relationship and marriage programs that may not have a large marketing budget but want to raise community awareness of the services they offer. This Tip Sheet provides a formatting guide […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Intermarriage: What Marriage Educators Should Know

The rate of divorce for first marriages is slightly higher for interracial couples than it is for couples that marry within their race. Many interracial and interethnic couples attend marriage/relationship education (MRE) workshops because they experience relationship challenges that are related to their racial/ ethnic background. People/families from different parts of the world can have […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Writing Radio PSAs

On-air radio spots can be an effective way to get the word out regarding upcoming healthy marriage events. This Tip Sheet will help you create your own public service announcement for radio and get the results you desire. Keep in mind that radio stations rarely run any spots longer than :30 second spots as you […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Making Marriage Education Relevant to the African American Community

Marriage education generally offers useful skills for couples. Nevertheless, practitioners may need to adapt curriculum materials to help participants learn and remember lessons. This tip sheet provides strategies for fine tuning programs toward the African American community. The tips can be applied to any curriculum, but it is important to note that marriage educators should […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Writing Television PSAs

Public Service Announcements (PSAs) or on-air TV spots are a great way to get the word out regarding your healthy marriage initiative. You can visually show people examples of a workshop and what marriage education “”looks like.”” However, television advertising is expensive. There are costs to produce an advertising campaign and to purchase air time. […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Preventing Infidelity: How to Stop Affairs Before They Start

Extra-marital affairs don’t “”just happen.”” Engaging in an affair can have devastating consequences that affect your life forever. There are clear steps and choices that lead into an affair. By following the tips provided here you can “”affair proof”” your marriage and prevent infidelity before it begins. (Author abstract modified)

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