May Schedule Marriage & Family Building Series A monthly luncheon series to help equip pastors, lay leaders, and clinicians May 14 Dr. Lee Williams "Two Churches, One Marriage" 11:30-1:00pm June 4 Dr. Froma Walsh "Strengthening Family Resilience" 12 noon - 1:30pm Pine Rest Main Campus Postma Center Cost: $10 each, lunch included. Call 616.455.5279 to register A bi-weekly marriage program with mentor couples and a facilitator May 1 & 15, June 5 & 19 Thornapple Covenant Church 6:30 - 8:30pm Cost: free Childcare provided Call 616.363.5078 A weekly marriage prep class for couples marrying in a court setting May 10 & 24, 8:30am-12:30pm May 13 & 27, 6-10pm June 10 & 24, 6-10pm June 7 & 21, 8:30am-12:30pm Call 616.455.5279 to register
A research based, skills building curriculum designed to help couples communicate more effectively. Pine Rest O&A Building Next Dates in 2008: June 3 & 10 Cost: $100 per couple Call 616.281.6450 Family Wellness Program A free program of interactive family learning including topics on communication, resolving family conflict, family roles and values, and more! ICCF Family Haven Thursdays, 6 - 8 pm May 8 - June 12 Free meal and childcare for registered participants. Call 616.247.4949 |
HMGR partners with the Pine Rest Family Institute |
Opportunities: 1. Talk to your pastor / church leadership about starting The Third Option in your church 2. Talk to your community center about how to get a Family Wellness group started For more opportunities, call 616.455.5279 |
| "Two Churches, One Marriage" Speaker Coming to GR |
Dr. Lee Williams is featured presenter May 14 Lee Williams, Ph.D., from the University of San Diego will present Two Churches, One Marriage on May 14 at the Postma Center as part of the Marriage and Family Building Series. This presentation will be a valuable resource for clergy, therapists, and lay-leaders who work with interchurch couples. Two Churches, One Marriage is a free web-based program for interchurch couples that explores the potential challenges and rewards such couples experience. Dr. Williams will highlight strategies for dealing with these challenges utilizing findings from his research-based program. He will focus primarily on couples from different Christian churches and denominations, and will help churches facilitate a process of exploration and decision-making to help couples find solutions that are right for them. Click here to see the eight focus areas covered in Two Churches, One Marriage. Click here to find out how to register for this presentation ($10, 11:30am to 1:00pm, Postma Center). |
Wanted: Your Church as a Partner for the Third Option |
Send a representative from your church to the mini-training June 9 at Hillside Community Church The Third Option is the nationally acclaimed program for strengthening marriages through skill building. Mentor couples go through a different topic each meeting and couples can join at any time (there are 14 topics total, although couples can drop in any week in the cycle). In order to run this program and keep it a free resource in our community, we need several churches to participate. Partnering involves promoting the program in your church and seeking volunteers in your congregation who are passionate about marriage. Volunteers can choose to become a facilitator (one hour every other week) or a mentor couple (one hour every other week). The March 1 edition of the Grand Rapids Press ran an article about the positive effects of attending The Third Option. This article combined with a presentation on "Preventing Divorce: What You Can Do" intrigued leaders at Hillside Community Church, and they have taken the step of hosting an informational meeting and mini-training for those wanting to explo re bringing The Third Option to their church. Rev. Allen Pickett (lead facilitator and pastor of Knapp Street Reformed Church) will lead this training on June 9, 2008 from 7-9pm. Rev. Pickett will be leading the group through a Third Option meeting to give representatives an experiential view of how the program works as well. Call 616.222.4592 for details. |
Happy Mother's Day Moms! In contrast to reports emphasizing the stress of motherhood, The Motherhood Study reveals 81% of mothers report they are "very satisfied" with life. On the second Sunday of May, we give a special salute to our mothers here in the United States. We all know they deserve more than one day for our respect because of all they do. At HMGR, we especially recognize the values mothers (and fathers) can instill in their children through the example of a healthy marriage. The findings of The Motherhood Study paint a picture in sharp contrast to the portrait of U.S. mothers in much of the public dialogue today - and point to key elements of a mothers' agenda for social change. Click here to see the findings of The Motherhood Study. |
Divorce & Unwed Parenting Cost Taxpayers $112 Billion a Year Costs associated with family fragmentation dwarf costs of marriage-strengthening programs Did you see the recent national article appearing in the Grand Rapids Press titled, "Weak Families Cost Taxpayers, Study Shows?" We noticed it because the report shows that divorce and unwed parenting costs taxpayers $112 billion a year, and we hope it will prompt voters to prompt lawmakers to invest more into programs aimed at strengthening marriage. The report offers a powerful recommendation: use taxpayer funds to support marriage and families before they end up in costly breakdown. This study (researched by the Institute for American Values, Georgia Family Council, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, and Families Northwest) provides the first rigorous estimate of the costs to U.S. taxpayers of high rates of divorce and unmarried childbearing both at the national and state levels. In this study, the authors adopt the assumption that all of the taxpayer costs of divorce and unmarried childbearing stem from the effects that family fragmentation has on poverty, a causal mechanism that is well-accepted and has been reasonably well-quantified in the literature. Click here for more information about this important study. |
| Healthy Marriages Grand Rapids (HMGR) is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to helping adults and young people learn skills which enable successful relationships and marriages. We serve as an advocate and resource for marriage education and support programs which help teach relationship skills. HMGR is non-political, and our activities are funded through support from private donations and the Pine Rest Family Institute. |
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