Strengthening Families Summit June 8 – 9The event, The Kansas Strengthening Families Summit, will take place Wednesday, June 8, on the campus of Newman University, 3100 McCormick, and Thursday, June 9 on the campus of Friends University, 2100 W. University, both in Wichita. The event will feature a keynote address by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, and a variety of presentations, speakers and workshops designed to gather the latest research about and the most effective approaches to making Kansas families stronger and healthier.
The event will gather together national, regional and state experts, policy makers, community leaders, and social service practitioners and clinicians who are committed to taking informed action to help strengthen Kansas families. The summit is designed to collect the latest research on the social and economic impact of healthy family relationships, learn about current evidence-based practices to strengthen families, and build new connections for state and community collaboration.
“A large focus of the summit will be to capture as much of each participants’ comments throughout the two days as we can, and to assimilate this into priorities and an action plan to benefit families in Kansas,” said Mike Duxler, Ph.D., a summit organizer who is associate professor of social work at Newman University and program manager of Marriage for Keeps, Catholic Charities, Wichita. “We want to share our collective expertise in the area of marriage and family, with the dual purpose of applying research findings and identifying innovative and impactful strategies that have a proven track record.”
Duxler noted that Brownback, who will join with members of his cabinet to speak at the summit, has stated that two main goals of his administration are to turn the economy around and to strengthen families, and that one can’t be done without the other.
Duxler said as many as 400 people are expected to attend the summit, representing many professions, groups and fields of interest, including medical, faith, African-American, Hispanic, business, government, the legal system, education, and many others. The summit is funded entirely from in-kind support from universities and financial contributions from local businesses and non-profit groups.
On June 8, sessions and presentations by nationally and regionally known speakers will take place during the day at Newman University, while 10 to 12 critical conversation forums made up of topic-specific issues related to family strengthening will take place in the evening. The evening forums will be held on the campuses of Newman, Friends, Wichita State University and the Kansas University Medical Center-Wichita, with no more than 15 people per group led by a national leader in each respective area. On June 9, the summit will feature a variety of sessions and topic-specific workshops led by many summit participants who spoke June 8. All workshops will take place on the Friends University campus.
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Workshop to address issues of married life Seminole Chronicle "There's a lot of research that's been done with marriage education with middle class, white couples, but not a lot of research has been done for couples ... |
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Married Couples Are No Longer a Majority, Census Finds
WASHINGTON — Married couples have dropped below half of all American households for the first time, the Census Bureau says, a milestone in the evolution of the American family toward less traditional forms.
Married couples represented just 48 percent of American households in 2010, according to data being made public Thursday and analyzed by the Brookings Institution. This was slightly less than in 2000, but far below the 78 percent of households occupied by married couples in 1950.
What is more, just a fifth of households were traditional families — married couples with children — down from about a quarter a decade ago, and from 43 percent in 1950, as the iconic image of the American family continues to break apart.
In recent history, the marriage rate among Americans was at its highest in the 1950s, when the institution defined gender roles, family life and a person’s place in society. But as women moved into the work force, cohabitation lost its taboo label, and as society grew more secular, marriage lost some of its central authority.
“The days of Ozzie and Harriet have faded into the past,” said William Frey, the senior demographer at Brookings who analyzed the data. (The proportion of married couples slipped below half over the past decade, but was first reported as a precise count by the 2010 census.)
Today, traditional patterns have been turned upside down. Women with college degrees are now more likely to marry than those with just high school diplomas, the reverse of several decades ago, said June Carbone, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and co-author of “Red Families v. Blue Families.”
Rising income inequality has divided American society, making college-educated people less likely to marry those without college degrees. Members of that educated group have struck a new path: they marry later and stay married. In contrast, women with only a high school diploma are increasingly opting not to marry the fathers of their children, whose fortunes have declined along with the country’s economic opportunities.
“Employment instability depresses marriage rates,” Ms. Carbone said. Explaining the reasoning, she said, “I can support myself and the kid, but not myself, the kid, and him.”
W. Bradford Wilcox, the director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, argues that the retreat from marriage is bad for society because it means less security for children. “It’s troubling because those kids are much more likely to be exposed to instability, complex family relations and poverty,” he said.
Married couples may be half of all households, but that does not mean that only half of Americans will ever be married. The overwhelming majority of Americans — with some exceptions — do eventually marry (though increasingly, working-class people do not stay married).
Households are changing in other ways. Americans are living longer than ever, so households now include a growing number of elderly singles, said Andrew J. Cherlin, a demographer at Johns Hopkins University. Other factors have been the large influx of immigrants, who tend to be single people in their 20s and 30s, and the growing number of young people who live together without being married.
There are 37 states, plus the District of Columbia, in which married couples make up fewer than 50 percent of all households, up from just 6 states in 2000, Mr. Frey said.
In all, 41 states showed declines in traditional households of married couples with children. In 2000, married couples with children were fewer than 20 percent of all households in just one state, plus the District of Columbia. Now they are fewer than a fifth in 31 states, Mr. Frey said.
The biggest change for the decade was the jump in households headed by women without husbands — up by 18 percent in the decade. The next largest rise was in households whose occupants were not a family — up by about 16 percent, Mr. Frey said.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Chris Gersten <updates@divorcereform.info>
Date: Mon, May 23, 2011 at 3:07 PM
Subject: Announcing the Coalition for Divorce Reform
To: Bill <billcoffin68@gmail.com>
From: Chris Gersten <updates@divorcereform.info>
Date: Mon, May 23, 2011 at 3:07 PM
Subject: Announcing the Coalition for Divorce Reform
To: Bill <billcoffin68@gmail.com>
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via marcmagazine.com
via heritage.org
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Parental Divorce Reduction Act
- Section: Site Articles -
- In: Resources and Information
Overview of Parental Divorce Reduction Act
- The Parental Divorce Reduction Act is a new proposal to reduce unnecessary divorce.
- A broad consensus of studies finds that divorce has serious negative lifelong psychological consequences for children, and costs taxpayers billions of dollars annually. A significant number of these divorces are unnecessary. The goal of this Act is to reduce "unnecessary" divorces where minor children are involved.
- Before filing for divorce, parents of minor children will be required to participate in four to eight hours of face-to-face divorce education classes. The classes will provide information on the effects of divorce on children and adults and teach research-based communication and other relationship skills that help strengthen marriages.
- After completing the classes, parents will need to wait an additional eight months before they may file for divorce, a period that may serve as an opportunity for reflection and reconciliation.
- Exceptions are made for a spouse who is physically abused, abandoned for eighteen months, married to a partner who is incarcerated for five years, or married to someone addicted to alcohol or drugs who refuses to seek treatment and rehabilitation.
- The legislation is budget neutral, requiring the divorcing parties to pay for the cost of the divorce education. TANF funds, when available, may be used to help defray the divorce education fees for the indigent. The cost to the couple should be modest and not exceed $100-200.
- Online divorce education modules will be made available for persons in rural areas or elsewhere who do not have access to face to face divorce education.