State Initiatives - Arkansas
Extension Point of Contact
H. Wallace Goddard, Ph.D.
Professor and Family Life Specialist
University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service
Box 391, Little Rock, AR 72204
Phone: 501.671.2104 Email: wgoddard@uaex.edu
James P. Marshall, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Family Life Specialist
University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service
Box 391, Little Rock, AR 72204
Phone: 501.671.2202 Email: jpmarshall@uaex.edu
Current Projects/Activities
Arkansas Healthy Marriage Initiative
Arkansas Cooperative Extension is working with faith, university, and community partners across the state to improve the health of marriages by providing common vision, up to date research, and information on proven marriage resources. www.armarriage.org
Past Projects/Activities
Marriage and Fatherhood Education for Arkansans
Arkansas Cooperative Extension received $500,000 from DWS and the AR Transitional Employment Board to provide training on marriage and fatherhood for faith and community leaders statewide. Overall, 126 and 120 people were trained in the Marriage Garden and Parenting Journey curriculum, respectively, in order to deliver these programs in their own congregations and communities.
With marital education, program evaluations of participants display increases in knowledge (greater awareness of requirements to sustain a healthy marriage), skills (greater ability to listening and communicating lovingly), and attitudes (higher perceptions towards their spouses and desire to be a better spouse). Similarly, with fatherhood education, program evaluations show increased and improved parenting knowledge, skills, and attitudes in participants (Project period: November 2006 to July 2008).
The Arkansas Healthy Marriage Study
Arkansas Cooperative Extension worked with the Arkansas Healthy Marriage Initiative and the University of Arkansas at Little Rocks's Institute of Government Survey Research Center who conducted a telephone survey in the fall of 2004 with 1200 married Arkansans. The study explored marital outcomes, attitudes toward marriage, the types of marriage resources that are pereceived as most helfpul and most likely to be used, perceptions of marriage education/counseling, and religious habits and attitudes in relation to marital health. Results are available online at www.armarriage.org and were shared with media and policymakers. (Project period: 2005-2006)
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