Projects & Resources: Program Development

Click on Extension Resources to learn about existing resources from Extension. Here you will find information about upcoming and past training events, access a variety of publications, and identify Extension developed programs designed to support healthy couple and marital relationships. To share an Extension-developed program or resource, please email us.

In addition to identifying and promoting existing Cooperative Extension System programs and resources, NERMEN is creating new curricula and educational resources to support the development and maintenance of healthy couple and marital relationships for diverse audiences.

NERMEN Receives Federal Grant!

Healthy Relationship and Marriage Education Training. A multi-state collaborative team within NERMEN was awarded $1.2 Million by the Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children's Bureau to fund a five year project, Child Welfare Training: Curriculum Development and Evaluation for Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education. The project team includes Extension Specialists from the University of Missouri (David Schramm and Kim Allen, Lead Principal Investigators), University of Georgia (Ted Futris), Iowa State University (Anthony Santiago), North Carolina State University (Andrew Behnke), University of Arkansas (Wally Goddard and James Marshall), Auburn University (Francesca Adler-Baeder), Kansas State University (Charlotte Shoup Olsen), and University of Illinois (Angela Wiley). The project will involve developing and pilot testing a marriage and relationship education curriculum as well as in-person and distance education trainings for child welfare professionals, graduate students and other professionals, including Cooperative Extension educators, working with or preparing to work with adults and families.  This curriculum will address healthy marriage and relationship skills for populations underserved in the general population and overrepresented in the child welfare system. Ultimately the project will yield a research and evidence based national training resource and curriculum that will promote the development of healthy relationships and marriages across the country. For more information about the project contact David Schramm or Kim Allen

New Resource!

Cultivating Healthy Couple and Marital Relationships: A Guide to Effective Programming. (80 pages; click on title to see sample and introduction) Based on presentations from the 2006 Family Life E-Seminar and papers later published in a special issue of The Forum for Family and Consumer Issues (released May 2007; click here for description), this resource offers theoretically and empirically informed implications for designing, delivering, and evaluating relationship and marriage education programs for diverse audiences. While supplies last, order a printed/ bound copy of the guide for only $10.00 (Click here for Order Form). Questoins? Contact Ted Futris

Coming Soon!

National Extension Relationship and Marriage Education Model.  This research-based, theoretically grounded and best-practice informed model will present key patterns of thinking and behaviors associated with healthy, stable couple relationships and marriages that can be taught in an educational setting. The preliminary model, was originally drafted on September 15-16, 2005.