About NERMEN: Why This Call to Action?

• There is mounting research evidence that trends of increasing marital and family instability are negatively impacting children, adults, families, and communities. The research is clear: healthy relationships and healthy marriages, and resulting family stability specifically, benefit the physical, social, and emotional well-being of adults and children. In addition, there are linkages with workplace and community well-being indicators (e.g., lower turn-over, greater productivity, greater financial stability, greater community volunteerism, and greater community economic stability).

• In the context of unhealthy relationships and unhealthy and unstable marriages, we find greater incidences of physical and mental illness, maltreatment among family members, delinquency among youth, and community instability.

• State-level (e.g., Colorado, Oklahoma, Florida, Louisiana, Utah) and national survey findings indicate a very high level of need and interest in relationships and marriage education program offerings among community members. Interest level is high among a broad population, including lower-resource populations and youth.

• The federal administration has emphasized the need to promote the availability and accessibility of educational resources that strengthen relationships and marriages. Cooperative Extension Educators have a long history of addressing marital quality in educational programs; therefore CES is a natural partner in this current effort.

• Recent CES work has focused on building a coherent system of resources and guides for best practices.