Thursday, September 23, 2004

HHS AWARDS $900,000 FOR HEALTHY MARRIAGE RESOURCE CENTER

Minnesota group to serve as national repository, clearinghouse

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced today the awarding of a $900,000 grant to the National Council on Family Relations in Minneapolis to create a nationwide repository for healthy marriage programs.

Dr. Wade F. Horn, HHS Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, announced the grant on behalf of President George W. Bush and Secretary Thompson at the University of Minnesota today. He was joined by Michael L. Benjamin and Bill Doherty, the current and past presidents of the National Council on Family Relations.

“The healthy marriage resource center will serve as the central clearinghouse for President Bush’s ongoing initiative to strengthen families through access to voluntary healthy marriage education,” said Horn. “Through research, statistics and analysis, it will help couples and individuals considering marriage get helpful information about how to form and sustain a healthy marriage.”

The National Council on Family Relations will develop and operate the healthy marriage resource center in partnership with five universities and the Child Trends organization of Washington, D.C. The universities involved are the University of Minnesota, Norfolk State University, Syracuse University, Brigham Young University and Texas Tech University.

The center will synthesize research and evaluate findings on healthy marriages, summarize relevant information about best practices and develop products and services designed to help inerested individuals, couples and organizations learn about effective approaches to creating and implementing innovative healthy marriage programs.

The grant of $900,000 is for one year, with potential funding of up to $4.5 million over five years. The grantee will create a website clearinghouse in addition to maintaining a healthy marriage program database for individuals, educators, practitioners and government officials.

For more information on President Bush’s Healthy Marriage Initiative, click here.