Family Connections in Alabama By Donna Gullatte, Urban Regional Agent, Madison County

There are many benefits to having a healthy relationship and a stable marriage that include living longer, better mental and physical health, being happier, higher income, and the opportunity to build more wealth for children. Healthy relationships help to build a foundation for healthy growth and a more stable environment for children.

In 2002, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the Department of Health and Human Services launched the Healthy Marriage Initiative. ACF designed the initiative to support President Bush's goals to promote and increase healthy marriages by focusing resources on strengthening marriages and preparing interested individuals and couples for healthy marriages. Several agencies collaborated to write a grant to address this issue and received $300,000 that will be awarded over a three-year period. These funds will be used to support the Family Connections in Alabama-Special Improvement Project.

Extension's Urban Affairs Unit has the task of implementing the Family Connections in Alabama-Special Improvement Project in Madison County at its satellite facility, the Family Life Center. The Family Connections in Alabama Project is a partnership between the Alabama Children's Trust Fund, the Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Alabama Healthy Marriage Initiative, the Alabama Office of Child Support Enforcement, Auburn University's-Family Development & Human Studies Department, the Madison County Department of Human Resources, and the Family Life Center.

Family Connections is designed to promote healthy development for children in Madison County, while offering healthy relationship education to ethnic and culturally-diverse and unmarried or married couples who have at least one child together under the age of five. The goals of the project are to:

• Help individuals to become more independent and to believe he/she deserves and can maintain a healthy relationship
• Improve a couple's knowledge about the importance of stable relationships, marriages, and families
• Emphasize the importance of two-parent involvement in the lives of children
• Stress the importance of consistent and reliable support for children by both parents

Couples participate in 12 two-hour sessions based on the Loving Couples Loving Children Curriculum developed by New York Times bestselling authors Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Gottman. Workshops are interactive and designed to give parents the tools they need to make their relationships work, both with each other and with their children. The Loving Couples Loving Children workshops have covered such topics as:

• Two Sides to Every Fight
• Connect After the Baby Comes
• Children from Previous Relationships
• Compromise
• The Involved Dad
• Dads Talk

The workshops are offered throughout the year at various times of the day to reach clientele that may have scheduling conflicts. The clients are also treated to an evening meal and babysitting services if needed. In addition to those incentives, couples are:

• Offered assistance to complete an affidavit of paternity
• Offered amended birth certificates (fee waived)
• Awarded baby bucks

Baby bucks are provided in the form of a gift card at the end of the 12-week period to couples to use for family needs. The bucks along with other gift items donated from local businesses, serve as incentives for couples to participate in the sessions and to help initiate couple and family time together.

This project gives Extension the opportunity to recruit clients on a different level as project staff work to create healthier environments for children. Participants will know that partnering and parenting can be done together and successfully with the right training.

For more information about this project, please contact Donna Gullatte, Family Life Center, at (256) 536-4779.

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