Ohio Strengthening Families Newsletter

Spotlight: Cincinnati Groups Help Marriages Stay Strong

By Larry Pierce, 'Vision Ohio' Staff Writer

You’re being deployed to Iraq. And you’re buzzing with questions. Among the most important are uncertainties about your marriage and family.

How can you know your marriage will survive the long, stressful separation? How can you make certain your family won’t be strangers when you return?

A group of Cincinnati faith-based and community organizations is offering a program especially to help the families of military reservists stay strong when a husband or wife is called away to war. It will serve 400 reservists and their spouses and families.

A Multi-faceted Project

The program for reservists is part of a multi-faceted project funded through an Ohio Strengthening Families Initiative (OSFI) collaboration grant. The grant serves approximately 2,000 families in Cincinnati and Hamilton County. The goal of the project is to strengthen marriages and committed relationships among couples who are either engaged, married or living together.

Services provided include:
▪ Mentoring
▪ Curricula
▪ Wrap-around support services
▪ Public education and awareness campaigns

Thirteen Cincinnati-area organizations are collaborating in the project. The project is led by Beech Acres Parenting Center, a nonprofit provider of parent education and therapeutic services. The impressive lineup of providers includes grassroots, community and faith-based organizations that already work with couples and families.

These groups are:
▪ Community Action Agency
▪ Urban Appalachian Council
▪ S.O.A.R. Development Corporation
▪ Dr. Margie Wells Davis & Associates
▪ Archdiocese of Cincinnati
▪ Rape Crisis and Abuse Center
▪ Clinical Counseling Services of Maranatha Ministries
▪ Services United for Mothers and Adolescents
▪ Family Service
▪ Catholic Engaged Encounter
▪ Agape Ministries
▪ LifeWay Ministries
▪ Veil Ministries

Many coalition members will be trained and certified to provide marriage education. The Hamilton County Job and Family Services’ WORKNET and Super Jobs programs will pitch in, providing job relationship skills education.

Couples get help in various ways Expected outcomes of the project are:
▪ Case management for 60 couples
▪ Mediation and consultation services for 25 couples
▪ Marriage/relationship skills for 40 fathers
▪ Marriage and relationship-building training for 400 U.S. Navy reservists and their spouses or significant others
▪ Classroom training for 218 clients through the Hamilton County Job and Family Services’ WORKNET program and 960 through the Hamilton County Job and Family Services’ Super Jobs
▪ Marriage education classes for 30 couples
▪ Marriage retreat weekend for 30 couples

Contact:
Pam McKieBeech Acres Parenting Centerpmckie@beechacres.org(513) 231-7205, ext. 280http://www.beechacres.org/main/