Our Mission "To Promote and Strengthen the Institution of Healthy Marriage in the Huntsville/Madison County Community"
Some Initial Marriage Resources and Services
Huntsville Association for Pastoral Care
Marriage Enrichment and Strengthening Community Resources
(In Development)
Local Congregational Initiatives
Southside Baptist Church: Teaches a 10-week course called “Intimate Encounters” on Sunday evenings. There is also a 10-week advanced course that includes a weekend retreat. This course is offered twice a year and is led by two lay couples. There is no charge for this course and it is open to the public. The content covers such topics as intimacy needs, family of origin, forgiveness, friendship, sexuality and spirituality.
Willowbrook Baptist Church: Twice a year a 12-week premarital class called “Marriage Mentors” is offered with each couple being assigned a mentor. Occasionally a Sunday School does a marriage class. Presently, one class is teaching “Song of Solomon.” Occasional weekend retreats for couples are also offered. The next one to be held is October 22-23rd. This church has a licensed marriage counselor on staff. He teaches the premarital classes, leads the retreats and does marriage counseling. In conjunction with Madison Baptist Association, they are working on a program to strengthen ministers’ families, with ministers considering requiring a marriage covenant between couples who come in to be married who are non-members.
Local Individuals and Groups
Jane Bloemetjie, LCSW - Marriage Counseling
256-603-8076
Marriage Education Program: "Love is Forever" - FlyerA, FlyerB (MS Word Doc)
CPREP for Churches - Curriculum (MS Word Doc)
Joseph Follette -www.FreedomClub.me , www.JosephFolletteJr.com Debbie Preece - Certified Marriage Educator,
Offers classes and workshops that include the following topics:
Free relationship education class for non-married couples or single parents, with at least one child 8 or under
Targeting lower income parents
Meets once a week for 12 weeks
Co-led by male/female team
Topics include:
Building Intimacy through Appreciation, Respect & Affection
Expressing & Discovering His Needs/Her Needs
Communication & Conflict Resolution
Healing old wounds
Intimacy after having Children
Prevention & Recovery from Infidelity
Considering Marriage
Avoid & Heal Violence
Who does What? (Chores, childcare, etc.)
Children by Other Partners
Money Problems
The Involved Dad
To enroll in class Call or Come by:
The Family Life Center
228-F Binford Dr. (off of Seminole between Governor’s & Clinton at the L. R. Patton apartments)
Office: 536-4779 – *call before coming
Or call Project Director: Donna Gullatte at 541-3580
Crisis Services of North Alabama, Inc. serves individuals and families in crisis through crisis counseling, information and referral, domestic violence victim advocacy and shelter, sexual assault victim advocacy and forensic exams, and support groups. The CSNA HELPline is 24 / 7 crisis line and social service information line and is part of the national network of suicide crisis lines. The HOPE Place is a domestic violence shelter, with advocacy, crisis counseling, and support groups not just for clients in shelter but for any persons experiencing physical, emotional, or sexual abuse in a relationship. The SANE program provides trained nurse examiners to collect forensic evidence in support of reporting and prosecuting sexual assault, as well as responding to the needs of victims for preventive health care. The Rape Response program assists victims and families with the mental and emotional effects of sexual assault and also provides rape prevention and education programs in schools and in the community. CSNA staff are available to speak on issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, suicide prevention, community resources, and communication/listening skills.
Charles helps marriage expert Joe Beam with marriage crisis weekends in Nashville now meeting on the campus of David Lipscomb university. These weekends have been studied by an independent group and have a 75% success rate in saving marriages in severe trouble- 60% of those coming are involved in affairs.They run from Fri morning to Sunday afternoon. Joe has dedicated his life since 1994 to
marriage education and has been on Focus on the Family, Today Show, Montel etc. See LovePath 911 FAQ (pdf)
Marriage Therapy/Counseling Services
Pastoral/Religious: The Vine Pastoral Counseling Center, Summit Psychotherapy, Trinity Counseling Center, Huntsville Christian Counseling Center, Agape Group, Institute of Biblical Therapy, the Key
County: There are over 30 counselors who claim expertise in family and relationship therapy, some with stated emphasis on marriage and family problems. There are 10 AAMFT certified/approved Marriage and Family Therapists in the County.
State of Alabama
Couples and Marriage Education for Adults:
In January 2003, the Alabama Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board was awarded a $200,000 “Special Improvement Grant” from the Office of Child Support Enforcement, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The grant is being used to fund four pilot program targeting new, low-income parents who are romantically involved but not married. Building upon the findings on new, unmarried parents from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, the programs provide employment services and relationship skills classes and promote marriage using a curriculum called “Caring for My Family.” The programs also seek to increase paternity establishment and child support payments. Program staff receive training on domestic violence.
Alabama Cooperative Extension Marriage-Related Services:
The Healthy Couples, Healthy Children project is a coordinated state effort to offer and evaluate marriage education programs in Alabama. Funding is provided by the state Children’s Trust Fund to the Cooperative Extension Service at Auburn University. Extension Family Life specialists in five pilot counties (Elmore, Escambia, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, and Walker) will coordinate Community Councils of interested local professionals from the public and private sectors and from faith-based organizations. Ten key community professionals in each of the five pilot counties will be trained in two marriage preparation curricula: (1) the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP), used primarily for couples about to marry or couples already in their first marriage, and (2) The Smart Steps for Remarriage program, a recently designed program offered to couples for whom the current marriage is remarriage for at least one of the partners.
National
www.SmartMarriages.com: A clearinghouse of information on marriage-related topics including a directory of courses and training, community marriage coalitions and marriage initiatives, marriage and divorce statistics, news on marriage legislation, marriage-related articles and other resources. A free email newsletter is also offered. Once a year, an annual SmartMarriages Conference is held which brings together experts in the field of marriage education and therapy. This year the 12th annual conference was held in Dallas, Texas with over 2000 attendees.
Marriage Savers (www.marriagesavers.org): The Marriage Savers strategy has been instituted in over 200 communities in the past 10 years and has significantly enriched marriages and prevented divorces in these communities (see website above for more information). According to the Heritage Foundation, “A well executed community marriage covenant can save up to 80% of marriages headed for divorce, reconcile more than 50% of separate couples, enable 80% of step families to be successful parents and marriage partners.”
Community Healthy Marriage Initiative: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) launched the Community Healthy Marriage Initiative (CHMI) in Fall 2002 to invest in broad-based community-level coalitions that help couples, who choose marriage for themselves, to develop the skills and knowledge to form and sustain healthy marriages. ACF contracted with The Lewin Group to provide technical assistance to sites to support development, implementation, and evaluation of the participating coalitions.
National Marriage Encounter (www.marriage-encounter.org): The mission of National Marriage Encounter is to promote and encourage marriage and family life by offering Marriage Encounter weekends and a support community. National Marriage Encounter enables people to discover God's vision of marriage and family life and spiritual diversity, thereby leading them to a clearer understanding of their relationship with each other and with God. Also reference World Wide Marriage Encounter (www.wwme.org).
There are a number of Marriage Encounter (ME) ministries. We were forwarded the following AGME contact for the Southeast (and 30 other locations in the U.S.)
