Overview of the Orange County Marriage Resource Center (OCMRC)
The mission of the Orange County Marriage Resource Center (OCMRC) is to strengthen marriages and significantly reduce the divorce rate within Orange County.
Our primary strategy to accomplish this is to “flood the market of Orange County with marriage-related programs and resources”.
The OCMRC is the lead agency in the Orange County Healthy Marriages Coalition.
The Orange County Marriage Resource Center is organized based upon the following philosophies and principles:
A) Belief in the value of education in the context of the Marriage Life Cycle theory - and in the importance of providing marriage-related programs and education to couples at each step in the Marriage Life Cycle. For first marriages, this includes programs at each of the following relationship stages:
1) Seriously Dating (pre-engagement),
2) Engagement (marriage preparation courses),
3) Newly Married Couples
4) New Parents (parenting class),
5) Marriage Enrichment (a combination of ongoing weekly programs and "special events"),
6) Empty Nesters
7) Troubled Marriage Interventions, and
8) Post-Separation Reconciliations.
Supplementing the above first-marriage programs are those for second marriages including:
9) Divorce Recovery Programs;
10) Re-marriage preparation programs, and
11) Stepfamily support groups.
All of the above-listed programs are to have a strong emphasis on developing strong communication skills, and will be supplemented by a standalone series of Communication Skills classes to support the communication modules contained in each of the other courses / programs.
OCMRC's primary emphasis at this time is on encouraging and assisting churches and community organizations within Orange County to develop, deliver, and encourage participation in programs for Marriage Preparation, Marriage Enrichment, Communication Skills and Troubled Marriages.
B) Networking within the churches and community organizations so that not every church or organization has to provide all of the above courses/programs to its members. Rather, the idea is that all of the above programs will be available somewhere in each community or neighborhood, and the information about all of the courses/programs will be available on a website managed by the Orange County Marriage Resource Center (www.OCMarriage.org). This way pastors, therapists, and community leaders can refer their couples to the program which meets their needs that is located the closest to the couples who need them.
C) The Orange County Marriage Resource Center will assist churches and community organizations within Orange County who want to add any of the above-listed programs to their repertoire to select and implement the relevant program(s) of their choice. For 2004, this assistance will focus primarily on the core Marriage program areas of Marriage Preparation, Marriage Enrichment, Communication Skills and Troubled Marriages. The key assistance areas include finding and evaluating the relevant programs, coordinating the training of the people within the church(es) and/or community organizations who will be leading the programs, and promotion of the programs.
C) Communication between and among the OCMRC and the 1000 plus churches and community organizations in Orange County will be facilitated by monthly meetings of interested Marriage Ministers and Professionals and the distribution of regular e-mail updates prepared by the OCMRC to all interested parties.
D) The goal of the Orange County Marriage Resource Center is to strengthen marriages and reduce the number of divorces within Orange County. Primary objectives in this regard include:
1) Increase the breadth and depth of Marriage Preparation programs offered within Orange County to increase the participation in, and quality levels of, preparation that engaged couples receive before getting married;
2) Increase the number of Orange County couples who participate in some sort of structured Marriage Enrichment activity during the year;
3) Increase the number of, and participation in, Communication Skills courses in Orange County;
4) Increase the number of, and participation in, Troubled-Marriage and Divorce-Intervention programs offered within Orange County;
5) Lay the foundation for the eventual implementation of a Community Marriage Policy within Orange County.