"You need only do three things in this country to avoid poverty - finish high school, marry before having a child, and marry after the age of 20. Only eight percent of the families who do this are poor; 79 percent of those who fail to do this are poor." William Galston, Clinton White House

Each year, family fragmentation costs American taxpayers at least $112 billion dollars. These costs are recurring-that is, they are incurred each and every year-meaning that the decline of marriage costs American taxpayers more than $1 trillion dollars over a decade. These costs are due to increased taxpayer expenditures for antipoverty, criminal justice and school nutrition programs, and through lower levels of taxes paid by individuals whose adult productivity has been negatively influenced by growing up in poverty caused by family fragmentation. The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing: First-Ever Estimates for the Nation and All Fifty States. Institute for American Values, 2008, p. 20.

Over the last several decades, Columbus has experienced a remarkable transformation from a textile mill town to a financial, educational, military and cultural center. Notable developments include a new RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, Columbus Civic Center, a new main Library, creation of a world-class downtown Columbus State University fine and performing arts campus, and many other public-private partnerships. For several years, Synovus and Aflac have been listed in Fortune magazine's annual listing of "The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America," and Ft.Benning has been named "The Best Army and Military Installation in the World" numerous times. In many corridors, our community has become known as the City of Servant Leadership.

And yet, despite all of our progress, difficult systemic problems endure in our community. Crime, poverty, mental health problems, welfare dependency, failed schools and blighted neighborhoods are issues we must still address.

In 2008, the Building Prosperity in Columbus-Muscogee County Steering Committee asked the University of Georgia to conduct two pieces of research: an analysis of the root causes of poverty in MuscogeeCounty and a study of best practices to address those causes. The researchers identified six factors related to county poverty rates, one of which was marriage. Research shows a compelling correlation between family fragmentation and the core social issues facing our community. "Nearly every major social problem has deep roots in the failure of adults to form and sustain healthy marriages. There are other causes of these social problems, of course, such as economic dislocations and the decline of civic life and social responsibility in the United States, but the disconnection of childrearing from marriage ranks high on the list of what ails our society and our communities," writes Bill Doherty in Reviving Marriage in America.

In 2008, concerned community leaders came together to launch a community wide initiative designed to strengthen marriages and families in the Columbus Region. This new initiative, called "Right from the Start: Building Strong Marriages and Families" is dedicated to equipping individuals and couples with the knowledge, education and skills necessary to succeed in marriage.

Our Vision: Marriage Education as a Preventative Approach

Imagine that you are standing beside the banks of a river and rescue personal are snatching drowning swimmers out of the river. You could help with the rescue efforts, or you could go upstream and help teach people how to swim and navigate the rapids - before they enter the river. Marriage education is the same: equipping couples and individuals with healthy relationship skills that have been shown to increase marital commitment and satisfaction. Marriage education presents a powerful and cost-effective preventative approach for helping couples form and sustain healthy marriages and healthy families.

A study conducted by Lichter, Batson and Brown (2004) found that 70 percent of single mothers receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children expressed a desire to marry, but these women have a low-expectation that marriage will actually happen for them. A groundbreaking new survey sponsored by the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center, found that 82% of young adults aged 18-30 plan to get married and stay married for life. However, an estimated 40% of first marriages end in divorce.

"Which sounds more romantic?" asks Diane Sollee, Director of Smart Marriages. "Is it more romantic to say, 'Beloved, I see that the divorce rate is 50%; let's get married anyway and let's assume that our love is so special, so passionate, that we'll make it? That we'll stay together till death us do part?' Or, can we get to the place where people will realize that the true romantic would say, 'Beloved, the divorce rate is 50%. I want to marry you and I love you so much that I want to learn everything the experts know about what makes marriage succeed or fail so that we can work to make sure our love and our marriage last.'"

Right from the Start seeks to change our culture and how we think about marriage and relationship education. Any couple can go to the phone book and find the resources to plan a wedding. We hope to provide educational resources to help couples develop the skills to build a healthy family - and that is where the hard work really begins.

Community Marriage Policy®
Our first step is to bring together the different sectors of our community that work to support the family and look at how we can use educational resources and the media to send out healthy messages about marriage. Our hope is to change the way our culture views marriage almost the same way that educational programs have changed the way our culture views smoking. One of the most strategic partners in this effort will be the faith community.

One of the things we hope to do in our first year is to help establish a Community Marriage Policy® (CMP), in which pastors, priests,rabbis and imams join together across denominational and racial lines and sign a public covenant on the courthouse steps to make healthy marriages a priority in their congregations. They commit to do a better job preparing couples for a lifelong marriage, enriching existing ones and saving those in crisis. So far, more than 200 cities and towns in 43 states have created Community Marriage Policies® and divorce rates have fallen an average of 17.5%, and cohabitation by a third (visit www.marriagesavers.org for more information).

Before us is a blank canvas - we have put a few brush marks on this future work of art, but what this initiative will ultimately look like and the number of lives this endeavor will touch remains to be seen. As we all contribute to the vision and work ahead, I know that we will change the way we think about marriage education and help individuals and couples gain the knowledge and skills needed to create a strong and loving marriage.

For more information about Right from the Start, contact Fran Magoni, fmagoni@pilink.org, 706-649-6500, ext. 1210.