How to help put foundations under these ideas:
If you are interested in donating your time to make one of these ideas happen,
please email us at help@healthymarriage.org
The following is a list of the products and services we have completed and are
currently being used by couples and individuals all over the world to strengthen marriages:
Long Distance Couples: An activities handbook to strengthen long distance relationships
Over 120,000 couples are using the activities in this book to nurture their relationship
while they are apart.
Healthy Marriage Pamphlet Series
Over 50,000 couples are learning basic relationship skills from these pamphlets
that can help them form and sustain a healthy marriage..
Long Distance Couples Weekly Email Service
Over 4000 couples are using this weekly email service to remind them to nurture
their long distance relationship. It also provides them with an idea of what they might do. Furthermore we have
been informed that our weekly email is forwarded on to thousands of other couples by organizations like the US
military.
Strengthening Marriages in Your Community: 101 ideas to get you started
We developed this product in partnership with the Coalition for Marriage, Family
and Couples Education. There are currently over 30,000 individuals and groups who are using the ideas in this book
to strengthen marriages in their communities around the world.
The following is a list of the products and services we currently have under
various stages of development:
Our first project is to develop marriage resource center websites in communities
across the United States.
Marriage resource center websites contain information about resources that are available
in the local community to help individuals and couples form and sustain healthy marriages.
These websites will also act as a marketing co-op for marriage strengthening resource
providers in each community. 100% of fees charged for advertising on marriage resource center websites will be
used to market the local marriage strengthening resources to the community.
Visit our products webpage to view the cities, counties, and states that we have completed Healthy Marriage
Resource Center websites for.
If you have 10 hours a week that you can dedicate to identifying marriage strengthening
resources in communities across the nation, then please email us at help@healthymarriage.org and visit our marriage resource center volunteer
webpage for more information.
Our second project is to develop a syndicated marriage tips newspaper column that
contains research-based skills and knowledge readers can implement in their relationships that week to help them
form and sustain a healthy marriage. Visit our Healthy
Marriage Tips E-Column webpage to read sample columns.
If you are interested in submitting a research based column of around 500-800 words
that could be published in newspapers across the United States and around the world, please email us at help@healthymarriage.org
If we accept your column, then you will receive a 10% royalty from the revenue
generated from it. The rest of the revenue will be used to market the marriage tips column and will be used to
develop additional products and services to strengthen marriages.
Our third project is to develop a Healthy Relationship Dating program.
This program has been designed to help couples sustain a healthy relationship and have fun while
you are doing it.
To learn more about this program visit the Healthy
Relationships Dating Program webpage.
Our fourth project is to develop the Healthy Marriage Weight Loss program
This program has been designed to help people attain and maintain a healthy weight,
healthy marriage and a healthy self.
To learn more about this program visit the Healthy Marriage Weight Loss Program webpage.
The following is a list of the products and services we will begin working on
as time and resources become available:
If you would like to donate some of your time and or resources to help us quickly
make these products and services available to the public, please email us at help@healthymarriage.org
Develop Power Point presentations on basic marriage education topics that anyone can teach. Include simple activity
handouts the presenters can give to the audience to implement the principles that were taught in their relationship.
Develop the presentations in 15, 30, and 50-minute time frames.
The presentations will be downloadable for free. However a small fee will be charged
for the handouts.
In exchange for allowing presenters to use our lesson plans we ask presenters to
report back to us on how many people were in attendance during the presentation. We will then include those numbers
in our annual report.
Partner with flower shops to include a few ideas on how to help your relationship last forever with the instructions
they give on how to help your flowers last longer.
Develop pamphlets for oil change shops. Use the analogy that just as you should regularly change your oil and do
preventative maintenance on your vehicle, you should do the same for your relationship. Include a few ideas of
what they can do.
Develop a curriculum that can be used during the Sunday School hour to teach
marriage enrichment, marriage preparation, and teaching parents how to teach their children basic relationship
skills and knowledge.
Create a list of companies and their mission statements. Use this list to brainstorm possible partnerships with
the Institute. Then create a letter that will show these companies how the partnership will be beneficial for them
and in line with their mission statement. .
Develop a list of places where people stand in line. Develop booklets for those locations that draw an analogy
between what they are waiting in line for and an activity they can do in line or later at home to strengthen their
relationships.
Develop restaurant pamphlets that contain activities couples can do to strengthen their relationship while waiting
for their food.
Create thoughts, tips or activities that fast food or grocery stores can place on the backs of receipts or on their
bags. Use the same idea for food packaging items like cereal boxes, milk cartoons, etc.
Create pages to be included in programs for sporting events, musicals, plays etc. that include the benefits of
healthy marriages and tips on how couples can create and maintain them.
Create materials to accompany heart rate monitors that teaches people how to calm
down once their heart rate has gone over 20 beats per minute above their resting heart rate during a conversation
with their spouse.
Create a series of singing groups similar to the approach used by the Vienna boys choir. Develop a program that
includes songs that teach the skills and knowledge to strengthen relationships. Develop handouts people can take
home to reinforce what they learned during the performance and how they can apply it. After each song have the
performers summarize the lesson taught and how it can be applied.
Encourage people to do something special on the day of the month they married. Develop a booklet of celebration
ideas and an email reminder service.
Create an email reminder service to help people remember important dates like anniversaries, birthdays, etc.
Create a pro-family advertising company that will interweave principles about strengthening marriages and families
while selling a product.
Create a series of art prints, greeting cards and post cards that teach relationship skills and knowledge that
help strengthen marriages.
Create a series of jewelry that contain symbols that remind the wearer to strengthen
his or her marriage.
Create romance novels that teach relationship skills and knowledge.
Create a series of children's books that teach basic relationship skills and knowledge.
Create an internship position that compiles a list of other internships and jobs in this field.
Create a curriculum and syllabus for a college and high school course on strengthening
marriages in your community.
Develop a criteria for our editors choice designation for products and services developed by other organizations.
Develop information to help people become educated consumers of quality marriage education and therapy.
Create board games that help teach the relationship skills and knowledge couples need to form and sustain a healthy
marriage.
Create a public service announcement campaign on the benefits of staying faithful and the consequences of committing
adultery.
Develop a comprehensive list of research based skills and knowledge that strengthen marital relationships. Include
references to the journal articles.
Create a list of songs that teach relationship skills and knowledge, and send the list to radio stations. Ask the
radio stations to dedicate an hour a day to songs that help strengthen marriages.
Hire student photographers to find couples and families having fun. Ask permission from the families to use their
images for the institute's products.
Brainstorm a list of guerilla type locations to place messages about healthy marriages. One idea is to place posters
in peoples yards during election seasons.
Create a healthy marriage foundation that would provide funding for healthy marriage
research topics and funding to help communities form and sustain community healthy marriage initiatives.
Create a system on the website so people can buy products or services all at one time but at the same time be able
to tell us where and when to ship them through out the year.
Brainstorm a list of businesses and organizations that can be recruited to help strengthen marriages in their community
and roles they can play.
Brainstorm a list of writing assignments, art assignments, etc. that can be given in schools on healthy marriage
topics.
Develop a manual to help parents teach their children relationship skills while they are playing games like Monopoly,
duck duck goose, video games, etc. Approach these companies about including the manuals when they sell the products.
Otherwise, sell it as an add on directly to the parents. If the companies do not want to pay us for the manuals,
then include part of the manual for free and instructions on how the parents can order the rest of the manual.
Develop a game where the only way you can win is if you help your partner cross the finish line at the same time
as you.
Form partnerships with family oriented TV shows Create discussion guides couples and families can download to talk
about after they watch the program. Create these discussion guides in a way that reinforces relationship skills
and knowledge that was portrayed during the episode. Include ideas about ways to implement these skills in the
couples relationship.
Commission books of poetry that teach marriage education skills and knowledge and
compile existing poetry that meet this criteria.
Partner with tourist locations, resorts, and other places that offer golf, ski, etc. packages and include a marriage
education component.
Partner with the tour buses, Jet Blue and other transportation companies that have the technology available to
show marriage education videos.
Create a remarriage after 60 program.
Modify existing fatherhood programs to include segments on helping fathers teach their children basic relationships
skills.
Develop marriage education materials for specific professions like doctors, lawyers, teachers, long distance truckers,
law school students, etc.
Petition the post office for a strengthening marriage stamp. In the mean time create strengthening marriage stamps
that people can purchase and use to seal letters.
Create a consulting team to assist Community Healthy Marriage Initiatives succeed.
Brainstorm ways that we can partner with our competition to both improve their products and help sell their products.
Organize high school students to call radio stations and request songs that teach relationship skills and knowledge.
Brainstorm a list of analogies that athletes and coaches can use when they are talking to reporters about the game.
For example, "Today's game was a lot like a marriage, it had its ups and it had its downs but we stuck it
out and in the end succeeded." Get them into the hands of athletes and coaches so they can memorize and use
them.
Partner with domestic violence coalitions in creating and distributing products and services that help prevent
domestic violence by educating about the early warning signs of potentially abusive relationships Include a list
of exit strategies from potentially abusive relationships prior to marriage.
Brainstorm ways to recruit men and women who are at risk for becoming an abuser and have them take the Compassion
Power program before they ever commit domestic violence.
Partner with organizations and groups that are already teaching couples and add a short marriage education component
to what they teach. Possible options are child birthing classes and churches.
Develop a two-person play that follows a husband and wife through out their life span as they talk each night in
bed. Highlight their ups and their downs and how they use marriage education skills and knowledge to form and sustain
a healthy marriage. Develop a booklet for those who attend the play to reinforce what was taught and give suggestions
on how they can implement the skills and knowledge in their lives.
Partner with successful movies like Sleepless in Seattle and create a sequel that
follows the couple through their first few years of marriage and how they use marriage education skills and knowledge
to handle the inevitable conflict in their marriage. Develop a booklet for those who attend the movie to reinforce
what was taught and give suggestions on how they can implement the skills and knowledge in their lives.
Develop discussion guide booklets that can be sold with relationship movies.
Create a database of letters to the editor that people can use to send to newspapers on healthy marriage topics.
Create a database of letters that people can use to educate their elected officials about healthy marriages.
Create T-shirts with the benefits of healthy marriages printed on the back.
Create a Parents as Pre-Marital Coaches program that helps parents teach their
children the basic relationship skills and knowledge that will help their children to form and sustain a healthy
marriage.
Create a CD of songs that teach relationship skills and knowledge. Include commentary
on what people can do to implement the message of the song in their life.
Develop an online university that teaches the skills and knowledge to form and sustain healthy marriages.
Build a resort that couples can come to and learn the skills and knowledge to help them form and sustain healthy
marriages.
Create booklets that bed and breakfasts can give to couples to help them to strengthen their relationships during
their stay.
If you would like to make one of our ideas happen, we would prefer that
you work with us. However, if you choose to use one of our ideas, then at the minimum we require that you report
back to us on the impact of the idea. We will then include those numbers in our annual report to our investors,
team members, and donors. We would also like to suggest that you donate a portion of the revenue you generate from
our ideas to our non-profit organization.
