|
|
Welcome message from Jeff Kemp, President
Dear friend,
Can you remember a time when marriage has received as much attention as it does today?
What was once considered to be a dying institution by our nation’s cultural elites is now being intensely debated in courtrooms and media newsrooms throughout America on an almost daily basis. People of every age, creed and political stripe are now asking the question, “Does marriage matter?”
History, research and common sense all tell us that the answer is yes, marriage does matter. In fact, it matters more than we can imagine. The health and stability of this time-honored institution affects us all, whether we’re married or single, young or old, widowed or divorced. It is the essential building block for healthy families and communities. Most importantly, marriage is the one single factor that most greatly affects the health and future success of our society’s most precious and vulnerable class of citizens – children.
Tragically, we’ve let family breakdown reach epidemic proportions in America. Coming off the heels of the 80’s divorce boom, our nation is now experiencing its highest numbers ever of out-of-wedlock births and children being raised by single fathers, single mothers, unmarried parents, and grandparents. And all of this is occurring while our nation’s marriage rate is at an all-time low.
But despite these troubling statistics, we know that the tide can be turned on family breakdown. In fact, our vision is for the Northwest to become the world’s premier place for marriage, family and children.
In order to make this vision a reality, Families Northwest is advancing the Northwest Marriage & Family Movement, a cultural campaign aimed at increasing the rate of marriage success, enhancing family health and turning the tide on family breakdown so more children are raised in nurturing homes by their married mother and father.
Families Northwest champions two primary roles in advancing this movement:
- We are a positive voice for safe, healthy and lasting marriages to the media, government and other public institutions.
- We train leaders and build community partnerships to improve the relationships of couples and families.
This movement is well underway, but there is much work yet to be done. We need more pastors and church leaders to link arms with us so we can help more couples and families. We need businesses and community leaders to help us develop the critical resources needed to increase our community outreach efforts. We need individuals and couples from every walk of life to participate in this critical mission.
We need you. Would you join us in this movement to turn the tide on family breakdown?
Because families matter,
Jeff Kemp
President, Families Northwest
|
|
