Five-Year Study Documents the Positive Impact of Relationship and Marriage Education Programs in California
'X plus Y' is about Relationship Education, the often neglected or under-valued aspect of Couples' work. R E has been described as the missing piece in working with couples.
It allows ordinary experienced married couples through relatively inexpensive training to be involved in helping other couples as they share good practice, established skills and knowledge.
It is, in effect peer support. At present one of the issues in working with families and especially couples, is the increasing professionalization of services. Help is mostly in the hands of expensively trained professionals (sometimes very expensively trained in terms of time and money) and they are the gate keepers of help. Unfortunately they are also usually overloaded! And so there is a log-jam of help and support. Long waiting lists. Impossible demands.
The key to the log jam, particularly in the area of preventative work is the use of trained volunteers. Help could cascade out more easily through a well trained volunteer movement than the present situation allows.
One study (Stanley. 2001) has shown that ordinary lay educators with a minimum of training could deliver a marriage education programme as well or better than professionals. Unfortunately also, along with a lack of belief in the volunteer aspect, in some quarters there is professional prejudice. Couples can only be helped by professionals. (The High Priesthood in some cases are not happy with the Laity being involved) In the end, there is a need for both volunteer and professional. But the former is sadly under-valued and neglected.
If the Government want to make an impact on the catastrophic fragmentation of family, fuelled mostly by the fragility of the cohabiting culture they would do well to look at this issue.
(Stanley quoted in 'Mentoring Marriages' Harry Benson. Publ Monarch 2005)
