Extension has created several curricula to support the development and maintenance of healthy couple and marital relationships for diverse audiences.
From NERMEN
ELEVATE: Taking Your Relationship to the Next Level
Based on the National Extension Relationship and Marriage Education Model, Elevate is a couples education curriculum that blends practical skills with an understanding of the physiology of human interaction to enhance healthy relationship knowledge and skills. It is available for FREE online!
Other Extension Curricula
CoupleTALK.
Developed by Kansas State University Extension, CoupleTalk is a free, non-credit, Internet-based distance education course designed to help couples build skills to make their relationship stronger and more satisfying.
Family Change: Separation and Divorce.
Developed by Kansas State University Extension, this program offers the community educator a workshop resource for helping divorcing parents to understand personal and family adjustments, legal issues, and financial matters. It includes a leader's manual and a parents' manual. (2002).
Intentional Harmony: Managing Work and Life.
Developed by University of Illinois Extension, this research-based, multidimensional curriculum is designed to help adults manage the challenges of contemporary working life. The program includes modules that correspond to managing work and multiple domains of nonwork life, including the partner or spousal relationship.
Long Live the Healthy Family!
A Program for Building and Maintaining Strong Latino Marriages and Families features a complete instructional manual for family life educators to deliver in their communities. Developed by Kansas State University Extension and Utah State University Extension, the manual includes instructor preparation, four lessons on relationship skill building within a Latino cultural context, slides, accompanying handouts, and evaluation instruments. The manual is available in English and Spanish. (2011)
Married and Loving It!
Developed by University of Idaho Cooperative Extension, the Married and Loving It! program consists of 5-sessions designed to strengthen marriage relationships by presenting the research findings about successful and happy couples to the general public.
Smart Steps for Stepfamilies.
Developed in partnership between Cornell Cooperative Extension, Auburn University and Alabama Cooperative Extension, and the National Stepfamily Resource Center, this 6-session curriculum addresses the unique needs and issues that couples in stepfamilies face and provides strategies for building healthy relationships and stable stepfamilies. A parallel series of lessons is also included in this program for children in stepfamilies.
The Stepparenting Toolkit.
This resource, provided by the Oregon Center for Applied Science, Inc., is a web-based interactive step-parenting toolkit that allows participants to sign up for free and then access different resources, including video scenarios that depict common challenges that stepfamilies may experience, tips sheets, activities, and articles relevant to stepfamilies and relationships in those families. The video scenarios present a short clip of a challenge that stepfamilies may face and then allows the participant to choose one of three responses that will play out. The different perspectives are presented, followed by questions that can be answered and then compared with the website answers. Finally, there is a description of key concepts and whether the approach used was effective or not. This website helps depict key communication concepts in a way that can makes them more understandable for stepfamilies and couples. (Oregon Center for Applied Sciences, 2007)
Strong Latino Couple Relationships.
Developed by Utah State University Extension, 'Strong Latino Couple Relationships' offers a 4-section activity book for strengthening marital bonds within Latino couples. Based of information gathered from Latino married couples, this program guides couples through family unity, communication, sharing values, and trust & respect. (Spanish-version Relaciones Latinas De Parejas Fuertes)
Together We Can.
Developed by Michigan State University Extension, Together We Can is a free curriculum that helps strengthen and improve the co-parenting relationships of single parents through a series of interactive educational experiences. Lessons in this six-module curriculum include: positive co-parenting relationships, stress and conflict management strategies, ongoing involvement of both parents, money management/child-support payment, and healthy decisions about romantic and couple relationships.
Utah Divorce Orientation.
Developed in partnership with Utah State University Extension, this program was designed to be a resource to individuals who may be thinking about divorce. These individuals are at the “crossroads of divorce,” facing a challenging decision that has consequences for the future of their own lives and the lives of family members. The 8 lesson video-based program explores whether unhappy marriages can become happy again, offers insight on the consequences of divorce, and explains legal options.
