A faith-based marriage enrichment program developed in Jacksonville appears to have driven divorce rates down. Can the model be replicated?
In 2017, something unprecedented took place in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jacksonville Baptist Association and local Catholic Diocese joined forces to co-sponsor a large marriage education and enrichment program for the Duval County area. What inspired local Catholics and evangelicals to come together was a privately funded community campaign to strengthen marriage. Over a three-year period, an organization called the Culture of Freedom Initiative (COFI) worked with about 50 Protestant and Catholic churches and over 40 local nonprofits to reach about 50,000 adults in Jacksonville…
NEWSWEEK – Anyone who's experienced divorce knows the tragic consequences. It's hard on the adults, the kids and anyone else connected to it. In an age where common ground is hard to find, there's been widespread agreement in academic and political circles about the importance of family stability in the lives of children and communities across the country. Yet there's also been a real sense of fatalism about our ability to do anything about it. Changing something as important as divorce rates has seemed about as possible as changing the weather to many experts and social scientists.
With Communio’s help, LCBC Church, with more than 18,000 adult attendees, is now making relationship ministry for singles, married, those preparing for marriage, and those in crisis their number one priority in 2020.
WASHINGTON EXAMINER – To understand the vast gap in efficacy between government work to promote healthy marriages and the work of civil society, one privately funded project, now called Communio, worked with local organizers and churches to produce a sharp decline in divorce in Jacksonville, Fla., by 24% over three years. The program cost just 0.8% of the cost per person of the federal program, which was created during the Bush administration.
VOX – Today, members of the millennial generation are ages 23 to 38. These ought to be prime years of careers taking off and starting families, before joints really begin to ache. Yet as a recent poll and some corresponding research indicate, there’s something missing for many in this generation: companionship.
Communio President JP De Gance joins Traci DeVette Griggs on Family Policy Matters, a weekly radio show from the North Carolina Family Policy Council, to discuss how Communio operates and what it is doing differently to strengthen marriages and limit divorces.
Communio President JP De Gance continues his conversation with Traci DeVette Griggs on Family Policy Matters, a weekly radio show from the North Carolina Family Policy Council. He discusses how Communio equips churches with Big Data tools and relationship ministry best practices to strengthen marriages in a community.
Do Millennials Believe in God?
Communio’s President JP De Gance sits down with Blanquita Cullum on The Hard Question – a local Chicago-based show broadcast locally on WCGO and on Soundcloud – to share our key findings on the direct relationship between the strength of married life and active faith practice. They also discuss the launch of Communio’s first City Platform in Billings, Montana as well as our plans to scale into new cities in 2019.
Faith is Falling Because the Family is in Freefall
Communio’s President JP De Gance sits down with Bill Martinez on Bill Martinez Live – a nationally syndicated conservative talk show – to share our key findings on the direct relationship between the strength of married life and active faith practice. They also discussed the launch of Communio’s first City Platform in Billings, Montana as well as our plans to scale into new cities 2019.
THE WEEK – According to a recent YouGov survey, some 30 percent of American millennials say that they are "lonely." More than 20 percent report that they have no friends; a quarter claim to have no close ones. Many even insist that they have no "acquaintances," which should, one hopes, be impossible. But I wonder. For even younger people, in so-called "Generation Z," the figures are even bleaker.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS – Communio…used the latest marketing techniques to "microtarget" outreach, engaged local churches to maximize its reach and influence, and deployed skills training to better prepare individuals and couples for the challenges they might face. [Communio] highlights how employing systems thinking and leveraging the latest in technology and data sciences can lead to significant progress in addressing our urgent marriage crisis.