The Bluegrass Healthy Marriage Initiative is a collaboration between the University of Kentucky Department of Family Studies and Bluegrass Healthy Marriages Partnership. The Initiative looks to improve children’s well-being by affirming and supporting healthy marriages in the Lexington, Kentucky, metropolitan area. This project brings together several organizations to facilitate a variety of research, education, and awareness activities designed to help those who choose marriage be successful in that pursuit. The Initiative is funded by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services through a Section 1115 waiver awarded to the state by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Region IV. click here for brochure
Our Mission
To increase child well-being and family stability by affirming and enabling healthy marriages for those who choose marriage for themselves, and recognizing the marriage is not always a practical or safe possibility, to affirm and enable healthy co-parenting relationships
Our Tasks
- Increase access to marriage education activities & relationship resources
- Increase quantity and quality of activities & resources
- Increase individual and couple predisposition to participate in and take advantage of resources
- Amass and publicize scholarly research
We Accomplish Our Tasks By
- Partnering with community organizations who recognize that strengthening and affirming healthy marriages has real impact on their constituents (employees, clientele, patients, members, etc.).
- Researching our partner organizations’ constituency. Faculty in the Department of Family Studies have combined a number of empirically-validated research instruments into a survey that assesses for individual and relational well-being, including communication, conflict, power & control, and marital virtues. The survey also includes a detailed demographic piece.
- Providing recommendations, based on our research, of programs, activities, or possible interventions that would be helpful to a particular organization’s constituency.
- Cross-promoting these activities and other resources to assure that each partner’s constituency can take advantage of the greatest amount of resources throughout our targeted service area.
Our Target Counties
Bourbon | Jessamine |
Clark | Madison |
Fayette | Scott |
Franklin | Woodford |
Our Target Populations
OCSE Priority Populations | Additional Populations |
Seriously Dating | Teen & Young Adult Couples |
Cohabiting | Married (w/ or w/o Children) |
Unmarried Parents | Mature Married |
Engaged / Pre-Marital | Distressed Married |
Newly Married | Separated / Divorced |
New Parents | Single Again |
| Remarried |
|
|