Marriage Savers buoyed by grant program

By Cheryl Wetzstein
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 9, 2006

It has taken 20 years to woo 200 cities and counties into signing agreements to combat divorce and promote marriage in their communities, Marriage Savers founders Mike and Harriet McManus said yesterday.
With President Bush's enactment yesterday of a $150-million-a-year federal grant program for healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood, it shouldn't take nearly as long to double that number, Mr. McManus told a panel discussion on marriage at the Family Research Council.
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State and local governments and organizations, both secular and faith-based, can apply for the grants, he said. Up to $50 million a year is available for programs on responsible fatherhood.
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    Mr. Horn praised the McManuses for a starting a program that leaves "a legacy of marriage."
    Since 1986, about 30,000 marriages have been strengthened under the Marriage Savers' Community Marriage Policy (CMP), Mr. Horn said. If the average family has two children, that means 60,000 children have been "saved from the pain of divorce."
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A 2004 study found that communities with CMPs in place, even for a short time, had divorce rates at least 2 percent lower than comparison counties.
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    Mr. McManus, who writes a column on ethics and religion, urged policy leaders to set national goals for reducing divorce and encouraging marriage.
    If the nation's marriage rate was at 1970s levels, he said, there would be 1 million more married couples instead of rising rates of cohabiting and unwed childbearing.

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