Statewide Chair Mary McLellan Heritage Community Services Regional Chairs Mariscia Cooper (Pee Dee) Charlie Lybrand (Lowcountry) Lenna Neill (Upstate) Rev. Randy Riddle (Grand Strand) Dr. Roger Rollins (CSRA) Charlotte Valentine-Green (Ace Basin)   Advisory Council Eugene Bacote Darlington School District Dr. Vera Bailey Hilton Head Preg. Care Center Pamela Berry Colleton Fire and Rescue Dr. Vonda Calcutt Lowcountry Ctr. Diabetes Sen. Chip Campsen Charleston/Berkeley Rev. Chuck Coward Charleston Outreach Robin Crosby Colleton County Ligure Ellington Ret.Capt. Charleston City Police Dr. Randy Goings Chiropractic Physician Faye Hill Lowcountry Pregnancy Center & SC Association Pregnancy Care Centers WC Hoecke Fatherhood Practioner Leroy Lewis Upward Bound at Cof C Norman L. Moore, Jr. Colonel, USAFR(Ret) Cyndi Mosteller Comm. for Higher Education Alexia Newman Carolina Pregnancy Center Fred Payne Marriage Savers of Upstate Jerry & Barbara Seymour R& R Marriage Min. Ronald Shoupe Colleton County Dr. A. V. Strong A Better Way, Inc. (Gang Out) Dr. Robert Thomas Pulmonary Medicine Pastor Phil Thrailkill St. Luke UMC Hartsville Kelly Walker Upstate Fatherhood Coalition	October 27, 2009 SC Healthy Family Formation Coalition E-News! Have you ever had difficulty convincing someone that marriage is important?  Marriage has become a lifestyle choice, much like cohabitation, divorce, becoming a vegetarian, or going green. Whether couples get married or stay married doesn't seem to really matter as long as no one gets hurt.  Right? Marriageability The SC Healthy Family Formation Coalition is about forming and maintaining healthy families.  That includes endorsing programs that educate our youth about the benefits of delaying sex and becoming marriageable.  Yes! Marriageable! Who has time to mature, graduate, or plan for the future when they are told almost daily to focus on sexual activity, how to find their next condom, remember to take their birth control, how to reduce the risks of pregnancies and/or STDs, or worry themselves sick about it all? At the same time, youth that choose to delay sexual activity until marriage have the extra time and emotional energy to develop self control, personal responsibility, respect for others, plan for the future, build friendships outside of the context of sex, excel in academics and find out what they really value in life.  They are FREE to make mature choices.  The very act of delaying sex leads to maturity which leads to marriageablility. Intentionally preparing for marriage or developing a marriage life script orders a young person’s decisions on a daily basis.  The character traits developed while waiting for marriage are invaluable when it is time to marry, start and support a family, and parent children to do the same when they are teens.    The Marriage Index So, what’s so great about marriage? For more than a decade, volumes of research have shown that children fare best in life, on all measures of well-being, when raised with their own two married biological parents.  Two parent married families socialize children for success. The Marriage Index was recently developed by scholars and advocates, to make it easier to understand and convince others that marriage is important.  The Marriage Index “quantifies the health of marriage in the U.S. in the same way economist use leading indicators to parse the state of the country’s economy.” Dr. David Blankenhorn, at the Institute for American Values, believes that marriage is far more than a lifestyle choice because of its significant impact on children.  A recent Washington Post article states: “He [Dr. Blankenhorn] points to statistics showing that kids who grow up in homes where their parents are married to each other are, on average, less likely to live in poverty, to have emotional or behavioral problems, to engage in premature sexual activity, to use drugs or commit suicide.”  Blankenhorn continues: “Every single pathology or problem or difficulty  a child can experience - every single one  – growing up outside of a married-couple home elevates the risk.” What Generation 2020 Wants According to Frank Luntz, PhD, author of What Americans Really Want, Really, found that over 80% of Generation 2020 (age 18-29) want the opportunity to succeed and the good life which included having a loving family, good health and financial security.    We need to convince Generation 2020, and younger, that having a loving family, good health and financial security is best achieved through preparing for and entering into a healthy marriage prior to having children.  Sociologically, marriage is the only institution that has been shown to provide opportunities for success and the good life we all seek for our children.  References and Suggested Reading: On the Homefront: Marriage preparation can improve the odds You're Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Ed and How They Harm Your Child (Hardcover) Making the Grade Isn't About Race. It's About Parents    The Sequence of Personal Responsibility Marriage and Caste in America by Kay S. Hymowitz Character Matters: How to Help Our Children Develop Good Judgment, Integrity, and Other Essential Virtues Why Marriage Matters, Twenty-Six Conclusions from the Social Sciences The Marriage Index MARRIAGE IN THE US LOSING STRENGTH, REPORT SAYS The Washington Post  Oct. 24, 2009 Father Absence and Youth Incarceration Getting Ahead in America What Americans Really Want...Really: The Truth About Our Hopes, Dreams, and Fears by Frank Luntz, PhD   Follow the SC-HFF Coalition on Twitter! Join the Heritage Keepers® Facebook Cause
	The South Carolina Healthy Family Formation Coalition (SC HFF Coalition) is organized and staffed by Heritage Community Services. The SC HFF Coalition promotes child and family well-being by providing opportunities for statewide communication about such issues as: adolescent pregnancy, unwed childbearing, fatherlessness, sexual exploitation of our youth, dating violence and domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, gang activity and youth violence.    Coalition members support healthy family formation initiatives that integrate character-based life skills, teen pregnancy prevention with an emphasis on abstinence-centered education, and the importance of fidelity-within-marriage.   Together we can impact our culture so that forming healthy families becomes a norm, rather than the exception, for South Carolina. Please, forward this E-News to interested friends, family and colleagues and ask them to consider joining the Coalition. Join/Subscribe Unsubscribe PRIVACY POLICY: Information you share will never be sold, rented, or given to any third party. Contact Mary McLellan , Statewide Chairman (843)654-7740 ext.122