Effort to strengthen families comes here

Research shows correlation between single parenthood, divorce, poverty

BY ALLISON KENNEDY - akennedy@ledger-enquirer.com --

The cost of the Iraq War so far: $500 billion. The president of the Georgia Family Council said Wednesday U.S. taxpayers also have paid $560 billion during the same five years because of divorce and single-parent homes.

When those two situations exist, he said, poverty results.

"Married couples are healthier and live longer, and kids behave better when they are raised by moms and dads," Randy Hicks said Wednesday at the Pastoral Institute, a nonprofit education and counseling center. Hicks and his organization's vice president for public affairs, Gregg Hunter, were in Columbus to share recently released data that makes a correlation between poverty, divorce and unmarried childbearing.

"What drove us was human suffering," Hicks said. "This is not just some commitment to the idealization of marriage."

Benjamin Scafidi, associate professor in the J. Whitney Bunting School of Business at Georgia College & State University, did the research. It was published earlier this year.

The GFC defines the poor as those relying on government-subsidized housing, food assistance, Head Start and Medicaid, among other programs.

The Georgia Family Council is a nonprofit research and education organization based in Norcross, an Atlanta suburb. Eighteen years old, the GFC works to shape legislation and influence public opinion, serving as family and marriage advocates. Hicks was in Washington last week to announce the findings to national media and policymakers.

Hicks said he wanted to be clear about two possible implications of the report: The GFC is not saying that everyone should be married, and that everyone in bad marriages, such as where abuse occurs, should remain together.

"But we as a society can be doing more," he said.

The Pastoral Institute's relationship with GFC and this study is that it will become a hub in Columbus for other nonprofits, educators, clergy and business leaders to help strengthen families, said the Rev. Ron King, the institute's director.

Rick Alexander, board chairman of the Pastoral Institute, said it will designate a staff member who will work on this project with other interested local groups and individuals.

Columbus is the 11th Georgia community the GFC is partnering with to strengthen families and marriages. The other 10 are in various stages of progress during a five-year period. One example Hicks offered Wednesday is Thomasville in south Georgia, where a group of clergy signed an agreement that they wouldn't officiate at weddings for couples who had not received six premarital counseling sessions. Another success story is Chattanooga, Tenn. Hicks said the divorce rate there has decreased about 30 percent compared to 10 years ago, when residents became more proactive about preventing divorce and unwed pregnancies.

About 20 people attended the presentation Wednesday. One of them was Steve Butler, chairman and CEO of the W.C. Bradley Co.

"This has the potential to change the community," Butler said.