WV&ME
(West Virginia and Marriage Enrichment)
The mission of The West Virginia Healthy Families Initiative is to promote activities that support and enhance the well being of West Virginia Children and Families through the development and maintenance of marriage and family skills education. Ritchie County is one of eight pilots in West Virginia awarded funding for this important initiative.
In 2000, 74 marriages were conducted in Ritchie County, while 62 divorces were processed. In the half decade since then, the divorce numbers have continued to climb.
In 2005, the Ritchie County Clerk’s Office handled 83 marriage license applications, while the Ritchie County Circuit Clerk’s Officer oversaw a total of 133 cases that involved not just divorce petitions, but also the complications of them such as paternity issues and lack of paying child support.
“New studies back up what simple common sense has long maintained: On average, children raised by their own parents in healthy, stable married families enjoy better physical and mental healthy and are less likely to be poor,” described Wade Horn in CRISIS Magazine. Broken homes are also blamed for more school drop outs, more teenage pregnancies, more drug abuse, increased depression causes, and higher criminal encounters.
Research shows children from broken homes are often just looking for role models. If they can’t find one, they may display the same feelings they see frequently – manipulation, confusion, hurt, grieving, anger, and even whining.
“Communities where good marriages are common have better outcomes for children, women and men than do communities suffering from high rates of divorce, unmarried childbearing, and high conflict or violent marriages.” -- Horn
Ritchie County receives federal funding from the West Virginia University Extension to conduct a Healthy Marriage Initiative. Part of that work is to train couples in fundamentals of relationships and personalities. It is also is being used to exam marriages that have lasted 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years to see what their keys to success are.