SMART Florida
PROGRAMS, SERVICES, AND RESOURCES
Program Focus Area: Couple and Relationship Education (CRE) (Nationally) –
Strengthening Marriages and Relationships Training (SMART) (Florida).
SMART programmatic and training criteria are based upon current Florida and national marriage, divorce, family, and relationship data (e.g., Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the Family Formation in Florida baseline study, group listening sessions conducted by UF/IFAS Extension in every county in Florida, individual family and relationship education programmatic needs assessments conducted among District Extension Directors (DEDs) and county faculty, and the Shaping Solutions for Florida’s Future Roadmap 2013-2023. The
SMART Florida program is one program with several sub-programs (1.1, 1.2, etc.). Therefore, only one program situation with accompanying goals, objectives, outcomes, and impacts is listed below.
1. Program Situation
Background
Florida’s population has increased 17.6% since 2000, now boasting more than 19 million residents. While the number of children under age 5 and persons under age 18 (6.3% and 21.9% respectively) were slightly lower than the national average, the number of persons 65 years old and over reached 17.2% compared to 12.9% nationally. Florida is also home to 1,685,421 veterans and is ethnically diverse, hosting 22.5% Hispanic or Latino, 16% Black, 2.4% Asian,
.4% Native American, and .1% Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander. The number of immigrants has also added to Florida’s diverse landscape with 18.7% of the residents being foreign born, compared to 12.4% nationally. In fact, 25.8% of Floridians speak a language other than English at home.
In conjunction with this diverse demographic landscape, Florida families are currently experiencing significant stressors in their relationships due to financial strain, job loss, and other employment- and health-related issues. Additionally, natural disasters, such as hurricanes, and manmade disasters, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, have made it increasingly more difficult for Floridians to cope with these stressors and to respond to them in healthy ways.
Marital and relationship dissolution has been found to be highly associated with these stressors with Floridians currently experiencing one of the highest divorce rates in the nation. The social, emotional, and economic costs of these dissolutions are taking an increasing toll on individuals, couples, and children making Floridians particularly vulnerable to chronic diseases, early mortality, school dropout, substance abuse, incarceration, mental health issues, abuse, and neglect.
It has been estimated that family fragmentation and unwed childbearing costs state and local taxpayers in Florida almost two billion dollars annually in forgone tax revenues and justice system, TANF, Medicaid, SCHIP, and Child Welfare expenditures (Scafidi, 1998). As a result

of family fragmentation, children often also experience the physical and emotional absence of one or both parents along with severe economic hardship. More than 27% of children in Florida live in poverty, 42% live in low-income families, and a full 38% are being raised in single parent homes.
Florida Baseline Study
The results of the Family Formation in Florida Baseline Study (2003), still the most comprehensive study to date regarding Florida families, revealed that Floridians across ethnic groups and income levels expressed at least three critical needs (e.g., problems requiring a solution) associated with healthy couple and parenting relationships. First, parents across ethnicities and income levels agreed that “children” tend to “do better when their parents are married.” Further findings suggested that children do better with two parents in the home establishing a need for the development of healthy couple relationships regardless of whether or not the parents are married. Second, the study showed that healthy relationships, marriages, and families are closely tied to finances and that being low income or in poverty is highly associated with marital and relationship dissatisfaction and dissolution (see also Schramm & Harris, 2011:
Harris, Schramm, Marshall, & Lee, 2012). Third, the data revealed that physical aggression is a problem among some Florida residents, especially among ethnic, low-income, and TANF men and women who experience high levels of stressors and strains.
The identified needs in this study demonstrate the complex calculus of factors that influence marital and relationship stability and quality. Research indicates that marital satisfaction and quality are negatively associated with domestic violence and financial hardship. Research also shows that when couple relationships are healthy, the benefits of positive interaction, positive bonds, and relationship satisfaction spill over into the couple’s parenting practices (Fragile
Families Child Wellbeing Study, n.d.; Harris, Skogrand, & Hatch, 2008). This is a crucial linkage between the need to strengthen marriage and couple relationships and to simultaneously offer other family, relationship, and parenting programs, services, and resources. Another crucial linkage is the importance of learning healthy and effective communication skills – skills that are crucial to meet physical, economic, and social/cultural needs.
Rationale
“Well-functioning families are the foundation of healthy communities. These families protect and nurture their members while teaching their children how to become thriving and contributing members of society. Families vary in structure, age, income, and other characteristics. Strong families foster the health, well-being, and financial security of all Florida communities” (Shaping
Solutions for Florida’s Future - Initiative 5, p. 16).
Environmental and historical changes in social and legal rules have made it easier to dissolve committed family relationships. When marital and couple relationships are weak, unhealthy, and dissolve, negative social, emotional, and economic consequences tend to result for individuals, couples, parents, and children. When these relationships are strong, healthy, and stable, social, emotional, and economic well-being are generally increased for all involved. Programs, services, and resources that educate individuals, couples, parents, and children to increase their

relationship knowledge and skills are needed to help reverse the negative consequences associated with weak and unhealthy relationships.
Marriage and relationship education has been shown to help individuals, couples, parents, and families increase their knowledge and skills and overall relationship quality, satisfaction, stability and subsequent well-being. Unfortunately, accessing these programs is often difficult and experiencing the benefits of these programs is often cost-prohibitive.
Cooperative Extension provides accessible, low cost, research-based programs to individuals, couples, children, and families across Florida in multiple asynchronous and synchronous modes.
Through cooperative program development and dissemination at the state and county level, healthy marriage and relationship education programs can be delivered to Floridians to meet their physical, economic, and social/cultural needs. The benefits of these program interventions can “assist Florida’s diverse families to better understand healthy growth and development,” strengthen individual, couple, and parent-child relationships, and increase their well-being.
2. Target Populations(s)

UF/IFAS county Extension faculty, state specialists, and administration

Florida stakeholders – agencies, organizations, and associations

Florida residents – individuals, couples, parents, youth, and children

National state and county Extension faculty, practitioners, and professionals

National residents – individuals, couples, parents, youth, and children
3.
Program Goal a.
Overview
The primary mission, purpose, or goal of SMART (Strengthening Marriage and Relationship
Training) Cooperative Extension programs, services, and resources is to increase individual, couple, parent, and child well-being across ethnicities and income levels by: 1) helping UF/IFAS county Extension faculty, state specialists, and administration to provide Florida residents with increased awareness and access to SMART programs, services, and resources. Couple, family and relationship education is the glue that ties all Family Consumer Science (FCS) Extension programming efforts together. Therefore, SMART program goals and objectives include working with UF/IFAS FCS county Extension faculty, state specialists, and administration to coordinate programming efforts; 2) making SMART programs, services, and resources available on a national level to county Extension faculty, state specialists, practitioners, professionals, and residents through collaborations, webinars and other educational presentations. This will be accomplished by the sharing of resources, such as through my work with the National Extension
Relationship and Marriage Education Network (NERMAN), the National Council on Family
Relations (NCFR), and the Family Science Association (FSA); 3) delivering SMART programs, services, and resources directly to Florida and national residents through webinars, workshops, presentations, publications, seminars, and web-based courses. SMART programs, services, and resources are specifically designed to assist county Extension faculty to help Florida (and national) residents gain the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to develop and maintain

healthy, stable, and quality long-term relationships and marriages through decreasing levels of negative interactions and increasing levels of positive interactions, positive bonds, and relationship satisfaction (i.e., well-being). These variables have been found to be important predictors of healthy relationships and families. These four variables 1) decreasing negative interaction; 2) increasing positive interaction; 3) increasing positive bonds; and, 4) increasing relationship satisfaction, where possible, will be assessed across all SMART Cooperative
Extension programs so the overall impact of the family and relationship education programming can be compared across programs for effectiveness. [Note: The ability to evaluate this data across programs is subject to those who deliver the training and their return of the evaluation data to the researcher(s)]. b.
SMART Program Goal
Program Goal
The overall program goal is to assist county Extension faculty, state specialists, practitioners, and other professionals to provide low-cost, research-based SMART programs, services, and resources in the state of Florida (CRE nationally) and to help all families, including at-risk families, across ethnicities and income levels to increase individual, couple, parent, and child well-being through increasing their knowledge and skills. This will occur through integrating
CRE-related SMART programs, services, and resources at three levels:
Levels of Integration
I.
Basic Engagement (Information Sharing) – work with stakeholders, agents, and clients to place information for local or online healthy relationship classes in reception areas; hand out healthy relationship tip sheets to clients; create information displays, etc.
II.
Partnerships (Provide Trainings) – identify community partners for client referrals; provide courses and trainings for stakeholders and clients; and, bring relationship education programming onsite and online for clients.
III.
Full Integration (Train the Trainer) – provide training for stakeholder staff or volunteers who can then offer relationship education programming onsite and online
(e.g., at career centers as part of job readiness programs; at foster parent in-service trainings; or, at other workshops for individuals and couples).