The Promise and Challenge of Using Volunteers to Provide Community-Based Marriage Education

This research brief was done through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office of Human Services Policy, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI). The OMI has been very successful in promoting marriage education across the State, and in enlisting volunteers in local communities. This brief focuses on how the OMI recruited and mobilized a volunteer workforce and highlights the role of large, regional one-day community events in introducing and stimulating interest in relationship skills workshops.