2024 NARME Plenary Speakers

Three staff from the federal Office of Family Assistance will discuss current activities of the federal Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) programs.

Since the late 1990s, Oklahoma has emerged as a hub of innovation in the development of comprehensive, research-driven strategies that engage systems, communities, and local entities in building the capacity of vulnerable Oklahomans to improve family well-being and self-sufficiency. In this presentation, you will hear from leaders about the foundations of this groundbreaking work involving partnerships between, private, state, and federal agencies, how the work has been sustained for 25 years, and stories of the ways passion, purpose, and opportunity have collectively influenced the Oklahoma’s focus on enhancing the abilities and potential of adult and youth.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau nearly 50% of the United States is single…117.6 million unmarried Americans…almost every other adult 18 and over. The way people seek and find love has radically changed with the trends of online dating, hanging out, hooking up, texting, and social media. Dating is a life script no longer supported, leaving individuals dazed, confused, lonely, and isolated, which results in situationships and cohabitation, rather than marriage and family formation. Through the lens of the feature documentary, “The Dating Project,”we will gain insights on how to bring skills and dignity to dating, because how we date matters to the future stability of our country. It’s time to “save the date.” and bring back the hope of committed love.

To be updated

Gary will help people realize: That their values will help them make better decisions. That values put you in a position to make a positive difference. That they already have those values inside them.

The Honorable Clarence Carter will share how Tessessee is transforming human services and father involvement.

To be updated

An overview of the current trends in millennials parenting and marriages. Specifically addressing how the Millennials have changed our culture and how that impacts how we help marriages and tackle an issue that is as old as time but has risen to the forefront: the weight of the mental load.

America is in crisis. Happiness is falling, deaths of despair are rising, too many schools are riddled by fights and failure, and the American Dream is out of reach for millions. The problems are visible to us all, but virtually no one is talking about the solution that matters most: Marriage. New research by University of Virginia sociologist and Institute for Family Studies fellow Brad Wilcox shows how much the State of Our Union depends on the state of our unions in this important lecture.

Although couples counseling can serve as a powerful tool to help couples heal their relationships, couples often struggle to maintain their gains in relationship quality once treatment has ended. This talk will present Agapé, a popular, light-touch, smartphone app that could offer couples a method of building positive interactions back into their relationships and maintaining their counseling gains as they transition out of couples therapy. Agapé builds moments of connection by providing daily prompts to couples and then showing them one another’s answers when both partners have responded. the results offer novel conceptual insights (i.e., a tentative blueprint) into the inner workings of relationship dynamics. Finally, treatment moderation results highlighted that married couples and couples starting the study with lower levels of relationship satisfaction experienced the strongest benefits from taking a few minutes each day to connect with their partners via Agapé.