When Natasha came home with a Flourishing Families brochure, they immediately registered for the program.  In class, they learned skills to build a family, set goals, manage money, communicate, and deal with conflict.  John and Natasha decided to commit themselves to raising this child together, to get married, and finish school.  This picture was taken three days after both John and Natasha graduated from California State University, Sacramento.  John exclaimed, “This class saved my life, saved my family and saved my son!”

6,000 children each year are born to unwed parents in Sacramento County (That is 40% of our children). [1] Add to this number the 41,230 female head of households with no husband present with children under the age of 18. This one factor of not having a father in the home puts these children at risk for living a life of poverty, doing poorly in school, and a myriad of other social problems.  Children raised without a father in the home represent:  

·         85% of all children who present behavioral disorders

·         70% of juveniles in state operated institutions

      ·         71% of high school dropouts

While the social cost of these problems is enormous the financial cost to society is astronomical. The State of californis alione will spend $4.8 Billion annually to deal with the costs of our fractured families.[2] Each couple like John and Natasha who marry save taxpayers $9,432 annually and $157,497 over their lifetime.[3]

Every child deserves the chance to be raised in a healthy family.  In order to accomplish this goal, people need the skills to build healthy relationships, and the Relationship Skills Center teaches those skills. Unlike other programs, RSC is devoted to preventing problems rather than waiting until the damage is done. We start with teaching young people in high schools appropriate dating and healthy relationship forming skills.  For singles, we teach skills for picking a partner. With couples we teach them communication skills, conflict resolution skills, and problem solving skills.  For new parents, we teach family formation skills including co-parenting, goal setting, and stress management.

In four years, the Relationship Skills Center provided over 30,000 hours of relationship education in the Greater Sacramento Region.  We taught over 500 low income pregnant unwed couples or couples with an infant how to build healthy families affecting the lives of almost 1,000 children. 86% of our couples report that they formed a strong partnership to co-parent their child and that their parenting skills were better or much better upon graduation. Nearly all participants (86%-92%) experienced improvement in their ability to identify family strengths, set family goals, achieve goals, and solve problems with their partner.

Over eight hundred high school age youth attended our relationship education programs equipping them with the skills and knowledge they need to develop healthy romantic relationships now and in the future. Participants report that the program has a positive long-term impact ability to resist sexual pressure and avoid teen pregnancy.

Since 2004, The Relationship Skills Center has been teaching people how to have healthy relationships, and is considered one of the leading relationship education programs in the nation.  Awards for their work include: A  2008, invitation to speak at the White House, becoming a mentor for other organizations, in 2009, the Federal Administration for Children and Families selected the Relationship Skills Center as one of the top eight agencies in the United States for innovative collaboration, and in 2011, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce selected the Relationship Skills Center as the Nonprofit Organization of the Year.