How big is Marriage Savers? What has been its impact?
Marriage Savers is not a giant institution with dozens of staff people. We are my wife and me, Rev. Larry Ballard, our Mid-west Regional Director, Rev. Del R. Palmer, our Southern Regional Director, a secretary plus dozens of volunteer leaders around the nation. Yet we have been able to help 140 cities, as of April, 2001, to adopt a “Community Marriage Policy(r). We do know the results our work in 28 cities. Some 32 of them have had a drop in the divorce rate 10-100+ times more than the US rate. One remained the same and two saw an increase in the number of divorces. See our memo on the Web site: marriagesavers.org. Note particularly my report comparing the one-third decline of divorces in Kansas City, KS and its suburbs compared to Kansas City MO where divorces actually increased at the same time. Why? No clergy were organized on the Missouri side of the river, and the press coverage was targeted at Kansas readers.
