Marriage Care are delighted to announce a return to in-person face to face counselling and marriage preparation, and the launch of our Marriage Preparation Facilitator, Centre Coordinator and Trustee recruitment campaigns.
After nearly two years of running services via webcam alone, we are gearing up and looking forward to seeing and serving couples in-person again. We will be following Government COVID-19 guidance and encouraging all involved to adopt the recommended COVID safe behaviours, where appropriate.
The decision comes after months of consultation with our volunteers who work ‘on the ground’ and the recent lifting of restrictions and falls poignantly, on this, our 75th Anniversary year.
Pat Chamberlain – a facilitator from Marriage Care’s Preston Centre – shares her enthusiasm at the prospect of being able to run face-to-face marriage preparation courses again: ‘’It’s two years ago since I delivered a marriage preparation course in our diocese. It was always exciting preparing for the day; looking forward to meeting the couples and learning so much about them as they shared their experiences with the group. Nobody was pushed to say more than they wanted to. Every couple was different and often by the end of the day there was a feeling of real closeness within the group. So, although there has been a gap of two years there has been a huge amount of work going on to present the course online. But more heart-warming for me is the prospect of working with couples again. I gain so much for myself out of the course as we look at many different aspects of what makes or can break a potentially rich, rewarding, and lifelong commitment. For anyone who has experienced the ups and downs of marriage or other close relationship and feels they have something to offer new couples starting out, this is a structured and thought-provoking project to be involved in. I would encourage anyone who feels the ‘tug’ towards being a facilitator to go ahead.’’
The return to in-person delivery will not be the end of Marriage Care’s webcam services, however. Online courses have proven popular with couples and going forwards we will operate a hybrid model with both in-person and webcam options available.
However, whilst there have been many blessings over the past two years, the pandemic has sadly taken its toll on Marriage Care’s volunteer community with many members having to step down from volunteering. This together with the recent surge in demand for marriage preparation and the ever-increasing demand for relationship counselling since the start of the pandemic has meant the organisation is in urgent need of volunteers.
As a result, Marriage Care is launching a national campaign looking for new Marriage Preparation Facilitators, Centre Coordinators and Trustees. Marriage Preparation Facilitators present and facilitate the ever popular ‘’Preparing Together’’ courses for engaged couples and full training and support is provided. Centre Coordinators lead and support local Marriage Care centre-teams of relationship counsellors, facilitators, and admin volunteers and Trustees are involved in the formal governance of the charity.
If you would like to find out more about these roles and how you could be a part of the vital work that Marriage Care do in supporting couples and families please visit our ‘Get Involved’ webpage.