marriage.com.au
Marriage for Life (MFL) was founded in 1999 by Michael and Susan Hanley to form and maintain a network of happily married couples to mentor other couples. MFL evolved into marriage.com.au, to offer a variety of relational support and resources.
Marriage.com.au is an independent organisation which bases its work on
an educational, preventative model and believes that timely information
and support:
· Encourages couples to look after their relationship and achieve
a happy, lifelong marriage;
· Helps prevent relational pain and disintegration
Founders
Married in 1975, Michael and Susan have been working in the marriage and relationship education field for over 20 years, and are Members of the Marriage and Relationship Educators Association of Australia. They have three children and live on a beachside farm property offering luxurious suite accommodation for couples. Visit www.lonsdaleviews.com.au for further details.
What we're on about
We think that marriage is an important part of what makes a society operate in a healthy way. Therefore we think as a society we need to encourage and support those people who chose to marry. In Australia, we've sort of lost the point of what marriage actually is, let alone how to have a successful marriage. Although some people have reacted by suggesting that marriage is the problem, we think it's clear that marriage isn't the problem - people are the problem. People have always struggled with relationships. Married people struggle with relationships; and single people struggle with relationships. The problem has never been marriage itself. Perhaps a more balanced view would be that marriage doesn't fit into our society as well as it used to. Making a commitment to someone for the rest of your life that goes against your innate desire for multiple partners and eliminates the whole concept of keeping your options open, is a little difficult for many people in our era to stomach. Those who get married despite this often don't realise what marriage really is, and what it really requires. Even if they do, they don't have the support they need to make it work; and if it falls apart, it provides further support for negative societal beliefs.
So what do we do about this? Even if society suddenly changed, a lot of damage has been done over the years. Families have broken down, and we've found all sorts of ways to cope with our new relationship situations. Where do we go from here?
We believe that marriage is part of the solution to some of our societal dilemmas. In a way, marriages are currently holding our society together, providing something solid when everything feels like it's changing. We think that the way forward is for marriage to be rediscovered as something of great value. This will happen as a result of married couples demonstrating that marriage is a great way to live. It's a fantastic choice to make. It all starts with us. Marriage.com.au is here to assist people in building and maintaining the type of marriage that would demonstrate to others what the real value of marriage is. We want to help create marriages that are so solid, our entire society will want to lean on them.
Vision
- For marriage to be understood, valued, encouraged, and supported.
- A society where marriage and family life are highly valued and couples
who choose to marry are aware of and can access support and appropriate
relationship resources for all stages of their life together.
- A society where our capacity to love each other, and to love our children
is maximised.
Mission
To support marriage by providing access to clear, comprehensive, free online resources, which promote a healthy model of marriage.
Strategy
- Create online resources that are easy to understand, and are not overloaded
with information.
- Act as a portal or starting point for marriage resources
- Model in our own lives the kind of marriages that we promote
For further information regarding MFL or this website please contact:
Michael & Susan Hanley
25 Gill Road
Point Lonsdale, Victoria, 3225
Australia
Phone: (03) 52 582 901
Fax: (03) 52 582 801
Email: admin@mfl.com.au
For more About Us, go to our "wiki". This is an "About Us" page that you can edit yourself. If you have something nice to say (or if you know more about us than we do!), then this is the place. Go!