Welcome to the proceedings for the Connecting Marriage Research to Practice Conference: Building Strong and Healthy Families, held in June 17-19, 2008 in Chapel Hill, NC. The Conference was jointly sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Jordan Institute for Families at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work. It was a vibrant forum for researchers, scholars, practitioners, colleges, universities, faith- and community-based organizations, states, grantees, healthy marriage coalitions, youth and youth serving organizations to explore emerging research on the African American family experience, and to engage in discussion around sustaining and strengthening African American families, marriages and community.

The African American Healthy Marriage Initiative promotes culturally competent strategies for fostering healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood, improving child well-being, and strengthening families within the African American community.