In April of this year I was contacted by Pauline Mo, the Director of the Family Education and Promotion Division under the Ministry of Social and Family Development in Singapore. The Ministry "develops policies, infrastructure, programs, and services to nurture resilient individuals, strong families, and a caring society in Singapore."

The Ministry is dedicating $40 million over the next three years to cultivate a pro-family environment. The funds will allow schools, communities, and workplaces to run family life education (FLE) programs aimed at helping Singaporeans improve the quality of their family life. The funds will be used under a new initiative called FamilyMatters!, which involves a national movement to enhance relationship skills, marriage preparation and work-life harmony.

Ms. Mo invited me to participate in an Expert Panel on Building Capability for FamilyMatters! The Panel was created to assist in the development of a foundational certificate in family life education. The certificate program will enable the training of new family life educators, build up the capability of existing educators who may not have had training in family life education, and ensure a minimum practice standard for all family life educators conducting programs funded by the Ministry.

The Panel consists of 6 professionals involved in some aspect of family life education in the community and academia. Most live and work in Singapore but there is also representation from the United States (NCFR) and Taiwan.

The certificate program will consist of nine modules developed by a training agency. The role of the Expert Panel is to ensure that the family life education curriculum meets the needs of the industry by providing advice and guidance on the development of the foundational certificate and inputs and recommendations on the training curriculum.

To-date much of the work has been carried out via email with the Ministry sharing draft versions of some of the modules and the Panel members responding with comments and suggestions. I enlisted the aid of Dr. Carol Darling, (who was involved in the original development of the CFLE credential and in many aspects of the CFLE program ever since) in the review and evaluation of the modules. I also responded to a number of questions regarding the efficacy and status of family life education in the United States.

In addition to email review and correspondence my role on the Panel included attendance at a face-to-face meeting and conference in Singapore in early October! It was quite a journey; 12 hours to Tokyo and another 7 to Singapore. Not only did I lose a day on the way over but the time is almost exactly opposite – 2:30 pm in Minnesota is 3:30 am in Singapore! It was a fairly quick trip (although I did add in a few days so I could do some sight-seeing) so just as I started to adjust to the time change, it was time to go home.

But the trip was well worth it. It was a wonderful experience to meet so many lovely people and have the opportunity to learn about and contribute to the amazing initiative being carried out by the Singapore government – not to mention the beautiful scenery and delicious food!

Members of the Expert Panel met on Wednesday afternoon where we learned more about the people and culture of Singapore and then participated in a discussion regarding the modules that have been created so far. Singapore is a small country with a large population (over 5 million) and a vital economy. The government is concerned about decreasing and delayed marriage rates, the rising divorce rate, falling fertility rates, and smaller family sizes. Family is highly valued in Singapore as evidenced by their investment in the FamilyMatters! initiative. The Initiative is more than just the development of a certificate program. It is really a systemic approach with outreach to families in their homes, schools, at work, in their community, and via businesses. For example, $4 million is being specifically allocated to businesses that want to establish more family-friendly working environments.

Singapore has been offering family life education programs for many years but through this new initiative wants to provide a more standardized curricula focused on evidence-based practice and involving more formal training for providers (thus the FLE certificate modules).

The content of the certificate program, while clearly influenced by the Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) content areas, reflects the culture and needs of the Singaporean people. The final certificate program will total 45 hours which initially concerned me. However, the intended audience of the certificate program is para-professionals or peer educators supervised by qualified professionals. They will not be conducting family life education programs on their own but rather assisting professional family life educators.

On Thursday I attended and participated in the Building Research and Practice Family Life Education Conference. Over 300 mostly para-professionals attended this inaugural event. The Panel had the opportunity to have tea with Ms. Low Yen Ling, Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development. Speakers at the conference included Ms. Ling as well as Dr. Alan Hayes, Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies and Dr. Daniel Shek, Chair Professor of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, both of whom spoke about the importance of evidence-based practice. In the afternoon the majority of the audience attended training workshops focused on a specific curriculum called Signposts. I presented information on best practices in family life education to a group of about 40 family life education program directors and administrators.

The entire focus of the conference was on evidence-based practice and it was clear that the intention of the conference was to begin the process of ramping up the standards for the providers and programs funded through the FamilyMatters! initiative.

Just recently I received the draft version of the next two modules. It is anticipated that the final two modules will be ready for review by mid-November. I am not sure what my role will be once the program has been developed but I intend to follow their progress. It was an honor to represent NCFR and inspiring to see the support provided to family life education by the Singaporean government. Hopefully we can learn about the benefits of providing such a systemic approach to the support and well-being of families.