A 20 year history of Encompass

In preparation for the 20th Anniversary Celebration of Encompass on September 17, 3 pm at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, blog posts this month will focus on historical elements and highlights.

By Lavern Nissley
Executive Director of Encompass 2005-2024

You've likely had some contact or association with Encompass Connection Center programs, staff, board, or class/course alumni. What do you know about how it got started and the approach to make a difference in Clark County marriages?

​Although Marriage Savers of Clark County was conceived as early as 2003, its official birthdate is recognized as September 17, 2004. On that date about 120 community leaders gathered at the former Senior Services Center in Springfield (now CoHATCH) to register support for a Community Marriage Policy (CMP).

Bob Suver, then Director of Clark County Job and Family Services, shared the WHY. “As director of Job and Family Services at the time we could see the pain that dysfunctional and disrupted families caused. We needed to do something because our marriage disruption rate was twice the national average. It speaks well for our community that they recognized the problem, and they embraced that there could be a solution – and how can we work together to have that solution.” 
 
Mike and Harriet McManus, national directors of Marriage Savers, attended to help launch the 187th CMP site in the United States. The policy was signed by 47 pastors who committed to raising the standard for healthy marriages, requiring premarital preparation before performing weddings and raising up resources for already married couples.
 
In subsequent years over 250 pastors and community leaders signified their support for the Community Marriage Policy in Clark, Champaign, and Greene Counties in response to outreach by staff and board members of the newly formed nonprofit agency. Partnerships developed not only with the faith community but also with social services and counseling resources.

Within two years the name was changed to Marriage Resource Center of Miami Valley to reflect that the agency wasn't just for terminal marriages, but for premarital, enrichment, as well as restoration couples.

Nine years of federal funding (2006-2015) helped increase the scope and breadth of relationship skills to include high school students, single moms and dads, parents and families, and workplace teams. Over 70,000 individuals were served with about 40,000 representing those in couple relationships.

The flagship couple's course, The RINGS Experience, was developed by Lavern & Ronda Nissley in 2007 with hundreds of couples attending the course in class settings with optional follow up mentoring/coaching. In 2020, a strategic pivot was made due to COVID limitations in order to make the content available to couples virtually, on demand, and adapted to schedules. RINGS Pathwright continues as an 8-hour online experience with recommended coaching broken up into 8 sessions. This innovation has made it possible for couples all around the world to experience RINGS.

The timeline below represents major benchmarks among hundreds of fond and significant memories. We are grateful to the 53 board members, 34 staff, 138 trained mentors/coaches, and hundreds of champions who have made it all possible to see Family trees forever changed.

It's not too late to RSVP for attending the 20th Anniversary Celebration September 17, 3 pm at Grace Evangelical Church. The deadline for submitting ads to the commemorative booklet has passed, however, we welcome your participation.

RSVP for 20th Anniversary