Carol Soelberg
An Exciting Time to be Involved with United Families International
October 18, 2006
This
is a very exciting time to be involved with United Families International!
During the past five years, President Sharon Slater and her colleagues put UFI on the world map as an organization influential in affecting world and national policy by promoting traditional family issues. It is now my opportunity to step forward as president and offer my resources and abilities to this great cause. Allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Carol Ray Soelberg. I am the wife of James Glade Soelberg and we are the parents of 13 children. I have spent the past 35 years dealing with the "family issues" that most every other parent deals with in raising the next generation of responsible citizens. I understand the importance of the family's influence on society and the effect of society's influence on the family.
I have accepted the opportunity to serve as the president of United Families International because as a mother, I recognize the crucial role families play in a healthy society. I have come to realize through my involvement in the home, the community and at the United Nations that taking an active voice in family issues is the only way to secure a safe future for families.
We live in a world where the voices to undermine family values and solidarity are loud and aggressive. Strengthening the home from within is no longer all that is necessary for safeguarding families. Families must also be protected from attempts outside the home to weaken family strength and purpose.
United Families International is an organization the offers that protection. As a 501(c)(3) nondenominational public charity, UFI is devoted to maintaining and strengthening the family as the fundamental unit of society. Our primary mission is to impact public policy so that families can flourish. By protecting the family as the bases of society, communities, states, and nations are strengthened. We educate and advocate in behalf of five basic respects: traditional marriage, parental rights, life, religious liberty, and national sovereignty. Each of these respects is addressed from the standpoint of solid social science data that overwhelmingly support the importance of each issue in protecting the family.
During the past five years, Sharon Slater has proven herself a woman of great energy, vision and foresight. Under her able leadership, United Families International has developed three major programs that facilitate our primary purpose:
- International policy program: UFI maintains non-government organization (NGO) status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) and works to educate UN ambassadors and delegates on root policies affecting the family. We send representatives, including experts on family issues, to UN conferences to provide legal analysis and peer-reviewed scholarly research in support of UN delegates working to preserve the family. We have been successful in affecting the outcome of numerous UN conference documents and in promoting respect for the family, marriage, life, religion, parents and national sovereignty. Our publication, "The UN Negotiating Guide," is the most widely used tool at the United Nations for defending the family in UN documents.
- Defend Marriage program: The mission of Defend Marriage is to help protect the institutions of traditional marriage and the natural family from the growing threats they face today. We carry out our mission primarily through educating the public, policy makers and the media about these threats and the serious negative impacts they are having on our nation. We also conduct legal research, help shape public opinion on these issues and support policies and legislation that will strengthen marriage and the family.
- Stay Alive program: UFI's intervention program in eight African nations targets children ages 9-14 and empowers them to make smart choices before they become sexually active. Children learn about HIV/AIDS, what it is, how it is transmitted and how they can protect themselves from contracting it by being abstinent before marriage and faithful in marriage. Guiding principles target consequential thinking skills, individual worth, abstinence, family, empowerment and hope. An independent evaluation revealed that Stay Alive is making a significant and positive impact in teaching African children to make wise choices that contribute to healthy families.
Each of these programs contributes one-of-a-kind opportunities that are crucial to accomplishing our overall effort to impact public policy nationally and internationally.
UFI has been and will continue to be one of the few clear voices advocating sound family policy based on social science research and evidence. It is my hope that we will form a family team. A team of individuals from all walks of life and from all family forms who will join together in promoting and protecting those values and policies that will help secure a safe future for families. I personally invite you to become an active part of our successful team.
To join our team, please contact me and visit our Web site to become a member or to re-new your membership.
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