Chai Institute was established in order to address in a practical as well as research driven way what it perceives as perhaps THE major social issue and problem in 21st Century America: Building Stable and Successful Adult Lives over the Life History, amid rapid and still uncertain major structural change in American society. Ironically, in the current environment characterized by great social and economic uncertainty, quite the unexpected has happened. Americans are increasingly being required not only to strive toward successful life organization but also, to a much greater degree, fulfill a legal mandate necessary if we are to be genuinely viewed and treated fairly as Citizens in the major Institutions of our Society. What for example is the difference between the way we might personally view a stable couple relationship combined with the responsibility of parenting and maintaining a job AND the way our local school, law enforcement, and social welfare agency officially represent it? As individuals and families we must balance the demands of our major institutions on us to maintain minimally stable and successful life styles with our own personal dreams, hopes, and aspirations.
Chai Institute is devoted to the goal of facilitating the aspirations of individuals and households in this effort and in two primary ways. First, we endeavor to provide consumers up-to-date information relevant to their specific life style or life organization situation with a focus on the intended and unintended consequences of life choices and decisions now AND over the course of the entire Life History. For example, one of the major changes in our lives over the last two decades is the role of the Internet, especially as a medium for seeking out and forming couple relationships and for linking with family, friends, co-workers, and others. Many Websites are exclusively devoted to helping individuals find their “mates-for- life”. By carefully relating each individual’s profile to a potential mate these sites are able to predict with various degrees of accuracy how likely the couple will be able to relate to each other inter personally. But without the information necessary to evaluate the couple’s life plan, a successful relationship will be put in extreme jeopardy when viewed from the life course or life history standpoint. Based on the research the Institute has conducted so far, a life plan analysis is far more important than a credit report or even a horoscope. Importantly, it is not so much a matter of trying to know or predict everything that may happen to us in life—clearly we cannot do this. Rather, it is the critically important task of evaluating how our decisions are most likely to affect us so that we can anticipate events that are highly likely even though we may not have thought about them at the time we initially made our choice. For example, how will attending graduate school after recently getting married at the age of 50 and living on campus affect my relationship and family life?
Secondly the Institute is involved in ongoing formal research related to Adult Life Organization and Life History. From this standpoint the Institute is endeavoring to understand what few research platforms in the current climate are attempting: HOW the American Adult Life Organization is created and maintained over the life history, both stable and successful ones and unstable and unsuccessful ones. If you are interested in contributing financially to our research project or would like to take advantage of the other offerings on our website feel free to contact us at any time.
About the Institute
Chai Institute, P.O. Box 192, Portales, NM 88130 email: chaiinstitute@ymail.com http://chai-institute.webstarts.com/
For Life Planning Research & Development