Contact: Don Feder, 508-405-1337, dfeder@rcn.com, Lisa Youngblood, 815-964-5819, lisa@worldcongress.org; both with World Congress of Families 

ROCKFORD, Ill., May 19, 2011 /Standard Newswire/ -- World Congress of Families Managing Director Larry Jacobs announced that World Congress of Families VII will be held in Sydney during Australia's National Family Week (May 15-18) in 2013.
 
"Australia represents not one but three firsts for World Congress of Families," Jacobs noted. "WCF VII will be the first Congress in the Southern Hemisphere, the first in an English-speaking country, and the first time the location of a Congress has been announced before the preceding Congress is held."  World Congress of Families VI will take place in Madrid, May 28-30, 2012.
 
The joint bid by Australia and New Zealand was approved by the World Congress of Families Selection Committee -- which met at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Fort Worth, Texas, April 14-15 -- and later endorsed by The Howard Center Board of Directors (parent organization of WCF). Bev Adair presented Australia/New Zealand's bid.
 
The theme of World Congress of Families VII is "Happy Families -- Healthy Economy." Mary-Louise Fowler, Vice President of the Australian Family Association and Chairperson of the Bid Committee commented, "Research shows that the intact natural family is the best builder of social capital, providing as it does, better health, educational, and employment outcomes, and that the intact family contributes to society more than it takes."
 
The Bid Committee also includes Vice Chairman Warwick Marsh (along with his wife, Allison, founder of the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation), Media Liaison Bev Adair (spokesperson on children and youth abuse and neglect for Family First of New Zealand), Greg Briscoe-Hough (former state chairman, Knights of the Southern Cross), Justin Coulson, Neville Cox (regional director, Focus on The Family) and Ron and Mavis Pirola (former members of the Pontifical Council for the Family, current chairs of the Australian Catholic Marriage and Family Council).
 
Jacobs observed: "It's exciting that a full year before the Madrid Congress we are able to announce the location of World Congress of Families VII (Sydney 2013). We look forward to bringing pro-family leaders, scholars and activists from around the world to Australia in 2013."
 
World Congress of Families is also co-sponsoring six regional events this year: the Third Annual International Riga Family Forum, which took place on May 13 at the Riga, Latvia City Hall; the Dads4Kids Foundation's Marriage and Family Conference in Sydney, May 18-20; The Third International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, in Vancouver, June 3-4; The Future of The Family In Coalition Britain Conference in London on June 29, the Moscow Demographic Summit: Family and the Future of Humankind, June 29-30 and the Lagos International Law Conference on Women and Children, in Nigeria July 14-15.  Click here for the WCF April 29 press release for more details on this year's regional events.
 
Jacobs concluded, "Sydney is an exciting city and we're excited to join with the Bid Committee to bring pro-family leaders, scholars and activists from around the world to WCF VII." Over 60 countries were represented at WCF V in Amsterdam and we expect delegates from 100 nations to come to Sydney in 2013.
 
There have been six Congresses to date -- World Congress of Families I (Prague, 1997), WCF II (Geneva, 1999), WCF III (Mexico City, 2004), WCF IV (Warsaw, 2007) and WCF V (Amsterdam, 2009).
 
To learn more about World Congress of Families, click here: www.worldcongress.org.  To schedule an interview with Larry Jacobs contact Don Feder at dfeder@rcn.com or call 508-405-1337.
 
The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and people of goodwill from more than 60  countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948).  The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois.  To date, there have been five World Congresses of Families -- Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw, Poland (2007) and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2009).  World Congress of Families VI will be held in Madrid, Spain in May 25-27, 2012.