GUIDE YOUR HEART
Meet the Member
As a local non-profit, Guide Your Heart supports relationship wellness to strengthen the most valuable relationship in the home - the couple. We spoke with the Executive Director & Founder, Kristine Stensland, to learn more. Q: Tell us about Guide Your Heart. What does your company offer to the Rochester region? A: Guide Your Heart is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with the mission of helping couple relationships start and stay strong. If you look at our logo, you’ll notice it looks like a wheel. The logo was designed to show relationships as a continuum and each color represents a segment of that continuum. The continuum is made up of Youth Relationship Education, Premarital Preparation, Support for the Start of a Committed Couple Relationship, Enrichment of Relationships, Restoration of Relationships in Crisis, Divorce Recovery, and Step or Blended Family Education and Support. Guide Your Heart’s work in our region is to foster partnerships, centralize resources, and mobilize support for strengthening couple relationships along that continuum. Q: How did it start for Guide Your Heart? A : I think the word evolve rather than start best describes Guide Your Heart. Officially, the IRS approved Guide Your Heart as a non-profit in January 2021. The path to Guide Your Heart began in 2004 when I went through a divorce and made it my personal mission to work to help others avoid that painful experience. Since getting remarried, my husband and I have volunteered to lead divorce recovery groups, started blended family groups, and became Prepare Enrich facilitators to provide premarital coaching. Founding Guide Your Heart formalized our commitment to be a community catalyst to elevate the conversation about strengthening the “leadership team of the family” (the couple) and encourage stronger community involvement and connection to support that team. Q: Guide Your Heart has been a member of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce for a year. What do you find valuable in your membership to the organization? A: Networking and learning. I am energized and inspired when I meet other members of the Chamber and learn about the impactful work they are doing. Our community benefits when we dream big together about how we can collectively improve the lives of community members.
Guide Your Heart’s work in our region is to foster partnerships, centralize resources, and mobilize support for strengthening couple relationships along that continuum.
Q: What is a unique fact people should know about Guide Your Heart? A: I’m not sure it’s unique, but it is part of our story. In 2007, I had an informational interview with the Executive Director of Child Care Resource & Referral (now Families First of MN), Pat Gannon. During that conversation with Pat, I told him I was changing careers from healthcare administration to non-profit administration because “someday I’m going to found a non-profit with a mission of strengthening couple relationships.” Fourteen years later, Guide Your Heart became official. Pat, who is now retired, was one of the first people I notified when we received approval from the IRS to be a 501(c)(3) organization. The path was longer than anticipated, but the passion never waned. Q: What is the outlook for your business and industry? A: The need for relationship education is high, but the demand is low. And relationships start and sadly end, probably every day. As donations are secured to invest in the mission of helping couple relationships start and stay strong, there is no shortage of work to be done.
To learn more about Guide Your Heart, visit www.guideyourheart.org
NOVEMBER 2023 — ROCHESTER AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ADVANTAGE MAGAZINE | 11
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