Fonds consists of textual records created and accumulated by the Family Life Institute from its creation in 1972 to its closing in 1979. The fonds consists of the following series: Reports, Financial records, Correspondence, Member Lists, Meeting minutes, and Coursework. In the Reports series, records include discussions of future courses, activities to be performed in those courses, bibliographies of potential readings for those courses, evaluation of the Institute’s success by participants, locations of campus facilities, and checklists assessing participants’ progress in the program. In the Financial records series, there are budget lists and grant funding documents, including invoices, petty cash statements, purchase requisitions, and monthly budget statements. In Correspondence, there are letters regarding the participation of individuals in the Family Life Institute summer program, plans for implementing the Family Life Institute during the summer, various incomplete letters addressed to corporate and government institutions, and letters regarding the employment of individuals in the Institute. In the Member lists series, there are records regarding student enrolment in the Family Life Institute, as well as lists of staff members and teachers who taught courses at the Institute. In Meeting minutes, there are records of various councils, such as the Advisory Councils on Family Life Education held from 1972-1975, committees (such as the nucleus committee’s Nova Scotia conference on family life from 1971-1974), and meeting minutes (such as the minutes of a series of meetings discussing the possibility of a Family Life Institute at Mount Saint Vincent University in 1972). In Coursework, there are records pertaining to the types of evaluation that students would complete to pass their courses, as well as records that highlighted other courses on family life education provided by other institutions. These records range in date from 1972-1979.

Series consists of reports from the years 1972 to 1979 detailing academic requirements for attending the Institute, reading materials available at the library pertaining to the subject of the Institute, and lists of booklets and tapes borrowed by other institutions for the purposes of teaching students. The series includes entries on assignments to be completed by students during the program, as well as schedules for the first day of attendance (called orientation). The series also includes information on the history of the institute, in addition to the physical facilities present at Mount Saint Vincent University, where the Institute was to be held. The series also contains a report on the content of the Family Life Institute program held at St. Francis Xavier University. The series details the courses that were taken, as well as a section with questions that students could answer to rate their experience of the program once it was completed. The reports include lists of faculty members who were responsible for teaching the students. The reports also include correspondence between the Institute and those with the credentials to teach the courses offered during the program. The series includes an article on marriage, an article on sex education, a monthly letter from the Royal Bank of Canada concerning retirement, and an essay titled Theosa ’77: An Inquiry into Canadian Theological Studies of Aging by Sister S. Michael Guinan, Ph.D. The series also included narrative descriptions of the activities performed at the Institute, in addition to the number of students and teachers present. The series contains job postings for potential professors, outlining their responsibilities for teaching and making materials available to students.