Online Certification in PREPARE-ENRICH: Marriage Savers Webinar Training June 30 

To:       Friends of Marriage Savers
Fm:      Mike & Harriet McManus  

Join us for certification training in the "customized version" of the PREPARE-ENRICH inventory.

The PREPARE/ENRICH assessment is the most advanced and flexible relationship assessment tool available. This one-day workshop will certify you to administer, interpret and provide feedback and skills training for premarital and married couples using the inventory and Couple's Workbook.  

A few testimonials:

" Mike & Harriet are excellent presenters. As a pastor I was "sold" on P/E years ago. Having gone through the training, I see how this program can change the marital "landscape." Thank you for such excellent tools!"  

"I want to jump on your list of cheerleaders for devising a way to certify PREPARE/ENRICH mentor couples with the Webinar technology."  - a pastor

" I am deeply appreciative of the efforts of both PREPARE/ENRICH and Marriage Savers to address the greatest issue (marriage) of our culture at this time." - a pastor

" Clear presentation. Glad we did not have to travel." - a mentor supervisor couple

(Liked) "new material on cohabitation and chastity." - a mentor supervisor couple 

Date:  Saturday, June 30  

Start time TBD: 7-Hour Workshop 

Register Now: $100 Deposit.

Call 301-469-5873 

Registration deadline & balance due for training & materials: June 15  

Training Fee: $195 per church (for up to 4 couples). $45 per additional couple or individual attending without spouse. (Each participating church/organization at a shared webinar training site is responsible for their own training fee).

Training materials cost:  $115 for certification resources for each pastor/mentor supervisor couple; $35 per mentor couple. $4.95 per couple for downloaded Workbook. 

Train in PREPARE-ENRICH the Marriage Savers Way!

At the conclusion of the Webinar, Mentor Supervisors are certified to train Marriage Mentors in their home church, using the P-E Resource Kit, which includes quality teaching DVDs by the creators of PREPARE- ENRICH, making future trainings easy.

Goals of Training:

At the end of certification training, you will:

• Be able to help and encourage couples to talk more openly with each other
• Know the areas assessed for premarital and married couples
• Know how to accurately interpret the Facilitator's Report
• Be able to utilize the Couple's Workbook in giving feedback to couples
• Recognize your limits and know when to make an appropriate referral.

6 goals & core exercises of Prepare/Enrich:

• Explore strength and growth areas
• Strengthen communication skills
• Identify and manage major stressors
• Resolve conflicts using the Ten Step Model
• Develop a more balanced relationship using the Couple and Family Maps
• Understand personality differences and maximize teamwork. 

Already trained in PREPARE-ENRICH? Get "updated" in the new customized version.

Licensed professionals can earn 7 Continuing Education Credits with further study + a modest fee.   

Already trained in another inventory? Consider PREPARE-ENRICH for 11 beneficial reasons:

1.      Customized: The online format automatically customizes itself to fit the unique stage and structure of each couple's relationship. Items are tailored to each couple by age, religion, whether pregnant, considering remarriage, etc. No other inventory is customized. For example, a couple living together would answer questions regarding cohabitation, a couple who is 55+ years old would answer different assessment Items than would a young couple. Catholics  have Items on Natural Family Planning.  Couples considering remarriage will respond to different Items than those entering a primary marriage. After the assessment is taken online, results are emailed to the certified Pastor or  Lead Mentor Couple. Marriage Mentors can then target relationship issues couples have identified. Thus, it is customized to each individual couple's relationship. 

  2.      Bargain Training Fee:  We charge only $195 per church, which includes training for up to four couples ($45 for each additional couple) plus materials. Because we are training multiple churches and incur no travel costs, we can pass on the savings to you. Materials cost $115 for the pastor/mentor supervisor to be certified. Materials include the PREPARE-ENRICH Resource Kit  with quality DVD's for future trainings, the Mentor Supervisor Training Guide,  and the Marriage Mentor Manual. Materials for mentor couples cost only $35 and include the Marriage Mentor Manual. 

3.      Mentor Focused: Marriage Savers created the marriage mentoring concept and is experienced in teaching this strategy. We pioneered marriage mentoring in a local church in the 1990's. Mentor Couples that we trained prepared 288 couples for marriage. Of that number, 58 - a big 20% - decided not to marry. Of the 230 couples who did marry, there have been only 16 divorces that we know of.  That's a 7% failure rate or a 93% success rate over nearly two decades.  That's virtual marriage insurance!

4.      Certification: One or more pastors or Mentor Supervisor Couples can be certified as PREPARE-ENRICH trainers in your congregation. P/E DVDs include 12 teaching lessons and 12 exercises -  a comprehensive package which makes future trainings easy.  During the training we show four DVD exercises to give you a feel for their quality and usefulness.  
 
5.      Role Playing Opportunities:  Through role playing using the Marriage Mentor Manual, you will practice mentoring and teaching skills. We recommend you recruit two, four or six couples, so that during role-playing one couple can role-play the mentorees, while the other couple role-plays a Mentor Couple. 
  
6.      Unique Graphics.  The PREPARE-ENRICH Facilitator Report of an individual couple includes illustrative graphics of couple scores and a written description of their Strengths and Growth Areas for a dozen categories such as Relationship Roles, Spiritual Beliefs, Communications, Financial Management and Conflict Resolution.  (We will mail you an abbreviated sample of the PREPARE-ENRICH assessment if requested).  

 7.      Sophisticated Yardsticks: Unlike other inventories, P-E uses a five-point scale, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree, offering a more nuanced analysis than the typical three-point measures (Agree, Undecided, Disagree). Results of the assessment are clustered in helpful sub-categories: Positive Couple Agreement, Disagreement, Indecision, and Special Focus.  Also included is a summary of each partner's responses on every Item and a description of the couple's Strength and Growth Areas.

8.      PREPARE-ENRICH is  more sophisticated and comprehensive than other inventories.  Like other relational assessments, PREPARE-ENRICH measures whether the couple agrees or disagrees in such subject areas as Communication, Conflict Resolution and Financial Management.  Unlike competitive inventories, P/E offers four additional measures:

 A. "SCOPE Personality Profile," the degree to which each partner is:

Social - extroverted or introverted
Change - open to change
Organized - conscientious or less organized
Pleasing - agreeable or forceful
Emotionally Steady - calm or reactive

B. Relationship Dynamics, has 4 yardsticks:

Assertiveness -  how each partner expresses their feelings and what they want in the relationship.

Self-Confidence - how good each partner feels about oneself and his/her ability to accomplish what they want in life.

Avoidance - the tendency of each partner to minimize issues or their reluctance to deal with problems directly.

Partner Dominance - the degree to which one person feels controlled or dominated by their partner.

C. PREPARE/ENRICH also measures Stress, Satisfaction, Commitment, Abuse:

The Personal Stress each person is feeling and the issues causing that stress.

Satisfaction of both individuals and the couple.    

Commitment of each partner to the relationship and how they think their partner feels about commitment.

Abuse and Substance Abuse is measured - physical, emotional, verbal and sexual abuse as well as substance abuse. 

D.  PREPARE/ENRICH features unique Couple and Family Maps that measure Closeness and Flexibility:  

Balancing Closeness and Flexibility is the key to couple and family health. For closeness, couples and families need to balance separateness vs. togetherness. For flexibility, couples and families need to balance stability vs. change.  
 
9.   New PREPARE/ENRICH -Marriage Savers Couple's Workbook offers 30 Exercises not available in other inventories. These Exercises are designed to help couples improve their communication, develop a budget, and learn conflict resolution skills. Marriage Savers offers two Cohabitation Exercises designed to help couples address risks of living together and encourage them to move apart until the wedding. In addition we offer the Optional Premarital Sexual Covenant to encourage purity until marriage.

To see its quality download a copy from our website www.marriagesavers.org  Click on Store, then Publications. ($4.95/copy)

10.     Faith-based Options: If a couple is Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish, P/E offers unique faith related items for them to discuss.  

11.     Couple Report: A helpful P/E feature - mentorees are given a special report of their relationship that they can keep and discuss.

Webinar conducted through GoToMeeting.com: During training your computer will be linked to ours. Our PowerPoint presentation will be projected onto your screen. We will train you via telephone. Ample Q & A opportunities.  We can train in up to 16 sites simultaneously.

To register, call 301-469-5873 with your credit card deposit of $100 to reserve your training slot.   

Mike McManus, President of Marriage Savers, is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of six books on marriage, such as: "Living Together: Myths, Risks & Answers" written with Harriet McManus and "How To Cut America's Divorce Rate in Half: A Strategy Every State Should Adopt." They have personally mentored 61 premarital couples. One couple commented, "Going through the mentoring process with you gave both of us a confidence about the strength of our relationship and our ability to deal with various hurdles in marriage."