8 Habits of a Successful Marriage  |  10 Great Dates to Energize Your Marriage
10 Rites of Passage  |  Active Relationships Mastery Series
Basic Training for Couples  |  Couple Communication
FOCCUS: Facilitating Open Couple Communication, Understanding and Study
How to Avoid Falling for a Jerk(ette)  |  Prepare/Enrich
Smart Steps for Stepfamilies  |  Survival Skills for a Healthy Family

(download a .pdf version of this list)

What is 8 Habits of a Successful Marriage?
The blueprint for creating a successful marriage is laid out in this program for engaged and married couples. The strategies are practical and useful for creating and maintaining a marriage that is strong and satisfying. Couples will: 1) clearly define their vision as a family unit; 2) build a common sense of purpose, values, and goals; 3) learn a process to accomplish family goals; and 4) discover how to achieve better communication as spouses.

Why should I utilize 8 Habits of a Successful Marriage
8 Habits of a Successful Marriage provides a framework for applying a universal, self-discovery approach that enables couples to communicate about their problems and resolve them successfully.

Other resources available:  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families

For more information about this resource visit  http://www.franklincovey.com/tc/solutions/home-and-family-solutions/the-8-habits-of-a-successful-marriage

What is 10 Great Dates to Energize Your Marriage?
This highly acclaimed resource is an exciting, fun-filled approach to helping couples build thriving marriages. It invites couples to go on 10 exclusive dates (with specific topics) that are meant to enrich their relationship. Dates include: Making Your Marriage a Priority, Learning to Talk, Resolving Conflict, Becoming an Encourager, Finding Unity in Diversity, Having a Creative Love Life and many more!

10 Great Dates is an extremely practical resource, appropriate for all stages of marriage, and can be targeted to engaged couples, newlyweds and empty nesters. It is the perfect ongoing marriage education program.

Why should I utilize 10 Great Dates to Energize Your Marriage?
Marriage and relationship education has suddenly emerged into the national spotlight. The purpose of this education is to give couples the skills necessary to have successful relationships, focusing on areas such as communication and conflict management. Initial evaluations of this resource suggest that it is providing many benefits to individuals and families.

A few years ago the University of Tennessee researched 10 Great Dates. Their findings indicate that this resource increases marital satisfaction, constructive communication, social support and marital cohesion. 10 Great Dates is proving to be one of the most important and effective marriage and relationship education resources out there today.

For more information about this resource visit www.marriagealive.com

What is 10 Rites of Passage?
This highly acclaimed resource teaches at-risk youth to focus on long-term life goals that include abstinence, marriage and parenthood education.

10 Rites of Passage promotes self-discipline and the importance of taking responsibility for one’s own actions and choices. It teaches students to recognize and value the interdependence between self, family, community and the world.

The 10 Rites include the following: Personal, Spiritual, Economic, Political, Social, Emotional, Mental, Physical, Historical and Cultural.

Why should I utilize 10 Rites of Passage?
Past participants have described the training as “life changing.” Community-based organizations and faith-based communities will see enormous impact and increased effectiveness in their work with youth and families. 10 Rites of Passage provides tools to help youth develop health-promoting behaviors, improved study skills, the ability to plan for their future, and increased understanding of the political, economic and social systems that impact their lives.

For more information about this resource visit www.nflec.org

What is Active Relationships?
Active Relationships is a state-of-the-art series compiling healthy marriage and relationship best practices. Topics include: communication, money, personality differences, romance, and traditions. 

Active Money Personalities looks at the ways people view money and, with a sense of humor and greater perspective, understand how they fit in the "grand scheme." People will learn their own money personality type as well as the strengths and growth areas of that type. This seminar involves fun, humor, light heartedness and practical work.

Active Living builds intimacy, both physical and emotional, for a smart, passionate, enjoyable and lasting relationship. This seminar seeks to set up the ideas to allow you to think "outside the box" to create easy, fun traditions that ensure your marriage bond lasts forever. This seminar also examines common goals and the mission of each couple as they see it, making it more likely that they can continue to achieve their aspirations for a great life!

Why should I utilize Active Relationships?
This program has been used effectively by the military, Head Start programs, Hispanic communities, inner-city youth, faith-based and state-based agencies.

Other resources include: Active Relationships for Young Adults, Active Relationships for the Hispanic Community, Active Military Reunions, Active Military Life Skills, Active Communication, Active Couples Romance and Intimacy, Active Family Communication for Greater Bonds and Happiness, Active Re-Entry (After Incarceration), Active Refugees, and Courses for Business.

For more information about this resource visit www.activerelationships.com

What is Basic Training for Couples?
Basic Training for Couples was created to strengthen African-American marriages. It focuses on giving couples an understanding of the importance of marriage and helps them to value marriage and understand the need to put marriage first. Couples are also taught how to communicate, resolve conflict, and understand the value of sex and intimacy in marriage.

Training titles include: Why Marriage?, From I to We, Communication, Making Marriage Work, Let’s Make Love, Yours and Mine = Ours, Keep the FIRE Burning and From This Day Forward. 

Basic Training for Couples also includes lessons on how to make the transition of combining families easier. Couples who take this class will also learn how to develop a plan for a successful marriage. This resource is appropriate for many couples, including married couples (with or without children), engaged couples, remarried couples and empty nest or retired couples.

Why should I utilize Basic Training for Couples?
For the past 40 years, there has been a downward spiral in African American marriage rates. The African American community is slowly recovering, but the damage has been done. This breakdown has left many families damaged or destroyed.  

When creating this resource, Rosario Slack and Nisa Muhammad traveled across many African-American communities, asking couples where they go for marriage education. The answer was always the same, “Never heard of it,” “What’s that?,” or “I don’t know.” Sadly, African American couples, who need relationship training the most, are the least likely to get it. 

For more information about this resource visit www.blackmarriage.org

What is Couple Communication?
In Couple Communication, couples learn 11 practical and effective talking and listening skills for better decision-making, conflict resolution, and anger management. Whether gained through pre-marital preparation, marriage education, or counseling, these interpersonal tools help couples build a more satisfying and fulfilling collaborative relationship.

Why should I utilize Couple Communication?
Lack of communication is a primary reason marriages fail. Couples have to learn to communicate and listen to one another effectively. Couple Communication will help couples:

• Have their feelings and thoughts heard and respected
• Learn new things
• Sort through issues and problems
• Discuss and explore solutions
• Reach an understanding of one another

To date, over 700,000 couples worldwide have taken the Couple Communication program since its development at the University of Minnesota Family Study Center. With over 70 studies, Couple Communication is the most independently researched marriage program available today, with positive results.

For more information about this resource visit www.couplescommunication.com

What is FOCCUS?
FOCCUS is an internationally used inventory designed to provide engaged couples and those working with them a personalized profile of what is needed in their marriage preparation process. It is both a starting place for couple discussion and a map of what issues need time and attention, affirmation or problem solving. The study includes 156 questions, plus additional questions for those getting remarried, those involved in an interfaith relationship and/or cohabiting couples.  

Why should I utilize FOCCUS?
Encouraging couples to discuss a broad range of important topics can help them understand the meaning of their union, discover their individual styles, and learn communication and conflict resolution skills that will enhance their lifelong relationship. The 156-item, research-based inventory assesses couples' agreement, disagreement, or indecision about statements related to important issues, such as communication, problem-solving, religion, family and friends, careers, cohabitation, parenting, sexuality, finances and more. 

Other resources available: Inventories for Different Cultures, REFOCCUS, BRIDGES, and Marriage Savers

For more information about this resource visit www.foccusinc.com

What is How to Avoid Falling for a Jerk(ette)?
Jerks, as it is affectionately called, is a marriage and education skills program. This program, developed by Dr. John Van Epp, is based on five key areas: family background, attitudes and actions, compatibility potential, other relationships and relationship skills. It teaches a way to build healthy relationships that keep the head and heart working together. 

How to Avoid Falling for a Jerk/Jerkette is a program centered around two things:  the underdeveloped mind, meaning that most people simply don’t know what to look for in a lifetime mate.  And the overdeveloped mind, meaning that many people just don’t know how to keep a dating relationship in balance.  It teaches those who are dating or engaged how to shape an accurate profile of their mate and how to keep proper balance between the forces that bonded the couple in the first place. 

Why should I utilize How to Avoid Falling for a Jerk(ette)?
If we, as a society, can give single individuals, including adolescents and teenagers, the skills needed to make good relationship choices while dating, we can be successful in helping them achieve a healthy marriage and family life as well. 

Other resources available: Marriage Links and Pick a Partner

For more information about this resource visit www.lovethinks.com

 What is Prepare/Enrich?
Prepare/Enrich is a program based on a set of five inventories that examine major relationship issues a couple may experience. These inventories include 4-6 feedback sessions in which the counselor facilitates discussion between the couple based on their inventory results. There are different inventories for the following groups:  pre-marital couples, pre-marital couples with children, cohabiting couples with or without children, married couples with or without children and couples over the age of 50.  

Why should I utilize Prepare/Enrich?
Prepare/Enrich can give premarital couples the skills needed to help them achieve a healthy marriage and family life, covering topics that can cause early marriages to end, including communication, money, conflict and intimacy.

For more information about this resource visit www.prepare-enrich.com

10.  Smart Steps for Stepfamilies

What is Smart Steps for Stepfamilies?
This research-based educational curriculum written by Dr. Francesca Adler-Baeder is designed for remarried or partnering couples and their children. It focuses on building couple and family strengths while addressing the unique needs and issues that face couples in stepfamilies. 

The program uses informational presentations, group discussion, and a multi-media approach to teach strategies for building healthy relationships and stable stepfamilies.

Why should I utilize Smart Steps for Stepfamilies?
Through informational presentations, hands-on exercises, group discussions and media, participants will learn the following: the myths about stepfamilies, realistic expectations for stepfamily members, the stages of stepfamily development, legal issues for stepfamilies, finances in stepfamilies and much more. They will walk away with improved knowledge of stepfamily issues, validation of their experiences, strengthened relationships with the family and great agreement on roles within the family.

For more information about this resource visit www.stepfamilies.info

11.  Survival Skills for a Healthy Family

What is Survival Skills for a Healthy Family?
Survival Skills teaches practical skills that promote the patterns of well-functioning, healthy families. These skills are taken from the best of social science and psychological research into the patterns of living that consistently show up in healthy families. These include adapting to change, solving family problems, and passing on important values to the next generation.

This program can be understood by families of various cultures, including those who might never seek family therapy.

Why should I utilize Survival Skills for a Healthy Family?
For many years, therapists have watched families struggle to solve their problems. Survival Skills meets the need for a simple, useful tool to help families thrive.

This course is a proven model for enhancing healthy family interactions and investing family members in each other and their community. Since 1980, 10,000 instructors have educated over one million families in this program around the world.

For more information about this resource visit www.familywellness.com