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PREPARE-CC
PREPARE-CC is now available. It was launched in February this year and at the end of May more than 420 administrators have purchased the new material and 256 couples have already taken PREPARE-CC. The new inventory is designed to be more suitable to couples already living together (with or without children), particularly those who are intending to marry. A new category called Cohabitation Issues is included, replacing the Marriage Expectations category in Prepare. This category is intended to assist couples explore the impact that living together has had upon their relationship and to provide a springboard for considering the further changes and effects that might emerge when they marry. The other categories remain as they are in PREPARE, but 40 of the questions have been revised so that they have greater relevance to cohabiting couples intending to marrying, in that they that tap into issues that may have arisen during the experience of cohabitation. How to obtain PREPARE-CC The cost is $15 and this includes access to PREPARE-CC processing, 3
item booklets, 4 answer sheets and an eight page mini manual describing
the new materials and providing an overview of relevant Australian and
American research relevant to cohabiting couples intending marry.
You may order by email
Prepare-Enrich Accreditation Policy Accreditation is for the resource not in a profession Prepare is offering training and accreditation in the use of a tool to facilitate the work of those (in a variety of different professional roles) who work with premarital couples. Prepare is NOT offering training in a profession. We accredit and authorize a person already in a profession to use the tools we offer. We are NOT accrediting a person in a profession. Our training needs to be of high quality and professional, but we are not training and accrediting to a profession. Professional accreditation, and supervision arrangements and requirements are matters for other bodies (Theological Colleges and Ordaining Authorities for religious celebrants; marriage educator and counsellor professional associations for educators and counselors; registration boards and professional associations for psychologists, therapists and social workers). What we say to new Trainees Since June 2002, we now state in our letter to newly trained administrators that: “Your accreditation is not given lightly and we would not want it to be considered an “accreditation for life” irrespective of whether you use the materials or not. Skills and knowledge need to be practiced and maintained. Problems emerge when the materials are not used soon after training or for a lengthy period. Administrators who have been inactive for a period of 5 years will be contacted with suggestions about ways of maintaining their accreditation.” Sitting in on a Training Day or involvement in some other form of refresher training, such as skills development, as well as using the inventory are ways to maintain accreditation. We actively encourage ongoing skills development Prepare administrators receive regular notification on our web site
of opportunities for participating in development programs run by our team
of trainers throughout Australia. These are intended to have a strong
skill and process emphasis and are designed and conducted by individual
Trainers. We strongly encourage administrators to participate in
these programs. Our intention is to make these opportunities more
widely available in the future.
Evaluating your work with couples A number of administrators have indicated that they are evaluating their work with couples. They have developed their own short questionnaire that couples complete at the conclusion of the series of feedback sessions. This is a very useful and responsible innovation. It is important not to assume that our work is always totally effective and acceptable to couples. Most feedback is usually positive but any indications that something could be made clearer or implemented more helpfully has great importance. Assessment leads to new learning and new insights as well as underlining the effectiveness of many of our current practices. It has been suggested that Prepare-Enrich could develop an evaluation
sheet that administrators could use or modify for the purpose of assessing
their work with couples. John Wheeler, our NSW North Coast Trainer,
has sent us an excellent program evaluation form that he uses. We
would appreciate receiving any other forms that are in use. If you
could send examples in to the Prepare office, or email them to Alan Craddock
at the University of Sydney (alanc@psych.usyd.edu.au), we will attempt
to develop a generic form that might be a helpful starting point for those
administrators who would like to assess their work with couples.
Working with Inventories: Underlying skills and abilities. The Marriage and Relationship Educators Association of Australia has recently developed a Users’ Guide for Relationship Educators. One section of this guide is tailor-made for Educators who work with inventories such as the Prepare-Enrich range of resources. We welcome and are appreciative of this development. Below is an abbreviated summary list of the main areas of knowledge that are described in more detail in that section of the Users’ Guide. These are listed so that you may reflect on them and aim to utilise these competencies, and to consider ways of developing these further. The MAREAA website is worth a visit and more detail about the Association is available there (www.mareaa.asn.au). To work effectively with inventories one needs to have:
The site is proving very popular with over 28,000 hits and an average of over 520 visits per month since July 2002. Make sure you bookmark the homepage and access the site regularly. The homepage (www.prepare-enrich.com.au) provides general contact details for the National Office and links to information pages for:
(2) those interested in training to use PREPARE (3) existing accredited Administrators. You can order supplies by email. The web site also provides
helpful links to other useful and relevant websites as well as a “frequently
asked questions for Administrators” (FAQ) link.
Please spread the news about the PREPARE-ENRICH resources Please let potential PREPARE users know about Training Days and our
website. A list of PREPARE and ENRICH Training Days for the next
six months is available on our website. This list is regularly updated.
Links to the list are available within the Administrators or interested-in-training
sections of the web site.
End of the old version We ceased processing the old Version of PREPARE and ENRICH at the end of February 2003. We are continuing to offer Update Training as part of Prepare Training Days for the new version in as many locations as we can. Please check the training dates on the website (use the link below) and plan to attend a Training Day soon. If there is no Training Day in your area and you are willing to provide a venue please contact the PREPARE Office and we will try to arrange for a Trainer to come to you. For a current list of Training Days go to: For a current list of Skills Development programs go to: FOR THOSE IN PASTORAL MINISTRY:If you are interested in topics such as…
If you wish to order a copy simply email our office or telephone (02) 9545 4566. The cost is $24.95 (including GST and postage). We will mail you a copy and invoice you accordingly. |