ProSAAM Overview

Introductory Statement

We understand that African American couples are very interested in programs designed to improve their relationships. We see evidence that African American couples recognize the importance of marriage and want to do everything that they can to build strong marriages that will benefit their families and communities. Because African American couples are open to learning communication and problem-solving skills, both of which make relationships better, we include these in ProSAAM. We also understand that marriage is founded on religious faith. By offering marriage enrichment from a religious viewpoint, we have the opportunity to reach many married couples and to help them bring God’s love into their relationship.

The content included in the ProSAAM program that is not taken from PREP or Christian PREP was developed by the Program for Strong African American Marriages (ProSAAM) project at the University of Georgia. The ProSAAM research project is a five-year intervention study at The University of Georgia that was funded by the John Templeton Foundation. The project was headed up by Drs. Steven Beach, Tera Hurt, Lily McNair and their team of colleagues at the University of Georgia, and Dr. Frank Fincham at Florida State University. It is also based on substantial and ongoing input from leaders in the African American community.

Core Themes of the Program

• Models of healthy relationships and marriages, including the reversal of unhealthy and damaging patterns, are reinforced throughout the curriculum.
• Successful communication and conflict management: The curriculum covers productive ways to manage disagreements and conflicts between partners.
• The spiritual basis of marriage, encouragement to use faith, and the practice of faith to keep marriages strong.
• Regular prayer to bring God’s presence into the relationship.

Why is ProSAAM Unique?

ProSAAM is a new curriculum that is made up of many elements. First, it incorporates major aspects of The Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP). PREP is one of the most comprehensive and well-respected divorce-prevention/marriage enhancing programs in the world. PREP is a skills- and principles-building curriculum designed to help partners communicate in a healthy manner, get to the heart of problems, and increase their connection with each other. Second, ProSAAM makes liberal use of video segments for teaching aspects of the program. Some of the video segments were taken from the video tapes developed by the Seventh-day Adventist Church using Christian PREP, and some were developed by the team at the University of Georgia.

ProSAAM is innovative in two essential ways. First, it is designed for use in the African American community. While all couples are welcome, and the curriculum could be used with couples who would otherwise be open to the approach, it is designed for African American couples in the Christian community. Second, ProSAAM deeply incorporates prayer as a fundamental part of the training covered by the curriculum. To our knowledge, this is the first major marriage education curriculum to so thoroughly focus on prayer as a fundamental element of what is taught and practiced in the training regimen. In fact, the ProSAAM project at the University of Georgia is groundbreaking for the thoughtful and innovative way prayer is used throughout the curriculum to help strengthen and protect marriages. We believe that praying for the well-being of one’s partner brings God more centrally into a marriage. It can also engender feelings of closeness to the partner at the same time that it anchors one’s relationship in faith.

Teach out of the Box: What does the kit include?
The ProSAAM kit includes everything you need to teach a 12-15 hour couples’ workshop including:

• One Leader Manual
• One Participant Manual
• Three-disc DVD set
• One Resource disk that includes sample program schedules, material lists, and helpful hints
• One package of Speaker Listener Tiles (i.e., Floor Cards)
• One bonus DVD of Dr. Stanley’s commitment talk

We recommend that you purchase additional participant manuals, one for each person who will be participating in your couples’ workshop.

In the ProSAAM project, couples also were provided flexible ears to complement the Speaker Listener tiles. The tiles symbolized the floor and the person with the floor has the opportunity to share his/her thoughts with their partner. While the speaker holds the floor, the listener holds a small flexible ear that is made of plastic, flexible material that is used to produce stress balls. In this respect, each person has something to hold as they are learning a core PREP communication skill--the Speaker-Listener technique. You can find ear stress balls for sale through several companies like Absorbent, Ink. (www.absorbentprinting.com/), Advance Custom Promotions (promotions.advanceweb.com), Inkhead Promotional Products (www.inkhead.com), or Booker Promotions (www.bookerpromo.com).

We also encourage couples to read from Scott Stanley’s book “A Lasting Promise” as they work through the program. This will allow them to review the material covered in the program and expand on the basic lessons of the program. In addition, it will give a ready source to return to in the future if they should have questions or want to remember something that was covered in the program. Another useful resource is “A Prayer Journal for My Marriage” that couples can use to expand and reinforce their prayers for each other. Both books are available on this site under the Christian PREP link.

Target Audience

ProSAAM has been designed specifically to benefit African American couples who seek to build strong marital relationships. While not true for all African American couples, the African American tradition has often included a deep spirituality with a strong focus on prayer. As such, this program for strong African American marriages builds on a particularly strong foundation for prayer and Christian values within the African American community. The program has been exceptionally well-received throughout Georgia as tested in the research project at the University of Georgia.

This curriculum has been adapted to an African American audience. For example, in addition to the spiritual emphasis, ProSAAM includes material and activities that recognize how institutional and implicit racism affects the success of African American marriages.

Topics Covered in the Curriculum

• The Joy of Oneness
• Communication
• Expectations and Hidden Issues
• Listening, Support, and Conflict Resolution
• Ground Rules for Fighting and Loving
• Developing a Prayerful Life in Your Marriage
• Problem-solving
• Fun, Friendship, and Physical Oneness
• Continuing Prayerful Practices in Your Marriage

The guide for group leaders is divided into ten sessions. The sessions represent convenient breaking points in the program. If you like, you can stop at the end of each session. In our own work, we have presented the sessions so that the entire program is covered in three half-days (DAY 1 – covered the introduction and lessons 1-3); (day 2 – covered lessons 4-6); (Day 3 – covered lessons 7-9). We typically allowed two weeks between sessions. However, it is also fine to present the material in ten separate meetings.

Training Support

The program is based on the PREP method of relationship skills training and we encourage all potential group leaders to be trained in PREP before leading a group of their own. The PREP training will allow you to provide feedback more effectively to participants and cover the background information about marital risk factors, marital communication, problem solving, and positive interaction.

We are currently working to develop a training academy for those that desire to be trained in ProSAAM. Stay tuned for further details or contact PREP at 1-800-366-0166 to be placed on a mailing list that will notify you when formal training is available.