Who are our Workshop Leaders

Currently, OMI workshop leaders represent approximately 24 professional categories. As the system grows, we continue to add professionals to the training network. Some key groups are listed below:

As additional groups are identified as target populations, the network of workshop leaders and/or number of professional categories is expanded. If you are interested in becoming a part of this service delivery network, or have suggestions about other interest groups to add to the network, please submit a training application.

Business: Business leaders and Employee Assistance Program Managers have become interested in providing relationship skills to employees as a professional benefit and as an effort to increase productivity through stabilization of family dynamics which, if not addressed, can lead to problems in the workplace and/or lost revenue based on poor productivity. The link between healthy and stable homes and healthy and stable work environments is undisputed and a reason for workshop leaders in this professional category to have a stake in providing marriage and relationship education.

Counseling: The Service Delivery System network includes Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT), Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC), Licensed Behavioral Practitioners (LBP), Certified Drug and Alcohol Counselors (CADC), and a number of other mental health professionals. These individuals are providing community-based workshops as an opportunity to give back to the community and which, in many cases, results in increased client referrals. In addition, numerous couples choose to engage in more intensive counseling sessions as a follow-up to the skills-based PREP workshops.

Department of Corrections (DOC): Leaders in this community identified OMI PREP workshops as an opportunity to provide relationship skills to incarcerated individuals as a component of pre-release activities. Because the status of family relationships is the leading variable in recidivism rates, DOC officials identified Chaplains as providers of these skills. Chaplains at four facilities have participated in pilots to determine best practices for this work, and the Department of Corrections has committed to adopting PREP as an official DOC program and training chaplains at numerous other facilities.

Educators: Educators in a variety of high school, university and community education settings have taken the opportunity to include the PREP curriculum as a component of the family life skills they teach. Several Oklahoma colleges and universities have begun work to incorporate the curriculum into freshman orientation and/or family science and human development courses. In high schools, 264 Family and Consumer Sciences educators across the state have been trained in CONNECTIONS + PREP, a hybrid of PREP and a well-known high school relationships curriculum, CONNECTIONS.

Faith Community: Because 75% of first marriages occur in a religious setting, pastors and faith leaders are obvious providers of marriage education services. Both pastors and lay couples have become trained in the PREP and CPREP curriculum and are implementing these skills in a variety of programs and activities that aim to better prepare couples for marriage or offer enrichment to members and the community. Additionally, faith leaders will soon have the opportunity to become trained to deliver PREP services within the Jewish community.

Head Start: Parent Educators within the Head Start system have access to low-income couples or single parents that can benefit from education in relationships and/or skills to provide better family stability for the well being of their children.

Hispanic Groups: The OMI has begun developing relationships with organizations that provide educational opportunities to Hispanic families. Because many of the PREP workshop materials and OMI training resources have been translated to Spanish, workshop leaders are better able to provide skills to this underserved population.

Military: With 3 large military bases in Oklahoma, the military has an opportunity to provide education to couples faced with numerous barriers to healthy and stable relationships (i.e. deployment, economic and education struggles, etc.). OMI workshop leaders within this group include Family Advocacy and Family Support employees, Chaplains and Employee Assistance Counselors. In addition to the workshop leaders that provide workshops to couples, the OMI has worked with base officials to offer Sweethearts Weekend opportunities to military couples, base employees and others associated with the military.

Oklahoma Association of Youth Services (OAYS): The OAYS system has established expertise in serving low-income populations, making this community-based service provider ideal as a mode of delivery for PREP workshops. Currently, the network boasts over 100 workshop leaders from 41 agencies across the state who are including PREP services into the work they do with youth and their parents. Additionally, leaders have elected to adopt the PREP curriculum as the core information provided in their First Time Offender Program.

Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS): Employees that provide services through any number of DHS programs serve as a referral network to OMI PREP workshops. However, a small group of TANF educators have shown a great interest in providing community-based workshops as an addition to work they do with clients as a part of their job. Additionally, DHS leaders identified School-Based Service Workers as potential providers of marriage and relationship education services, as they are positioned to access and work with both students and families.

Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Service (OCES): OCES educators have a history of effectively providing various educational workshops in communities throughout the state, and have partnered with the OMI to use their expertise to offer relationship education services. These workshop leaders have also been dedicated to forging relationships with interest groups and other workshop providers in their communities to ensure strategic development of service delivery saturation models to bring services to the populations most in need.

Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH): OSDH Child Guidance psychologists and educators have expertise in identifying and providing a variety of services to low-income populations. In many communities, these workshop leaders have taken the lead in community development around the issue of marriage and relationship education service delivery. They have also partnered with organizations and key leaders in the community to offer PREP workshops in settings such as workforce development classes, Head Start parent education classes, University continuing education classes, etc.

Social Services: The Service Delivery System network includes workshop leaders from social services agencies and organizations that have chosen to offer relationship education skills to clients and/or as community service opportunities. Some groups that fall into this category include: Abstinence Education, Employment Services, Domestic Violence, Mental Health and Substance Abuse, etc.

Tribal Groups: The OMI has partnered with tribal groups to provide PREP workshops to Native American families through appropriate social service programs. Some tribes that are currently providing PREP services are the Osage Nation, Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Chickasaw Nation, and the Comanche Tribe. OMI staff continues to work with leaders from other tribes to begin incorporating these services.