Two Courses 2007|Krishna Island, Hare Krishna Island, Govindadwipa,

Below is information about Partha Prabhu and Mother Uttama & the Courses.

Subject: Two Courses/Seminars for Grhasthas

A. RESUME OF TEACHERS/FACILITATORS
B. COURSES
C. COSTS
D. TENTATIVE DATES AND DURATION OF VISIT
E. CO-ORDINATING TEAM AND COMMUNICATIONS

A. RESUME OF TEACHERS/FACILITATORS

H.G. Partha Dasa and H.G. Uttama Devi Dasi:

H.G. Partha Dasa and H.G. Uttama Devi Dasi both received first initiation from Srila Prabhupada in December 1973 and second initiation from Srila Prabhupada in 1974.

Partha Prabhu and Mother Uttama are married for 35 years and have three children and three grand children. They served as head pujari and assistant head pujari respectively in Vancouver Temple for 17 years, from 1974 to 1991. Mother Uttama fashioned all the Vancouver’s Deity outfits for 15 years. They also served as Board members for ISKCON Vancouver. Then they moved to ISKCON Saranagati Farm Community, near Ashcroft, Canada in 1996.

Partha Prabhu is a minister and legally performs marriages. He presently manages an organic orchard.

Mother Uttama managed the New Gokula Housing (Vancouver devotee apartments) for 4 years. She served as an academics teacher and alternately an ashram teacher for 6 years in the ISKCON Vancouver Gurukula. She also served as president of Saranagati Village for 10 years, from 1993 to 2003. And at Saranagati Village, she conducted youth(ages 13-19) Bhagavada-gita study sessions weekly for 2 years, together with youth adventures, hiking and camping. Mother Uttama currently manages her son-in-law’s Health Food and Gift store.

Partha Prabhu and Mother Uttma are members of the North American Grhastha Vision Team - a group of counselors and professionals dedicated to strengthening the grhastha asrama by offering encouragement, support and resources. They are also Certified Administers of Prepare and Enrich marital/premarital inventories and of the Vaisnava Version 108.

B. COURSES

COURSE ONE

Name: "Strengthening the Bonds that Free Us"

Description:

Topics include Principles/Values according to Srila Prabhupada;
Preparing for Marriage/Readiness for Marriage;
Roles of Men and Women;
Communication and Healthy Relationships, Financial management, Intimacy, Serious Conflict/Mediation;
Separation and Divorce;
Children and Youth;
Balanced lifestyle 1: Personal Sadhana and Spirituality;
Balanced lifestyle 2: Making a Social Contribution - a Preaching Mentality.

Overall, the course emphasizes responsibility, spirituality, love and care
of others.

Facilitation Method: Highly interactive with lots of opportunities for devotees to share their thoughts and realizations. Group-work, couple-work and individual-work. Intensive use of an overhead projector.

Duration: +-28 hours over four or five or six days.

Attendees Eligibility: Persons who are thinking of marriage. Persons who are newly married. Leaders who help grhasthas with difficulties. Older couples who are willing to mentor new couples. Brahmacaris and brahmacarinis who are thinking of marrying in the future. Counsellors who do pre-marital or marriage counselling for devotees.

Number of Attendees: Minimum of 24 and maximum of 36

COURSE TWO

Name: "Marriage Mentor Program"

Description: This program trains couples to be friendly, supportive advocates for newly married couples or couples in difficulty. They will learn techniques, commnunication skills and mentoring skills.

Facilitation Method: Very interactive with group work, couple work and individual work and intensive use of an overhead projector.

Duration: +-14 hours over two or three days.

Attendees Eligibility: Couples must have completed the "Strengthening the Bonds that Free Us" course. Couples must have been married for at least 8 years. Couples should be viewed in the devotee communities as having stable, healthy family relationships. Couples must have strong spiritual practices. Couples may not necessarily be in ISKCON leadership positions. Couples are enthusiastic, friendly, caring and have a good service/preaching attitude.
Couples do not have to be professional counsellors or therapists because they are trained to impart educational tools and share their insights.

Number of Attendees: Minimum of 4 couples and maximum of 12 couples. Both spouses must participate together in the training as mentors.

Pre-work: Prospective mentor couples must be identified in advance of the coming of the teachers/facilitators. The prospective mentors will then complete a “Readiness for Mentoring Questionnaire” co-ordinated by
Nrsimhananda Prabhu. The short questionnaire is designed to confirm that the candidates are in a stable marriage, that they are committed to help others, that they are willing to hear other’s points of view ,etc. The completed questionnaire will then be returned to the teachers/facilitators for scoring after which the teachers/facilitators will begin initial correspondence with the prospective mentors.

Follow-up: A key to the success of the program will be having key couples, identified by the teachers/facilitators, who are willing to take responsibility to ensure that things are maintained over the long haul. This is crucial. Starting the program will be the easy part. The teachers/facilitators are committed to follow up on these key couples.

C. COSTS

1. Two return air-tickets from Vancouver from Vancouver to Dublin
2. Partha Prabhu and Mother Uttama will both have to take time off work to make the trip and some of their expenses will still go on in their absence in Saranagati. They should let us know the amount that they need - plus we should give extra as dakshina.
3. Course materials and classroom requirements.
4. Guest facilities and staying expenses.

Devotees will surely also want to meet with Partha Prabhu and Mother Uttama for personal ongoing guidance.

D. TENTATIVE DATES PERIOD AND DURATION OF VISIT TO IRELAND

The dates for the events are as follows: TBA

Duration of their visit to Ireland:

24^th September - arrival
25^th - rest, and pre-preparations for courses
26^th - programme in Haridas and Murli Priya's home
27^th - 28^th - meet with local devotees for counselling, advice etc. (Brhat prabhu may also be here at that time)
29^th - a day with Vaisnava Youth
30^th - Visiting couple will host the Sunday feast programme
1^st - 4^th of October - "Strengthening the Bonds that Free Us" Course
Break between courses
6^th - 7^th October - Marriage Mentor course
Personal meetings with devotees upon request
A program in Dublin
14^th October - departure