What comes first in a relationship for best results? You meet someone. Many too soon become intimate and later regret it. What’s a healthy way to progress in a relationship? Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute presents The Law of Relationship Order on Friday, June 8, 2012 at the Martin Luther King Civic Center, 14801 Shaw Avenue, East Cleveland, OH 44112 from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. It’s free and open to the public! Come and discover how to move forward in a healthy relationship!

The S.E.L.F. Healthy Relationship Course©

Singles Evaluating Life and Family Healthy Relationship Course

Become better skilled at communicating and resolving conflicts.

Prepare for a healthy, dynamic relationship with a loving commitment

Register for a unique, comprehensive course for Single people (Unmarried Women and Men) who are serious about getting ready for Healthy, Wholesome Relationships. Held this summer in Washington D.C. at

DCTV station, The historic Brooks Mansion,

901 Newton St., NE, Washington, D.C. 20017,

Friday & Saturday, July 7 & 8 – 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – AND

Friday & Saturday August 3 & 4 — 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

(Participants must attend both weekends to complete the course.)

Two Certified Family Life Educators (CFLE’s) from Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute present a rare opportunity to explore in interactive, fun ways what it means to prepare for Mr. or Ms. Right by becoming Mr. or Ms. Right. You can be a part of our unique and powerful Healthy Relationship Training. Only a limited number of openings are available.

Cost for 24 hours of empowering S.E.L.F. training is only $300 total for the two weekends.

Register by June 15, 2012, and save $84!

Register online below if you want to be a part of this empowering training and self-development.

For more details or questions, email us at mandirbelle@gmail.com OR contact@dzfi.org or call 216-321-0930. 

You owe it to yourself to invest in your self!

This course highlights the truth that individual growth and development through awareness and preparation is substantially beneficial in relationships. Individuals learn how to make relationship choices that are not based on fear, anxiety, addictive or codependent behavior or overwhelming baggage from the past. After taking the SELF Healthy Relationship course, you will make choices based on practical relationship skills, critical thinking, a heightened awareness of yourself and a commitment to integrity, which includes qualities such as truthfulness, compassion, cleanliness, and self-discipline, cleanliness.

The SELF Healthy Relationship Course© includes the following topics:

• Effective Relationship skills you can use now
  “If you want a fixer-upper, get a house, not a spouse”
• Conflict Resolution
  Getting Your Point Across Without fighting
  Getting Your Point Across without “dissing” (disrespecting) others
• He Say/She Say:
  What women want men to understand
  What men want women to understand
• Four (4) Life Principles that make anyone successful
• Who are you?
  How did you learn to become a woman or a man?
  What is a woman? What is a man?
• Let the Bogeyman Out of the closet
  Getting rid of the baggage you carry around
• Secrets to Powerful Communication
• Eight Important keys to healthy relationships
• Values Clarification
  What’s important to you? What’s your “bling”?
• Goal-setting (Can’t Get there if You Don’t Know Where You’re Going)
• Identifying and Avoiding Domestic Violence
• Healthy Diets/Healthy Lifestyles/Healthy Relationships

Participants will create a plan or blueprint for self-improvement by the end of the course and participate in a Community Graduation Ceremony.

• Friday & Saturday, July 7 & 8 – 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Bring your own lunch
• Friday & Saturday August 3 & 4 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Bring your own lunch

Cost for 24 hours of empowering S.E.L.F. training is only $300 total for the two weekends.

Register by June 15, 2012, and save $84!

Register online below if you want to be a part of this empowering training and self-development.

The New Year is starting with gusto. And we anticipate more opportunities to serve couples, families and individuals than ever before.

• Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute now provides Marriage education services by phone through Skype as well as direct services at our home office.
• Check out our latest posting online at the Coalition for Divorce Reform website and make a comment.
• Stay tuned for information about soon-to-be published book: Heart and Soul Connection: A Devotional Guide to Marriage, Service and Love. Co-directors, Krsnanandini and Tariq helped to write this book with members of the North American Family Vision Team.A video is being prepared to give details and invite you to support this project which will be featured on kickstarter.com. The kickstarter.com website promotes interesting projects and raises funds for them. We will keep you posted.
• Relationship Tip: Try a different approach when you and your loved ones have a disagreement. Be quiet. Then, suggest “let’s talk about this tomorrow” and then really set a time when you will continue the conversation. It’s interesting what time and calming down will do.
• Finally, if you have a relationship question, email us at info@dzfi.org. We’ll respond. We pray this year is the best yet for you and your family.

An Inter-Faith collaboration of organizations concerned about the state of marriage and family in greater Cleveland will present the Ninth Annual Nationwide Black Marriage Day Celebration, Sunday, March 27, 2011, 3:30 pm at the Mount Sinai Baptist Church, 7510 Woodland Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44104.

With the theme “Reawakening Marriage”, this event is free and open to the public, made possible through the community collaborative efforts of the Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute, Mt. Sinai Ministries, Wedded Bliss Foundation Inc., and the Alliance of Black Families.

Couples will have an opportunity to Renew their Wedding Vows here, joining hundreds of other couples renewing their vows throughout the United States. Prior to vow renewals, couples and singles can attend a life changing marriage and healthy relationship workshop. One exemplary couple will be inducted to the Cleveland Marriage Hall of Fame, selected by an interfaith committee of ministers.

Couples must register to renew their marriage vows. The registration fee is $25 per couple, which includes the dinner after the ceremony.

You may register online at www.blackmarriagedaycleveland.com, or call Sheronda Hunter, community liaison for the Family Institute, at 440-940-6531. Mrs. Hunter and her husband, Greg, serve as Co-Leaders of Tween Ministries at New Community Bible Fellowship. Sheronda has also Co-lead Women and Teens as Co-President of Heights High Parent Connection Council. “This Black Marriage Day is exciting. Participating couples will go home with a whole bag of goodies for their marriage. Yet, this is an occasion for the entire family.” explained Sheronda.

A powerful Keynote address will be presented by Dr. Courtney & Mr. James Parks, husband-wife team from Pennsylvania, Their presentation was so empowering at our last Black Marriage Day, couples requested they come back again. The event will conclude with a reception and a delicious feast.

This is only the second time this event has taken place in Cleveland. The collaboration will join activists in hundreds of cities around the country to highlight the benefits of married life and offer celebrations to strengthen and promote marriage in greater Cleveland’s Black community.

“Our first celebration in Cleveland attracted over 250 guests and 40 couples who renewed their vows.” From such enthusiastic response and the tremendous need to reaffirm the importance of marriage, we anticipate even greater participation this year,” stated Ms. Hunter. “We invite couples to register to renew their vows on our website at www.blackmarriagedaycleveland.com, and encourage churches, individuals, and community groups to nominate an exemplary couple for induction into the Black Marriage Day Hall of Fame,” Ms. Hunter said.

This past weekend, we were invited to Columbus, OH to present a talk on Women who are Spiritual leaders and the role of spiritually conscious women in upgrading society.

While in Columbus, the two Co-directors, Tariq and Krsnanandini had two sessions with couples where we provided marriage education. One couple is receiving premarital classes and the other couple has been married for about seven years. Our work with these two couples underscores the urgent need for marriage education. How tired are you of seeing or hearing about marriage break-ups? How disappointed and hurt are the thousands of children who see their parents fight and divorce? What about the millions of children who are growing up in single parent homes without the benefit of a very important and necessary parent (the absent one)?

Somewhere, somebody has to feel a responsibility to do something. And, thank God, a new consciousness is gradually emerging in our world. That we’d better take another look at the benefits of marriage. That some of the spiritual principles we as a community have been negligent about, are probably much more important than we have acknowledged. The Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute is an agency that has been in existence for well over a decade. Often, we felt that we were fighting an uphill battle, yet we are committed. Sometimes, we receive cards, letters and gifts of gratitude: “What can we possibly give you to repay you for how you have saved our marriage?”, one couple said. “I wish I’d had your services in my first marriage,” a lady client told us recently.

It’s been said before and you will no doubt hear it again: “children are best raised in a two parent household with a healthy mother and father cooperating together.” And, there are principles on which a healthy family must be based. For example, truthfulness, cleanliness, compassion and self-discipline. And, it takes a community to support a marriage. And having a deep and abiding respect for all living things promotes an atmosphere of peace and security.

“What,” you may ask, “can I do? I’m not married or I’m married but I don’t really have a marriage to sing about myself.” First, become educated about marriage; take a workshop or a seminar about healthy relationship skills. Read some of the current literature about marriage such as The Case for Marriage by Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher. Give a couple you know who is married or about to be married a gift certificate to take marriage enrichment or premarital education sessions. Raise your boys to be good husbands and your daughters to be good wives. This doesn’t mean they won’t do anything else like doctors, lawyers, firefighters, nurses, police officers, car mechanics or engineers. But it does acknowledge the reality that most people will get married and most people want to get married. What you do as a parent can ensure that when your children do marry, that they will have realistic expectations and be healthy contributors to their union as well as be able to honor their marriage commitment.

Teach boys how to clean the kitchen, how to cook, to put away their clothes and respect women. Teach girls how to clean, cook, put away their clothes and respect themselves and others. Teach your children to share, to have quiet time sometimes and to contribute some of their money to the household (either from gifts, allowances, or work). Spend time teaching your children about financial matters—how to save, how to tithe, how to budget, how to write checks, what are interest rates, etc. Show them how to talk to and how to talk about the opposite sex by how you treat and talk about the opposite sex. Eat dinner with your family at least once a day so that they will grow to value the time spent at the “kitchen table university”. Mentor a child.

And pray. Pray that somehow or other, we will have healthy family and community life. And that we will realize what is most important in our lives before it’s too late.

Krsnanandini Dasi, Co-Director of the Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute will give the keynote address at the graduation ceremony for Holistic Health practititoners at the Dhanvantari Holistic Center in Solon, Ohio on April 4, 2010. Her topic is “To Thine Own Health Be True”. This event is open to the public and features a delicious vegetarian feast.

In December, 2009, Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute Co-director Krsnanandini Dasi presents a workshop entitled, “What is An Empowered Woman” in Kansas at the BhaktVan Yoga Center. Participants at the 2 1/2 hour workshop were students who were studying to become Yoga Instructors themselves and included the Poet Laureate of Kansas. Many copies of the Booklet of 8s were sold and Ms. Dasi was asked to return later in 2010 to present another empowering workshop.

Singles Evaluating Life and Family (S.E.L.F.) Healthy Relationship Course 2009

A 10-week comprehensive course for singles. You put your time, energy and money in a lot of things. Now invest your resources in your SELF!

Class Times: 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Thursdays: May 7, 14, 21, 28, June 4, 11, 18, 25, July 2, 9, 2009

Details:

• Learn how to avoid toxic or addictive relationships
• Learn to release old baggage that blocks your successful relationships
• Explore what makes you uniquely you and what gifts you bring to any relationship
• Create a vision for your future goals; Prepare yourself for healthy relationships!
• Learn and practice simple, yet highly effective Communication and Conflict Resolution skills and other Healthy Relationship Skills
• Identify your personal values and the values you should look for to form healthy relationships
• Evaluate what it means to be a woman and what men want women to know
• Evaluate what it means to be a man and what women want men to know

Instructors, Facilitators

Krsnanandini D. Dasi, BS, Education
Tariq S. Ziyad, BA, Psychology/Business Management
Co-Directors, Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute
+ Certified Family Life Educators (CFLE)
+ Certified Prepare/Enrich Administrators
+ Certified Prep & Better Together Relationship Instructors

Featured in the acclaimed book by Kathy Dawson, Relationship Coach
Cleveland Couples: 40 Inspiring Stories of Love and Commitment

Cost per participant

• $300 before April 20, 2009
• $350 after April 20, 2009

Includes student handbooks and all materials.

Payment

• Register with $50 deposit by April 20th below or call 216-321-0930.
• Some partial scholarships may be available.

Please fill out the registration form below. You will be receive a response email that will provide payment instructions.

If you have already registered, please scroll to the bottom of the page for payment options.

Registration

Pay by Credit Card

Pay $50 Deposit by April 20th	Pay Registration Fee

Pay by Check

To pay by check, please send your payment to the address below. Your envelope should be postmarked by April 20th to receive the $300 rate.

Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute
3320 Beechwood Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44118-1833

You’ve heard the old axiom: “What are the three most important things in real estate? Location, Location, Location.” Our question as family educators is: What are the three most important things in Life? Relationships, Relationships, Relationships. Your relationship with God or your creator, your relationship with family, friends and loved ones, and finally your relationship with your self. Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute is dedicated to empowering individuals, couples and families with healthy relationship skills so that they will have healthy relationships in all spheres of their life.

As many of you have experienced, relationships can make or break us. A devastating romance, a broken or betrayed friendship, a depressed state of mind or low sense of self-worth, all can wreak havoc with our sense of well-being and our hope for better things to come. Relationships with spouses, friends, parents, children, neighbors, etc. can be a source of strength and encouragement or a cause of anxiety and pain. There are skills that people can learn and commitments that they can make to have healthier, stronger relationships. That’s what the Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute is all about.

With this newsletter, we introduce two new columns, Dear Relationship Coach, where Certified Family Life Educators (CFLEs) from the Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute staff , will respond to questions from readers about a variety of relationship, parenting and family topics. Send your questions to info@dzfi.org. The other column is What’s Happening at DZFI? where we keep you up to date about some of the current activities, projects and goals of Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute.

What’s Happening at DZFI ?

• Cleveland’s First Hispanic Marriage Day! A wonderful collaboration of the Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute, Hispanic UMADAOP, and Cuyahoga County’s Strong Start program, with support from the Spanish American Committee, is coordinating the first ever Hispanic Marriage Day in Cleveland, OH. Five Hispanic Couples will be inaugurated into the Cleveland Hispanic Hall of Fame, many other couples will reaffirm their marriage commitment in a beautiful celebration including entertainment, food and a keynote address by Luis & Edith Vazquez. This event, free and open to the public, will take place in a beautiful setting, the Saigon Plaza, 5400 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, OH on Sunday October 12, 2008 from 3-6 p.m. To make this a first class celebration, we are asking for help from well-wishers and supporters. Please go to the DZFI home page and donate. Press button Under Help Contribute, specify for the Hispanic Marriage Day. (Some readers may remember that Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute coordinated the First Black Marriage Day in Cleveland in March, 2008).

• SELF (Singles Evaluating Life and Family) Healthy Relationship Course© will be offered in the Spring of 2009 in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. Only a select group of individuals will be accepted for this in-depth, interactive and comprehensive training course. This Self Healthy Relationship Course© will prepare unmarried individuals for healthy relationships. For registration details, contact Ms. K. Dasi at 216-321-0930 or request registration information at contact@dzfi.org.

Dear Relationship Coach,

“My spouse had an affair which ripped at the core of the trust in our marriage and sent wave after wave of me questioning my own sense of self-worth. He is repentant but this seems almost impossible to work through. How do we get past this? Is it even possible?” Sincerely.

Dear Sincerely,

Sadly, many, many marriages are victimized by the infidelity of one or both spouses. What most people don’t realize is that several marriages do endure beyond affairs. Extramarital affairs happen in so-called good marriages as well as those that are seriously conflicted. Sometimes, couples emerge from the trauma of such betrayal and become stronger. Indeed, some become more loving. Obviously, there is a great need for the qualities we have spoken about in the past that are part and parcel of a healthy, principle-centered marriage: forgiveness, self-discipline, repentance, truthfulness, compassion, self-examination and commitment.

Time is the great healer; with both you and your husband committed to working to rise to a higher level marriage, moving beyond this affair is not only possible, but probable. Generally, getting help from caring, professional marriage educators to assist in the forgiving process and the gradual healing that this entails, is crucial. Causes for adultery vary but don’t necessarily indicate a lack of love for the spouse. People who commit adultery do so because of weakness, lack of an identifiable moral commitment and/or dissatisfaction with who are what they are.

Research indicates that a little less than 50% of men and about a quarter of women have admitted to extramarital affairs. The Beyond Affairs Network (http://www.beyondaffairs.com/BAN_support_groups.htm.) is an excellent resource to further deal with this trauma.

Dear Relationship Coach:

We have a large extended family and a big house. Generally, our house is open to friends and family members. Recently, we’ve had incidences of theft (money and clothes) and found that children of some of our friends had taken items out of our children’s bedrooms! It was a blow and disappointment. How do we deal with this matter? Disturbed

Dear Disturbed,

Use these incidences as teachable moments, where your immediate family learns and the children in the extended family learns. Everything that happens to a conscious person should be a learning experience. Relationships are dynamic, fluid and changing. What ever you say or do should help your relationships change for the better.

• First, you should approach the adults (parents or caregivers of the children who have taken the items from your home). If you are not sure who the offenders are, talk to the parents of all the children who had access to your home, inform them what was taken and ask them to kindly investigate to see if their children might be the culprit.
• Have a family meeting with your own children to discuss: how your youngsters who are the victims are feeling, why taking things in someone else’s stewardship is not allowed, the spiritual, emotional and physical consequences of stealing, the importance of trust, etc.
• Then discuss things you can do to safeguard your home; perhaps it shouldn’t be so open. Perhaps someone should be aware at all times where guests and visitors are.
• Even though you are disturbed by these incidents, take the opportunity to grow and help others grow. It may be a good idea to have your child share with the child who betrayed your family’s trust; let the other child know just how his/her actions made your child feel.
• Finally, please share the outcome of your family’s “teachable moments” with us.

One of the ways couples and families can have healthy relationships is regularly seeking out and attending positive family events.

Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute is involved in the following upcoming projects that build community and strengthen families:

Lord Have Mercy Festival 2008

A spiritual family festival bringing families and people together in love and unity for over 10 years.

* Free and open to the public.
* Welcoming people of all ages, cultures and religions.
* Performers from a variety of religious traditions celebrating the mercy of the Creator, unity and peace amongst all His creation.
* Spiritual entertainment for the whole family that includes a free healthy, delicious meal, arts and crafts for children, workshops, and chess tournaments for youth and adults.

Where: Forest Hill Park, East Cleveland, OH 44112
(Lee Rd entrance is north of Mayfield Rd and south of Euclid Ave. )

When: Saturday, August 16, 2008, 12:00 Noon – 8 PM

See website for more details: www.lordhavemercyfestival.com

SpiritWorks Documentary

Co-directors Tariq and Krsnanandini were selected to share some of their perspectives about spirituality in the workplace along with others in this thought provoking, poignant and healing documentary. See video clip on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yaq1ndv0fE

Cleveland’s First Ever Hispanic Marriage Day!

On Sunday, October 12, 2008, Dasi-Ziyad Family Institute is collaborating with Hispanic UMADAOP and the Cuyahoga Strong Start Program to present the first ever, greater Cleveland Celebration of Marriage and Family in the Latino/Hispanic community. Everyone is invited to come and see five Hispanic couples inducted into the Cleveland Hispanic Marriage Day Hall of Fame, enjoy family entertainment, delicious refreshments, see up to 50 couples reaffirming their marriage vows and hear a wonderful keynote address by Luis and Edith Vazquez about the importance of strong marriages and families in the Latino community. The audience will be informed about a variety of local community resources and services to build healthy relationships and strong families.

To nominate a couple for induction in the Hall of Fame or to register as a couple to reaffirm your marriage vows, send email at info@dzfi.org or call 216-321-0930. Nomination and registration forms as well as fliers, will also be available at

The Spanish American Committee,
4407 Lorain Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44113 and

Hispanic UMADAOP
3305 WEST 25TH ST
Cleveland, OH 44105

Location for this spectacular event will be announced.

Singles Workshop

If you are single, live in the greater Cleveland, Ohio, area and would like would like to be prepared for healthier relationships, send your name and email address to info@dzfi.org. We will contact you about our upcoming Singles Workshop, an interactive, comprehensive course that will cover all aspects of Healthy Relationships, including dealing with past baggage and misconceptions about marriage and family. Watch web site for dates and location.