You don’t always need a passport — but you’ll want one for Passport to Love.
The Utah Marriage Commission came up with the Passport to Love project to help married couples strengthen their relationships and develop skills and attitudes associated with marital success. It’s a program where Utah County couples receive a Passport to Love, join in instructive date nights and receive discounts on certain Utah County activities.
Date nights require pre-registration because there is limited space — only room for 12 couples — at each date night. Some of these dates include making pizza at Pizza Factory, bowling at Fat Cats, learning to cook at the Bosch Cooking store in Orem, time at the Radha Krishna Temple and more.
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If You Participate
Who: Married Couples
What: Date nights and relationship instruction at Pizza Factory in
Where: Pizza Factory
When: Friday, Feb. 27
Site: strongermarriage.org
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“It’s just a chance for couples to have some fun while they are learning skills at the same time,” said Cassandra Southam, Utah County Coordinator for the Utah Marriage Commission. “These are strategies that they can take back home and share with their friends and family.”
While on these completely organized dates, couples receive relationship instruction from trained professionals. BYU professor Dr. Alan Hawkins and Dr. Nathan Cottle, at UVU, (both are members of the Utah Marriage Commission) have teamed together to teach classes to the community as well as teach courses at the universities to train students on the curriculum.
“The Passport to Love program will be teaching from evidence-based research,” Southam said. “Research that has proven successful in the field of marital health and success over the past decades. We are statistically confident that if couples will learn and use these skills, their lives and relationships will have a higher satisfaction level.”
These topics range from communication danger signs, speaker listening techniques, problem solving, forgiveness, commitment and sensuality.
Not only does Passport to Love get couples into date nights for a low cost and sometimes free, but it also gets couples “steep discounts” at businesses around Utah County. Participating businesses will be listed on strongermarriage.org.
“We have so many people in this community willing to help us, and work with us. We want to support them back,” Southam said.
Avoid date night monotony — get your Passport to Love to visit new places in your backyard as the program kicks off on Feb. 27 with its first date night.
The Utah County Marriage Commission will be handing out free passports at its Feb. 6 class.