Love U2®: Relationship Smarts PLUS Wins Publishers Association Award

Berkeley, CA, July 01, 2009 --(PR.com)-- The Dibble Institute is pleased to announce that their curriculum, Love U2®: Relationship Smarts PLUS has won the prestigious 2009 Distinguished Achievement Award for curriculum based teaching aids from the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP). The AEP Awards recognize the year's most outstanding materials in the field of teaching and learning.

Relationship Smarts PLUS was selected in 2005 for a 5-year, million dollar federal evaluation study at Auburn University. Over the past four years, author, Marline Pearson and researcher, Jennifer Kerpelman, Ph.D. have worked and reworked the program based on student results and teacher comments to focus in on the essential messages and the most effective ways to deliver them. Outcomes from the study indicate that young people who participate in the Relationship Smarts PLUS program are more knowledgeable about what is and is not healthy in relationships, hold more realistic relationship beliefs, have improved conflict management skills, and express an increased openness to taking relationship education classes in the future.

The Dibble Institute has been publishing evidence based, best practices, evaluated programs relationship skills programs since 1996. Their highly acclaimed curricula are used in all 50 states and around the world in settings ranging from public schools to juvenile detention facilities and from after school programs to pregnancy prevention efforts.

“Our mission at The Dibble Institute is to help young people learn how to navigate their romantic lives,” Kay Reed, Executive Director, explained. “We know from our research that teens who participate in these programs are more likely to resolve conflicts non-violently and more likely to know how to build a healthy relationship. We so appreciate the AEP distinguished panel of educators’ awareness of the relevance and pertinence of our publications.”

AEP's Distinguished Achievement Awards (DAAs) recognize the best educational resources within the categories of Curriculum, Periodicals, Professional Development, and Technology Innovations. The award program pits the year's top education products against one another according to entry category, subject, and grade level. The DAAs are evaluated on traits such as efficacy, usability, and overall educational value and are judged by an expert panel of educators, editors, designers, and technology specialists.

About The Dibble Institute
Founded in 1996, The Dibble Institute (TDI) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help young people learn the skills necessary for healthy, romantic relationships. TDI fulfills its mission by:
• Raising awareness of the needs for and benefits of helping young people learn the skills needed to navigate their romantic lives;
• Educating opinion leaders and policy makers;
• Training teachers and youth instructors;
• Developing, producing, and disseminating evidence based, best practices, developmentally appropriate, evaluated, and easy to teach relationship skills materials; and
• Serving as a clearinghouse to collect and disseminate timely and relevant research and other evidence of the benefits of youth relationship education.

TDI programs are used in all 50 states and around the world in thousands of schools, youth agencies, and other youth programs impacting tens of thousands of young people. For more information, please visit www.DibbleInstitute.org.

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