Kidpower (organization)

Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower, International (also known as Kidpower) is a non-profit organization that aims to teach people, regardless of age or ability, safety, confidence, self-protection and advocacy skills. It aims to provide participants with skills designed to help prevent bullying, molestation, assaults and abductions. The organization is endorsed by educators, mental health professionals and law enforcement agencies.

History

Irene van der Zande gathered experts in child development, education, mental health, rape crisis intervention, martial arts and law enforcement and established Kidpower International in 1989. Since its inception, the organization has taught over two million individuals at its centers and offices throughout the world.

Programs and services

Kidpower provides child protection education and personal safety skills for all ages and abilities through in-person workshops, an extensive free online Library, and publications. These programs and educational resources are designed to reduce incidents of bullying, violence, abuse, and other victimization and to prepare people with positive communication skills so that they can develop healthy relationships.. Kidpower has representatives in the United States, Argentina, Brasil, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Germany, Lebanon, India, Vietnam, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

The free on-line Library includes over 100 articles, videos, podcasts, and handouts that parents, educators, and other professionals use to teach personal safety and positive communication skills for their families, schools, organizations, and communities.

We serve:

Young Children:Our job as adults is to provide nurturing, love, guidance, and protection. As toddlers and preschoolers start to develop more mobility, understanding, and language, our job is also to start teaching them how to be safe in their world and with other people.

Children:Children face challenging situations every day at home, at school, online, and in their communities. Sometimes, adults are aware of these issues. Often, they are not. Kidpower teaches children positive, practical, and effective ways to think, move, and speak to stay safe in challenging personal safety situations. (MAYBE CITE BULLYING CITE???)

Teens:Personal safety skills prepare teens and pre-teens to navigate their world with safety and confidence. Because of their increasing independence, teens and preteens face an especially high risk of violence and assault that can often be prevented through awareness, action, and skills.

Adults: Fullpower personal safety training gives adults practice in dealing effectively with both difficult and dangerous people. Practicing the words to say and the actions to take in the moment can prevent and stop problems with people who don’t respect boundaries. Learning self-defense prepares adults to protect themselves from an attacker.

Seniors:As we age, life changes might lead to challenges from mobility, health, and loss of loved ones. We need new ways to feel safe while continuing to live life to its fullest. Seniorpower prepares older adults to use their power to take charge of their emotional and physical safety in contexts that are relevant to their lives.

Special Needs:People of all ages with disabilities or other special needs are especially vulnerable to facing bullying, abuse, or assault. We’ve been successful in teaching self-protection and personal safety skills to tens of thousands of children, teens, and adults with difficult life challenges such as: developmental delays; difficulty with vision, hearing, or mobility; or personal struggles with domestic violence, homelessness, substance abuse, or being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.

Programs we offer:

Through our workshops, page, individuals can find workshops in their areas. Brief descriptions of what each workshop goes over can be found below for each age group:

Young Children: Young children ages 3-5 can enjoy an introduction to People Safety Skills with their parents. Storytelling, puppets and interactive role plays introduce simple but powerful skills to handle unkind words, check first before touching something unsafe, move away from someone doing unsafe things such as throwing sand or playing too roughly, and get help from you effectively, even when you are busy.

Children: Children ages 5-12 have the opportunity, together with their adults, to learn age-appropriate Kidpower People Safety skills and how to practice them as a team. Our instructors introduce skills children can use right away to feel safer and more confident dealing with people at home, on the playground, and out and about in the world. Every step of the way, we give supportive coaching so families learn how to continue practicing and reinforcing the skills on their own. The older children are also introduced to physical self-defense skills.

Teens: Teens practice a broad spectrum of People Safety skills including:Dealing with bullying and peer pressure, learning how to say “no” effectively, managing emotional triggers, preventing violence before it escalates, setting boundaries and dealing with conflict, getting help, and physical self-defense to escape from a violent assault.

Adults: Introductory Fullpower Full Force students practice taking powerful and effective action in the face verbal or physical attacks. Each student gets tailored, one-on-one Full Force physical self-defense skills coaching and practice with a padded instructor. We also offer Workpower workshops, which offers a positive, practical approach to preventing assault and harassment in the workplace. We tailor our sessions to the unique needs and structure of your own workplace, and we present skills that support risk management and team building. Young adults living on their own for the first time have new freedom and responsibility, often in a new community. A few simple skills can make this time a safer, more successful experience. In our Fullpower or Collegepower workshops, young adults practice skills that can help prevent, avoid, or de-escalate problems with friends, partners, and housemates as well as with strangers.

Seniors: Because our regular workshops for adults can work well for people with a wide range of abilities and ages, seniors often participate as students in our Fullpower programs for adults. However, we also provide workshops through organizations serving elderly people such as Foster Grandparents, senior centers, adult day health care facilities, and mobile home parks. These workshops can include 1-2 Introductory Personal Safety Workshops and 3-4-hour Full-Force Self-Defense Workshops with the head-to-toe padded instructor. We also train professionals working with elderly people to integrate our program into their activities.

Special Needs: Our workshops are tailored to work with the strengths of every single student. We make adaptations for how different people’s bodies and minds work, focusing on what they can do, rather than what they cannot not. We teach the full spectrum of People Safety skills including: Being and acting aware, setting boundaries, staying safe from bullying or verbal attack, getting help, staying safe while riding public transit;, making safe choices with support tools such as canes, service dogs, and wheelchairs, learning effective physical self-defense skills without being able to see the target or while seated in a wheelchair.

External links

• Kidpower Website