KIDPOWER - A Tapestry Woven by Many Hands

The KIDPOWER program is a tapestry of many different threads woven by many different hands. Our organization has grown from the ideas, questions, teaching, feedback, and stories of countless people since I first started learning about personal safety and self-defense in 1985.

I want to express my appreciation to each of our KIDPOWER instructors, parents, students, workshop organizers, program leaders, board members, advisors, volunteers, donors, workshop sponsors, and office staff. Thank you for the thought, care, and love that you have given to bring KIDPOWER TEENPOWER FULLPOWER International to where we are today. I feel honored to have you as colleagues and as friends.

My husband Ed used to say that he felt as if he had ended up with a surprise set of in-laws when I first got involved with this work. I want to give a special thank you to the families of all of the people who have given of themselves in order to bring our services to their communities and to help our organization to improve and to grow. Thank you for sharing your loved ones with KIDPOWER as well as your resources and your own time in building bridges for our organization.

Writing everyone’s story would create a book unto itself. 

Program Development

The following people played key roles in the early development of KIDPOWER.

Timothy Dunphy is the other co-founder of KIDPOWER. Timothy is a sixth-degree Black Belt and international championship winner in Tae Kwon Do. In the formative years of Kidpower, Timothy was my partner every step of the way in running pilot workshops and evaluating what did and did not work. Timothy’s heart, head, and spirit have been essential to our success in creating a curriculum that is fun, effective, and empowering. Timothy continues to help KIDPOWER by being there whenever he is needed. He is the founder of a unique system of energy work called Chi-Aura Integration.

KIDPOWER’s founding Board president Ellen Bass is the co-author of The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse and of Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth – and Their Allies. Through our countless walks and talks for almost twenty years, Ellen defined our underlying principle and has helped make it a reality. She has been a force for making sure that we are truly “walking our talk.” Ellen has supported the Kidpower book in each of its phases, inspiring me as a writer and encouraging me to keep going as a friend.

Along with Timothy and me, Sheryl Doran, Jerilyn Munyon, and Susan Wilde, Psy.D., were on the pilot KIDPOWER team and helped our program get off to an excellent start.

Sheryl was the founder of the Bay Area Model Mugging (BAMM) Impact organization, a third degree Black Belt in Aikido and one of the co-founders of Model Mugging. Jerilyn is a 4th degree Black Belt in Aikido. She taught with Timothy and me during KIDPOWER’s early years and provided business and personal consultation that was critical in our organization’s development. Susan is now a psychologist for the Center for Culture and Diversity in Oakland and has continued to share her mental health expertise with KIDPOWER over the years.

Our Chicago/Great Lakes Center director, Joe Connelly, is one of the pillars of KIDPOWER. Joe, who is also a sixth degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and master instructor at Connelly’s Academy, helped to lead our early instructor training programs and showed us how to take what we were doing with children and apply those lessons to teaching teens and adults. Joe has given us the Angie story, the Pattern of an Attack as a framework for explaining our safety strategies, Teacherpower, and many other key concepts. Joe’s humor and insight have often brightened my day and helped me to regain my sense of perspective.

Joe has been supported since he started running his center by senior instructors Anne Mason and Sterling Goodrich, who have also helped nurture our international work.

For over twenty years, Mark Morris, one of the co-founders of Model Mugging, has been a source to me personally of training, collaboration, and camaraderie. Mark was instrumental in improving the protective armor for the head-to-toe padded instructor that makes full force self-defense possible and in evolving the effectiveness of the roles of both the padded instructor and the coaching instructor. He also co-led instructor training programs with me for the IMPACT Women’s Basics course for five years. Mark has done a great deal to help me understand the core of what it means to defend oneself and to manage conflict. He is supported in continuing to build our padded equipment by his wife, Karin Stanger, who first brought KIDPOWER to Europe many years ago.

One of the people Mark introduced me to was Marsha Kearns, who had taught a self-defense program called KIDPOWER in Texas with him for a few years. Marsha gave us the KIDPOWER name, presented our program at the Texas Governor’s Conference on Child Abuse Prevention, and led a center in Austin, Texas, for several years.

Sherryl Kraizer, Ph.D., is the author of The Safe Child Book and the founding director of the Safe Child Program. Sherryl provided consultation to KIDPOWER in our early years as well as giving permission to incorporate language, ideas, and research findings from her program into ours.

Evolution and Growth

The following program leaders have made major contributions in the spread of our services and the continued improvement of the quality of our programs. I am introducing them in the approximate order in time that they started their involvement with KIDPOWER.

Our Sonoma County Office coordinators Steve and Lea Sassone were the first people Timothy and I trained as instructors. With Lea’s support, Steve still keeps teaching with joy and love.

Our New Zealand Center director, Cornelia Baumgartner, has received a great deal of recognition in her country for the impact of her center’s services on people’s lives. She led the collaboration with the National New Zealand Police that created the Confident Kids program, which has brought KIDPOWER skills to public schools throughout New Zealand. Cornelia is also a fifth degree Black Belt in Aikido. Cornelia is sharing her creativity and vision as a member of the Long Range Strategic Plan Committee for the international organization. She also gave us the Pencil Pincher demonstration that is in this book. Cornelia sustains a strong bond with me personally that grows stronger as the years go by, despite the miles that usually separate us.

Cornelia is supported by her partner in life and in teaching Martin Hartman, who is a senior padded instructor and on the Board for the New Zealand Trust.

Our Montreal Pleins Pouvoirs (which means “full of power” in French) KIDPOWER Center director, Marylaine Léger, helped our instructor training program grow during its very challenging early phases, brought our Puppetpower and day care programs to a new level, and translated our program into French. Marylaine and her Pleins Pouvoirs staff hosted our Reaching Out Conference in Montreal that brought our work to professionals from charitable organizations in Africa, Asia, and South America. Marylaine continues to serve as a communications facilitator for our organization. She is a talented and loving leader with a strong active center. Marylaine has been a terrific cheerleader for my writing.

Marylaine’s partner in life and in teaching, Marc Meilleur has supported Marylaine in all these accomplishments. Marc is a very experienced padded instructor and is helping our organization to further develop our system for keeping people safe in doing full force work.

Our Southern California Office coordinator, Janice Flynn, is a wonderful teacher, longtime supporter, and a powerful representative for our organization. Janice was on the original board of the IMPACT Foundation and is the vice president of the current KIDPOWER Board. Janice is someone who does whatever needs to be done quietly and effectively. I deeply appreciate Janice for taking care of our dear friend and colleague Annette Washington during her illness, as well as for all of her years of practical help, friendship, and guidance. As chair of our Business Committee, Janice is helping our organization to run in a more businesslike way, which is necessary for our long-term sustainability.

In her role as our Program Manager of California Services, Erika Leonard has contributed greatly to the increasing strength of our organization, especially through her help with building relationships for service, visibility, and funding. At the time she joined our organization in 1995, Erika was the kind of middle school teacher who inspired her students and had parents fighting to get their children into her class. As a senior instructor, Erika keeps bringing fresh perspectives, new practices, teaching stories, and examples that improve the value and clarity of our services. Her ideas have added to the depth of our program. In everything she does with KIDPOWER, Erika gives fully of her enthusiasm, energy, creativity, and commitment.

Our Colorado Springs KIDPOWER/TEENPOWER Center director, Jan Isaacs-Henry, has created a model for excellence with her center, which has a strong track record of professionalism and sustainability. She has also brought a number of new program ideas, research, and resources into the Kidpower program. Jan is a former psychotherapist and has shared her mental health expertise with KIDPOWER in ways that have strengthened the quality of the emotional safety of our work. I cherish the many mornings we have shared a long-distance conversation over a cup of tea or coffee by telephone, giving mutual mentoring to each other.  Jan has been supported every step of the way by her husband John Henry who is on her Board.

Jean Glowacki, director of our KIDPOWER of Northern Colorado Center, has provided thoughtful insights, creative adaptations, and support for long-range planning as a member of both our Organizational Assessment Task Force and our Long Range Strategic Plan Committee. Jean is opening new doors for KIDPOWER through her involvement with the 4-H organization.

Michelle Keip served as our North Bay Office coordinator for many years. Michelle has brought our services to families in great need and is a founding donor for our Reaching Out Project. Michelle has contributed to the section on what it means to be a safe person to come to. She had given me a great deal of support in imagining the future for KIDPOWER. Michelle is also a third degree Black Belt in Aikido and founder of a wonderful program for children called Samurai Sprouts. Her partner in life, longtime padded instructor David Keip, was one of my first self-defense instructors and gave us the Yappy Dog example for explaining boundaries to young children.

Kim Leisey, Ph.D., is the Assistant Vice President of student affairs at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. With Nancy Young, Kim co-developed our COLLEGEPOWER program that has been used in a number of college orientation programs. Kim also included KIDPOWER in her dissertation about the meaning of self-protection for teen girls. She is also the director of our KIDPOWER Chesapeake and Potomac Center and has served as an extremely effective representative for our organization in the Washington, D.C., area.

Much of our increased effectiveness in training other people to teach is due to our Assistant Director of Training for the Central Office, Amanda Golert, who is also our Center director for Sweden. Amanda has been part of the movement to bring women’s self defense training to Sweden and is also the director of Allakan, which teaches workplace violence prevention. With humor, compassion, and competence, Amanda has provided leadership, structure, and stability both to our system of training and to our organization as a whole. In addition, Amanda’s cartoon drawings in our Safety Plan Comic Books and Teaching Kits have made our program understandable in a way that transcends boundaries of language and culture. Her insights have helped improve the clarity and content of our services.

Central Office Program Managers and Coordinators

I want to express special appreciation to Fiona Barrett and Chantal Keeney for greatly improving the running of our Central Office so that our systems are far more effective. They have also done an outstanding job of holding things together in the office so that I could keep writing.

With enthusiasm and competence, Fiona has brought the process of coordinating workshops to a high art. Fiona combines the ability to keep track of many details with a clear vision of the big picture of what those details are intended to accomplish.

With humor and a profound understanding of KIDPOWER, Chantal has greatly improved the content of our curriculum. As an exceptional elementary school classroom teacher and senior KIDPOWER instructor, Chantal is also improving our educational resources for teachers and our instructor training program.

Our program coordinators have all played a crucial role in the growth of our organization. With great cheer and commitment, our Sierra Office coordinator, Stacy Plowman-Clark has been successful in starting and sustaining services in her community while raising a family, training to become a nurse, and teaching in her martial arts school. During her time as South Bay Coordinator, Fran Thole worked miracles at increasing our visibility and services in the Silicon Valley and continues to advocate for KIDPOWER everywhere she goes.

Former Central Office coordinators, Alicea Ledbetter, Lizz Demos-Garibaldi, Jinda Mulvey, April Yee, and Carol Mikols have each created order out of chaos in different parts of our administrative functioning, increasing our effectiveness and also doing a great deal of teaching.

Lizz and Jinda continue to teach in Wisconsin and Massachusetts respectively. Carol served as our office manager and instructor for over seven years, making it possible for things to keep going so that I could take time with to be my family. Stefany Meyer-Reed also served in the Central Office before moving to and starting to teach in Nebraska. Alicea is now building new relationships with police departments.

April Yee has become a longtime supporter by making donations, building connections, and helping to raise funds for KIDPOWER. She has recently joined the KIDPOWER  Board.

Our office team has been recently greatly brightened by the hard work, competence, and cheerful attitude of Program Specialist Allegra Doriss, who is taking over the management of our international website and also learning to become an instructor.

Teaching and Program Support

Our instructors, center directors, and program support staff in different parts of the world are at the heart of our programs. The following people are either currently involved with our organization or were very active for a long time. Those whose names are in bold have taught and/or organized KIDPOWER services in their communities through our different centers and offices for over ten years.

Jamiko Allen-Hercules, Miguel Morales Almeyda, Lynne Arsenault, Patrick Baby, Fiona Barrett, Liam Bauer, Cornelia Baumgartner, Lex Bijlsma, Joquin Ives Brant, Daniel Bulman, Suzanne Burns, Susan Cahill, Debra Campeau, Lesley Cox, Vince Castillo, Chantal Collin, Stacy Plowman-Clark, Joe Connelly, Lizz Conroy, Nathalie Côté, Kenya Cruzat, Ashleigh Curry, Jan DeBoer, Antonie Del Bonta, Rondell Dodson, Denlin Doty, Marie-Josée Dubois, Terry Dunphy, Timothy Dunphy, Didi Eglseder, Mark Fearer, Joe Ferrando, Danielle Ferron, Nathalie Ferron, Janice Flynn, Jennifer Fuller, Natalia Gabria, Jennifer Gallacher, Greg Gallop, Lizz Demos-Garibaldi, Tom Garibaldi, Guylaine Gélinas, Erika Gladrow, Amanda Golert, Jean Glowacki, Sterling Goodrich, Angela Hamilton, Dave Harrison, M.D., Martin Hartman, Carmin Harty, Maree Hassik, Jared Hayes, Maryjane Hayes, Jan Isaacs-Henry, Meredith Henry, Susan Hendrickson, Karl Herndon, Ryan Holmes, Malin Jägstrand, Monica Juren, Eda Karacabeyli, Mariana Bittencourt Ivancko, Monica Juren, Chantal Keeney, David Keip, Michelle Keip, Ce Kelleher, Chris Knoepke, Amanda Larsen, Alicea Ledbetter, Marylaine Léger, Kim Leisey, Ph.D., Erika Leonard, Megan Lindow, Andreas Lundgren, Mirjam O’Connor-Gerhard, WR Mann, Richard Marberry, Anne Mason, Joseph Maurer, Beth McGreevy, Ian McKitrick, Andrea Meier, Marc Meilleur, Suzanne Eglseder-Metzler, Maureen Miller, Carol Mikols, Danielle Moulin, Jinda Mulvey, Dmitri Nadot, Lise Noël, Marie-Josée Picard, Kalpana Rani, Stefany Meyer-Reed, Phil Robison, Ezekiel Robson, Isabelle Rodrigue, Lynne Rose, Steve and Lea Sassone, Linda Schafer, Tracy Schneider, Rona Sedman, Laura Slesar, Gema Lopez-Smith, Randy Smith, Evi Smulders, John Luna-Sparks, Fran Thole, Phung Bich Thuy, Amy Tiemann, Andreas Tillmanns, Jora Trang, Eve-Marie Tremblay, Pervaiz Tufail, Alex Viens, Vince don Vito, Ron Vizansky, Sam Rush-Walton, April Yee, Nancy Young, Natalie Yungner, and Monika Zimmermann.

I want to give a special thanks to my local padded instructor teaching partners. I am not the world’s most athletic person, and they have each made sure that I stayed safe and looked good when doing full force work. Thank you Billy, Timothy, Terry, Liam, Joseph, Ryan, Randy, and Jamiko.

Thank you to our thousands of service partners and workshop hosts for making it possible to bring our services to their schools, service organizations, businesses, communities, and families.

I want to give special mention to Gateway School and the Montessori School of Santa Cruz County. The Montessori School has given space for our international training programs and students for our new instructors to learn from for over fifteen years. In 1991, the teachers and staff at Gateway School opened all their classrooms so that I could conduct the pilot programs that led to the foundation of our school programs. Mary D. Geyer, a first grade teacher at that time, came up with the idea of using your body to make a trash can for throwing away hurting words. Gateway continues to have our workshops in their classrooms every year.

Technical Consultants and Professional Advisors

The following people have given generously of their special technical expertise in various fields in ways that have improved the effectiveness of our services or have played a key role in the growth of our organization. They are introduced in the approximate order in time of their involvement.

Carol Middleton is a co-founder of the National Women’s Martial Arts Federation as well as director of the D.C. Self-Defense Karate Association, D.C. IMPACT, and Krav Maga D.C. She is now a seventh degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. Carol has given KIDPOWER technical consultation since the beginning as well as opening doors for our organization in the Washington, D.C. area and in the martial arts world.

Beth McGreevy is a Business IT Strategy Consultant who got our organization the kidpower.org domain name, created our first Web site, and served as our first webmaster. She created and maintains our international listserve. Beth is also a longtime instructor who taught our first workshop in Israel.

Board member Peter Lewis, Ph.D., was the head of school at Gateway School in Santa Cruz, California, and now has the same role at Kew Forest School in Queens, New York. As an educator, Peter’s leadership brought KIDPOWER to both schools in ways that have opened new doors and broken new ground. Currently, Kew Forest School is sponsoring training that is helping to grow our programs on the East Coast.

Peter Alsop, Ph.D., is a nationally known singer-songwriter, educator, and humorist. He has been an advisor to KIDPOWER for many years on how to reach a much wider audience with our work. His songs about child abuse prevention are known around the world. Peter also created the KIDPOWER Wake Up Video, which won an Indie Award.

Lillian Roybal Rose is an internationally known expert in cross-cultural communication, who has provided support and consultation to KIDPOWER for many years. Her seminars help people to overcome prejudices, heal wounds, and build bridges of understanding between people of very diverse backgrounds.

Michael Linehan is the founder and managing director of Marketing Alchemy, which provides profoundly effective Internet-based strategic planning and marketing services. As our webmaster for many years, Michael has generously donated his time and expertise to enable KIDPOWER to have a high level of presence on the Internet, greatly increasing our visibility to the world.

Claire Laughlin is a communications consultant and trainer. When she was still in college, Claire came to me and said, “What you are doing is important and I will do whatever it takes to help you.” As a staff person and volunteer, Claire brought order to our Central Office. She is a former instructor and longtime supporter who is now our Board secretary. As chair of the Long Range Strategic Plan Task Force, Claire led the creation of a plan that defines a clear path for KIDPOWER’s future.

Claire is a classic example of someone whose relatives become a “KIDPOWER family.” In 2007, Claire’s family decided to have KIDPOWER be the beneficiary of donations to honor their mother and grandmother Nadine M. Calcagno, whose last wishes were that her family be safe. I want to thank Claire’s aunt and uncle, Dr. Jim and Sue Ellen Calcagno, for their cheerleading and support. Claire’s mother Karen and  sister Kristen are acknowledged below for their important contributions.

Karen Ho is a professional accountant and our Board treasurer. Karen has greatly improved how we keep our books in the central office so that the quality of our financial integrity is as high as our program integrity. She has sponsored KIDPOWER classes for all of her family. Karen has been a monthly donor to KIDPOWER longer than anyone else. Her continual faith in our work has inspired me to keep going during times when I wondered if our organization would ever get off the ground financially. 

Arnie Kamrin is a businessman who has helped KIDPOWER find the right people to work with in corporations, obtained free Web exposure to KIDPOWER through Google, and saved KIDPOWER thousands of dollars in printing costs with Kinko’s. Arnie has also opened his home to KIDPOWER many times for trainings, gatherings, and meetings. He is a former instructor and longtime donor and Board member. Arnie’s daughter and son, Jackie and Rich, are also supporters who have helped KIDPOWER in different ways since they were children.

Sandra Menefee is an expert on organizational development, who provides training and consultation to large corporations. She is a former instructor and center director for KIDPOWER, as well as a longtime Board member and donor. For many years, Sandra has given me management coaching that has greatly improved my skills as a leader and has served as a wise and effective mediator when we have needed one.  She facilitated and hosted our first Board retreat leading to the creation of an action plan and timeline for our implementation for our Long Range Strategic Plan.

Longtime supporter Nancy Driscoll is a community activist and fundraising trainer for nonprofit organizations. Nancy guided KIDPOWER through our first major individual fundraising campaigns, led workshops at our conferences, and empowered me to ask people for money and support. She has helped us become more businesslike from the time of her involvement, starting with getting me to put the KIDPOWER name into the phone book. Through the years, Nancy has continued to provide training and support to help KIDPOWER to become a strong successful organization. As our current Board president, Nancy is providing important leadership for our Board as we move our organization to the next level.

Senior instructor John Luna-Sparks is a social worker at the Center for Child Protection at Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland who has presented KIDPOWER at a number of conferences for professionals working with people with special needs. John brings creativity and joy to KIDPOWER and has been a great support to our international work.

Abby Bleistein, M.D., shares her medical expertise on how to have KIDPOWER integrated into the work of health professionals and on technical questions. As a Board member, she has been helping with planning and organizational development. Abby has also made it possible for Kidpower to receive a major multi-year donation for our capacity-building projects.

Jennifer Gates-Durham is a longtime supporter and software engineer. As a Board member, she has been advising KIDPOWER on technical issues and strategic planning.

As a Board Member, major supporter, and the chair of our Marketing Committee, Laurel Miranda is working to make KIDPOWER a household word that stands for excellence in teaching about personal safety. She has also provided extensive review of the KIDPOWER Book for Caring Adults, greatly improving its clarity and consistence.

David Harrison, M.D., is an emergency room physician who has a passionate commitment to teaching effective self-defense. Dave has brought further organization and refinements to our way of teaching through the combination of his medical expertise with his self-defense background. He has also taken leadership in re-awakening our Vancouver Center by becoming the Center director there. He is learning from Mark Morris how to build and improve the protective head-to-toe padded suit. Dave also contributed the Cuddles the Cat example.

Pervaiz Tufail is a management psychologist from Pakistan who trains professionals working with youth in dangerous situations. Pervaiz co-led our Reaching Out conference for professionals from developing countries and is starting a KIDPOWER center in Pakistan. Pervaiz is sharing his expertise in how to bring our skills to resource-poor countries.

International fundraising trainer Kim Klein is the founder of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal and author of many books on fundraising for social change organizations. She has been providing crucial advice and support as we move our fundraising activities into a much larger arena.

Karen Calcagno of the Advantage Coaching & Family Business Center has provided business consultation that has been useful for staff planning and management of the central office. She is also the mother of Claire Laughlin and Kristen Calcatera, another two imporant contributions!

WR Mann of www.Realfighting.com has contributed his knowledge and  expertise in reality-based defense, weapons defense, and branding/marketing.

Rob Straka is our computer consultant who has magically solved our computer problems, getting things working well and running smoothly.

Victor Cheng, author of  Escaping The Self Employment Trap, is donating business consultation through his company www.morefreedom.com and  his Mastermind group, so that we can do a more effective job of packaging and marketing our information.

Law Enforcement Advisors

The members of our Law Enforcement Advisory Committee review our program and give feedback to ensure that what we teach is consistent with crime prevention knowledge and practices.

Police officer Ian Kirkpatrick, a founding board member of our New Zealand Trust, helped create a collaboration between KIDPOWER and the National New Zealand Police Youth Education Services that led to the Confident Kids program, bringing KIDPOWER skills to public schools there nationwide.

Deputy Sheriff and former detective Karl Herndon teaches defensive tactics to law enforcement officers. As a longtime padded instructor, Karl has improved our way of teaching by sharing his technical expertise and has been of tremendous support to KIDPOWER in the Colorado Springs community.

Watsonville Police Captain Manny Solano is a longtime supporter who has given KIDPOWER credibility with other law enforcement officials, sponsored workshops, served as an ex-officio board member, and provided consultation on criminal justice issues.

Former Community Relations Specialist Jim Howes built a relationship for our organization with the Santa Cruz Police Department, which has co-sponsored many workshops with KIDPOWER. Jim also  provides advice and collaboration on community safety programs.

Although he is not a law enforcement officer, Gavin de Becker is both an expert in the prediction of violence and the best-selling author of The Gift of Fear and Protecting the Gift.  Over the last fifteen years, Gavin has provided important consultation and resources to KIDPOWER concerning questions of violence prevention.

KIDPOWER Board of Directors and Honorary Trustees

I want to express appreciation to our Board of Directors for their years of encouragement, generosity, commitment, and friendship. Our current Board members are working with great commitment and determination to move KIDPOWER forward so that we will be able to realize our potential as an organization. To the Board members and supporters of our centers from around the world, I want to thank you for your generosity and commitment to supporting your program leaders in bringing KIDPOWER services to your communities.

Our current Board members are Abby Bleistein, M.D.; Nancy Driscoll, president; Janice Flynn, vice president; Karen Ho, treasurer; Sandra Menefee; Claire Laughlin, secretary; Arnie Kamrin; Peter Lewis, Ph.D.; Laurel Miranda; and April Yee.

Honorary Board trustee and founding donor Robert Stephens is the owner of the Elkhorn Native Plant Nursery, former chairman of Audubon California, and a strong advocate for environmental leadership.  Along with his wife Julie Packard, Robert has been a major annual donor to KIDPOWER since 1990. Robert’s credibility has opened doors for KIDPOWER with foundations, newspapers, and other community resources. His kindness, honesty, encouragement, and generosity have helped KIDPOWER get going and keep moving in the right direction.

As described above, Ellen Bass is our founding Board president and an ex-officio Board member. Nell Cliff, Gayle Ortiz, and Elena Baskin were founding donors to KIDPOWER, providing seed money and help with opening doors so that our organization could get off the ground. 

Professional Evaluators

KIDPOWER is committed to ongoing review and a high standard of excellence in our organization and programs. Stephen Kaplan Associates conducted a comprehensive organization assessment funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation that laid the foundation for our Long Range Strategic Plan.

LaFrance Associates conducted the first independent professional evaluation of our services with 550 Head Start children, their teachers, and their families funded by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health. La France Associates and Julie Shattock and Associates have been consulting with KIDPOWER on how to improve our system of evaluation and document our effectiveness thanks to funding from the Ruddie Memorial Youth Foundation and the Peninsula Community Foundation. Evaluation and Auditing Services Limited conducted a study with 840 eight- to twelve-year-old students and their teachers in New Zealand funded by the Todd Foundation.