The KIDPOWER Challenge Audiotape

The KIDPOWER Challenge

Audio Message and Transcript by Erika Leonard, Assistant Director of Community Education

My name is Erika Leonard, and I’m KIDPOWER’s Assistant Director of Community Education. For thirteen years, I’ve had the joy of seeing firsthand how just a little bit of KIDPOWER practice helps people right away and years later make safer choices, set boundaries, advocate for themselves, face bullying with confidence, and perhaps most importantly of all, use their KIDPOWER skills to build stronger relationships.

Now, an anonymous foundation has awarded KIDPOWER $50,000 to strengthen our Donor Development Program so that we can help more people. But before KIDPOWER can actually have that money and put it to work, the foundation wants to know, to see proof, that people in this community believe in KIDPOWER, too, and they want to SEE that proof in the form of $50,000 from individual donors uniting together to match their gift. This is a challenge, and now is the time to respond with our full power.

With their offer, this foundation has created The KIDPOWER Challenge, and I invite you to join me and others in our community in answering that challenge with a message that leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind about what we believe:

•That people deserve skills to be safe and thrive with other people;

•That everyone deserves to learn People Safety skills early, in an age-appropriate way;

•That no one ever loses right to learn People Safety skills, no matter how old they are;

•And that KIDPOWER has what it takes to help those skills take root to strengthen our families, schools, and our communities.

The people who experience KIDPOWER thanks to the generous support of our donors walk away with skill and knowledge they can use to make things not all better, but better enough to spark a belief that something more might be possible.

I remember a six-year-old girl from one class years ago. She was homeless, and thanks to community support, KIDPOWER was able to give her and other kids facing similar challenges not just safety training but also some food during the class, because it’s hard to learn when you’re hungry.

This little girl ate, then she packed the brown lunch bag we gave her with extra food that she wanted to take to her younger sister. After that, she was ready to learn, and she focused her full attention on every KIDPOWER skill, all the while holding on to that bag of food for her sister. She practiced standing very tall, showing awareness and confidence. She practiced looking us in the eye, making a strong fence with her hands and saying in a clear voice, “Please stop.” She did put the bag down to practice using the power of her body to hit and to kick, and when she practiced running to safety and yelling, “I need help!” everyone clapped, she smiled, and she picked that bag right up again. She told us that other kids would sometimes say to her, “You stink!” and with her bag in her lap she practiced keeping her heart safe from those hurtful words by putting them in her KIDPOWER trash can and reminding herself in a confident voice, “I’m proud of who I am.”

When she left, the brown paper bag looked a little worn, but that girl looked bright, alive, and powerful. She had been introduced to power she’d had all along, and she didn’t just talk about that power or think about it, she used it, she proved to herself that it was real. And, like so many KIDPOWER kids who’ve taught our skills to their little brothers and sisters, I think she shared a lot more than just food with her little sister that night.

By responding to The KIDPOWER Challenge with the most significant donation we each can afford, we have the power to create this opportunity for others. Helping the people we’ve helped already has made a world of difference, but it’s not enough, and as important as is for us to reach all children, it’s not good enough for us to reach only children, and that’s why we serve teens and adults as well.

One fifty-five-year-old woman we worked with had been gradually losing her vision, and she came to our class when it was almost gone. The students in that class were all adults losing their vision, and they wanted to feel safer going out in a world that was starting to seem a little scarier.

After just a few hours, this small woman went from being quiet and closed down to speaking clearly, yelling loudly, projecting confidence, and hitting harder than you would believe. Though she was about fifty years older than the little girl I told you about, she changed in the very same way, not because we did anything to change her but because KIDPOWER creates opportunities for people to discover potential in themselves, for themselves, and that discovery is what changes them.

At the close of the class she told us, “I’ve been losing my vision for ten years, and I’ve coped with it by just going out less and less, because I’ve been scared. And every night, I just lay in the bed, and I look at the ceiling and I wait for the tiles to disappear.” And then she said, “But tonight, I did something else. Tonight I came here. And I’ve decided, I’m going to live differently now.”

The KIDPOWER Challenge is a challenge to all of us to take action today, because it’s time for us all to live differently now. The truth is, we live in a world that challenges us all, and every one of us has the right to face those challenges with confidence, with grace, and with our full power.

Please visit kidpower.org today to make your donation; every dollar counts, and every day counts. On behalf of all of us at KIDPOWER and all those we serve, I thank you.

Where will your donation go? CLICK HERE to find out!