SHAPE, The White Book is a joyful activity and coloring book based on the universal principles of Aikido, the martial art of peace, for children age 4 to 8. An expansive treasure chest of creative ideas and stories, this book helps children learn about the power of shaping themselves while enjoying the vibrant experience of their whole being.   “I hope you will read, share, use and enjoy this book with the children in your life, as it will prove to be a wonderful tool for guiding them to become peaceful adventurers as they explore themselves, each other and the world we live in.” -Irene van der Zande Executive Director/Founder of Kidpower International About the author/illustrator: Michelle Manger Keip, RN has been teaching life skills and training in the martial arts since 1976. She is a certified instructor and long-time Program Leader with Kidpower International, holds a Nidan in Aikido and is the Creative Director of Wellspring Aikido Arts. To order her book or for more information click here.
	Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (And Parents Sane) by Gavin de Becker Mr. de Becker is an internationally known violence prevention expert. His latest book, Protecting the Gift, is written to help parents enhance their children's safety, while reducing unwarranted fear and worry. The book includes two chapters that specifically address school shootings, and also addresses the selection processes for babysitters, nannies, childcare services, and schools. Mr. de Becker recommends KIDPOWER's violence prevention and self-esteem building programs throughout the book.
	The Gift of Fear : Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence by Gavin de Becker People don't just "snap" and become violent, says de Becker, whose clients include federal government agencies, celebrities, police departments, and shelters for battered women. "There is a process as observable, and often as predictable, as water coming to a boil." Learning to predict violence is the cornerstone to preventing it. This classic book about personal safety gives a compelling explanation of the ways in which we can use our intuition to protect ourselves from danger. The description of the tactics which attackers use and the signals of intuition are particularly brilliant and the stories are fascinating. Mr. de Becker recommends Fullpower violence prevention and full-force self-defense programs.  If you have not read this gold mine of a book, give yourself the gift of doing it now. If you have, read it again!
	Beauty Bites Beast: Awakening the Warrior Within Women and Girls by Ellen Snortland (Trilogy Books, Pasadena, California, 1998) With humor and inspiring success stories, this book attacks the underlying myths that prevent women and girls from taking care of themselves effectively. This entertaining and provocative book will help open minds and gives effective tools for building a strong foundation for personal safety. The importance of making self defense training a top priority is explained in a compelling and vivid way.

 

HELPING TEENS STOP VIOLENCE: A Practical Guide for Counselors, Educators, and Parents.

Written by Allan Creighton, Battered Women's Alternatives with Paul Kivel, Oakland Men's Project. (Hunter House, Inc. Alameda, California, USA.)

This book describes a multi-racial step-by-step program which empowers young people to resist abuse and prevent violence in their relationships. The exercises described in the book help to build understanding, communication, and positive relationships between young people.

REAL BOYS

by William Pollack, Ph.D. (Henry Holt and Company, 1998)

There are hundreds of books and web sites which offer resources to help build safety and confidence. Each month, we will feature one for you. Each will be a resource we believe to be IMPORTANT, CLEAR, USEABLE and applicable to REAL LIFE.

"Real Boys" gives readers a compelling explanation of how conventional expectations of men damage boys, making them more vulnerable to substance abuse, gangs, depression, and violence. The book offers wonderful models for how to help boys grow up to become strong healthy self confident men.

REVIVING OPHELIA: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls

By Mary Pipher, Ph.D. (Ballantine Books, 1994)

This enlightening book uses case histories to give a vivid picture of how social pressures undermine the self confidence of teenage girls, causing many to engage in a wide range of self destructive behaviors and to be very vulnerable to abuse and assault. There are insights here for young people in their preteen, teen, and young adult years and for any one who wants to support young people in getting safely through this difficult time.

THE BULLY, THE BULLIED, AND THE BYSTANDER: From Preschool to High School -- How Parents and Teachers Can Break the Cycle of Violence

by Barbara Coloroso (HarperCollins Publishers February 2003)

This book offers a framework for understanding bullying from different perspectives and some practical solutions for parents and schools. Bullies use fear to get away with unacceptable behavior. Their victims (the "bullied") fear continued abuse if they tell and bystanders fear becoming the next victim.  Coloroso explains how these roles develop and the many different emotional and physical manifestations of bullying behavior. She breaks down and analyzes the specific ways that children in each role can be motivated and learn to change their behavior for the better.

CONVERSATIONS WITH A PEDOPHILE: In the Interest of Our Children

by Dr. Amy Hammel-Zabin: Barricade Books, Inc. 2003

In this brave and chilling book, Dr. Hammel-Zabin describes conversations and letters she had over a period of years with a pedophile who is in prison for life for molesting hundreds of young boys. With a rare balance of compassion and outrage, this book gives an inside view of how this man became obsessed in his childhood with molesting young boys; of the systematic way he built relationships of trust with families, churches and youth organizations; and of how he used kindness and attention to bend children to submit to his will so they participated in their abuse and kept it a secret.

The information is upsetting but also very validating of programs like Kidpower. This safety tip was written before we had seen the book, but it is consistent with the advice of the author to LISTEN TO YOUR CHILDREN!

THE EIGHTH HABIT: From Effectiveness to Greatness

by Stephen Covey
www.stephencovey.com

Fifteen years ago, management professor Stephen Covey wrote his best-selling book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." Covey's values-centered approach has provided a great resource to people around the world as individuals and as organizational leaders. His most recent book, The Eighth Habit, is directly relevant to those of us who work with self-protection and advocacy. The Eight Habit is "To find your voice and help others to find theirs." The book offers a wealth of examples, ideas, stories, and practices both for individuals and for organizations.

GOOD FRIENDS ARE HARD TO FIND

by Fred Frankel, Ph.D.
Perspective Publishing, http://www.familyhelp.com/Books.html

This entertaining and useful book helps parents of 5 to 12 year-olds make friends and solve problems with other kids. Topics covered include Making Friends, Finding Friends, Keeping Friends, dealing with bullying and being bullied, and what to do if you have a bad reputation.

HOW TO SAY NO AND KEEP YOUR FRIENDS: Peer Pressure Reversal Tactics

by Sharon Scott: Human Resource Development Press, Inc. 1997

Family Counselor Sharon Scott worked for the first offender's program in Texas, helping young people who were in trouble with the law for the first time. She found that the biggest reason why young people broke the law was because they did not know how to say "NO" to their friends. She found that young people who practiced ways of saying "NO" to their friends were far less likely to get into trouble again.

This book describes positive and negative peer pressure and how to stop and think instead of going along with friends automatically. The tactics are similar to verbal self-defense. They have great language, stories and drawings to help young people use these skills with their friends.

KIDS HELPING KIDS BREAK THE SILENCE OF SEXUAL ABUSE

by Linda Foltz.
http://www.kidshelpkids.net

This book and web site have valuable information about childhood sexual abuse and is worth looking at for the resource section alone. Author Linda Foltz interviewed children who had endured sexual abuse to capture their true stories in ways which would be educational for people working in this field and healing for children who are facing this trauma.

Stories like these can teach adults how to help prevent child abuse.  Stories about other children can show children who have also been victimized that they are not alone or at fault and can provide reassurance that there is hope for healing.

THE SAFE CHILD BOOK: A Common Sense Approach to Protecting Children and Teaching Children To Protect Themselves

by Sherryll Kraizer, Ph.D. (Fireside Books, 1996)

Author Dr. Sherryll Kraizer was one of the early advisors to Kidpower. The Safe Child Book provides simple, clear and practical information about how to teach children to protect themselves from abduction, assault, and abuse. Dr. Kraizer's Safe Child Program was based on a research study which she conducted with 1,000 school children in the United States in which she found that children were much more successful in using safety skills which they had practiced than they were in acting on explanations without having the chance to practice.

Written for parents, The Safe Child Book takes a step-by-step approach to how to protect children from abuse, abduction and risk in non-supervised settings.  The book explains how to begin the process from the time children are just a few months old through high school.

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WEBSITES

JACKSON KATZ

http://www.jacksonkatz.com

Jackson Katz provides a powerful positive voice for what men can do to stop gender violence. His web page offers useful free articles such as 10 Things Men Can Do to Prevent Gender Violence in English and Spanish and When You're Asked About the Kobe Bryant Case.

Since 1996, Katz has been directing the first worldwide gender violence prevention program in the history of the United States Marine Corps – the first such program in the United States military. From 2000-2003 he served as a member of the U.S. Secretary of Defense's Task Force on Domestic Violence in the military. Since the Columbine tragedy in 1999, Katz and his business have been working with several schools in the Jefferson County, Colorado school district, including Columbine High School.

He offers videos and curriculum about gender violence prevention education for men and boys, particularly in the sports culture and the military.

HOW TO MAKE A 911 EMERGENCY CALL

http://www.sccecc.org/

In its public information section, the Santa Cruz County Emergency Communications Center has an excellent description of how to make an emergency call to the 911 operators. The clear common sense information explains how to describe the problem, how to describe a person, how to describe a vehicle, and how to be a good reporting person for different kinds of emergencies.

SCHOOL MEDIATION ASSOCIATES

http://www.schoolmediation.com

Richard Cohen’s wonderful school mediation program teaches young people how to mediate conflict in school settings. The web page describes dilemmas and solutions that would be useful in many difficult situations. The newsletter has great articles on resolving conflicts in positive and productive ways.

THE SOUL OF MONEY: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and with Life

by Lynne Twist.
http://www.soulofmoney.org/

Lynne Twist is an inspiring speaker and a remarkable person whose insights can help her readers and workshop participants to become empowered rather than victimized in their relationship with money. Her own community work has brought her into relationship both with people who are on the edge of starvation and with people who are billionaires.

Through her work, Lynne has developed great wisdom to offer in reframing one's beliefs about money. She starts by pointing out that money was originally created some 3,500 years ago to make it easier for people to share resources -- not to have power, not to withhold or hang onto, not to wreck relationships over, but to SHARE.

Lynne then describes myths about scarcity. The first myth is: There's Not Enough. Lynn points out that we are always punishing ourselves with "not enough" instead of celebrating what there is.    "What's the first thing many people say to themselves when they get up in the morning? - 'I didn't get enough sleep!'  What's the next thing? - 'I don't have enough time!' ... And at the end of the day, most of us say, 'I didn't get enough done.’"

The second myth about scarcity that Lynne describes is: More is Better. She talks about how our culture measures value or importance in terms of size instead of in terms of worth.

The third myth is: That's Just the Way Things Are. Lynne talks about how often our governments and institutions accept starvation of some people, harm to our environment, and many other injustices or destructive practices because our culture has taught us to believe that this is "just the way things are."  Instead of getting overwhelmed by the current situation, we can work together to make a difference.

Lynne offers tools for developing positive truths about money. She helps people to let go of what she calls their sob stories about money and to acknowledge what is working well in their lives.

TEEN HOTLINE

http://www.teencontact.org/

This web page for a teen hotline in Texas has information directed at teens about a host of difficult issues. Practical advice and a wealth of resource information is given to teens and their parents about dealing with anger management, stress, peer pressure, eating disorders, depression, suicide, disasters, and all kinds of violence to oneself and others.

One of their major advisors is marriage and family therapist Sharon Scott, who ran the first offender program in Texas for several years. Sharon Scott found that the biggest reason why young people get in trouble with the law for the first time was because they did not know how to say "NO" to their friends.

When she had the young people in her program practice what she called Peer Pressure Reversal Tactics, very few of them got in trouble again. Her book, How to Say No and Keep Your Friends, and other books about peer pressure are available through her web page at http://www.SharonScott.com.

YOUTH EDUCATION SERVICES

http://www.police.govt.nz/service/yes/resources/violence/kos.html

The Youth Education Services (YES) Department of the National New Zealand Police publishes a web page with practical safety tips for parents and teachers on a wide range of topics including internet safety, road safety, stealing, bullying, and vandalism as well as their excellent Keeping Ourselves Safe and Kia Kaha programs for violence and abuse prevention. YES is currently collaborating with our KIDPOWER New Zealand Centre to develop a pilot program for integrating KIDPOWER practices of skills into their current programs in public schools nationwide.

SONGS AND VIDEOS OF PETER ALSOP

http://www.peteralsop.com/catalog/default.php

Peter Alsop uses songs, humor and action to help young people deal with many life challenges -- from being in  the hospital to understanding prejudice to protecting themselves from abuse. Peter's Wake Up video with actor John Ritter and KIDPOWER raises awareness and teaches prevention skills through songs and role-plays. Peter also offers trainings for teachers in using sculpting techniques to help people of any age understand the dynamics that create problems or get them stuck into destructive patterns. Peter's creative lighthearted approach is engaging and interesting as well as effective.

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LEGAL RESOURCES 

The purpose of having laws is to prevent problems between people by defining boundaries and to provide rules for dealing with problems when they arise. As the specialists in our society responsible for helping people deal with legal issues, lawyers unfortunately sometimes do not have good boundaries themselves. People often get in terrible trouble and lose a lot of money because they give their power to a lawyer rather than taking charge of their own legal safety by becoming as informed as possible. Although the resources below are mostly written for people in the United States, their advice for how to take charge of your legal well-being is relevant to people in most countries.

NOLO LAW FOR ALL: Plain English Law Center

http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/index.cfm

Free legal library and many free articles as well as low-cost downloadable forms and on-line and printed resources for handling most legal issues.

HALT

http://www.halt.org

Many free resources including a pamphlet called "Before you hire a lawyer, know your rights."

USING A LAWYER ... WHAT TO DO IF THINGS GO WRONG

by Kay Ostberg, HALT, 1999

http://www.allbookstores.com/author/Halt_Inc.html

This book explains how to shop for the right lawyer, manage that lawyer so that your needs are met and deal with problems as they arise. Includes information on legal malpractice, attorney disciplines and answer questions most consumers never think to ask in advance like:  How do I comparison shop for a lawyer?  How do I negotiate a fee agreement and get it in writing?  What can I do myself to save money on fees?  What is the best way to work with my lawyer in order to win my case?  What can I do if my lawyer overcharges me?  My lawyer won't return my calls, now what?  How do I fire my lawyer?