Personal Safety and Self Defense for children, teens and adults
Instructor Training Programs
KIDPOWER TEENPOWER FULLPOWER: Instructor Training Programs
“I love being a KIDPOWER instructor because I can make an enormous impact on someone’s life in a few short hours."
"Seeing the empowerment of our students and hearing their stories of how our work has helped long after the class is deeply rewarding.”
"The training program taught me so much about myself and about how to work with people effectively."
“It is an amazing experience to see the change in students from the beginning of the class to the end."
“I learn a lot about myself from the work and I witness incredible amounts of healing and courage with the students and fellow instructors, which in turn has inspired me in other areas of my life.”
We're ALWAYS looking for people who are interested in becoming instructors with our organization. Our goal is to provide high quality training to everyone, especially those most at risk of assault, violence and abuse.
Instructors and organizers provide a great service by bringing our programs to their communities.
Read What it Means to be a KIDPOWER Instructor, by Erika Leonard, Assistant Director of Community Education.
Getting Started
Certified Instructors are required to work under the auspices of an authorized KIDPOWER TEENPOWER FULLPOWER center or to start a center of their own. First check to see if there is a CENTER close to you. For more information about starting a center in a community that does not have one, click here. For more information about the requirements and benefits of becoming a Certified Instructor, please read below. After reading this material, please email us to start the registration process.
Comprehensive Program Trainings
WHAT THE TRAINING COVERS
Our intensive five-day Comprehensive Program Training is an essential part of the process of becoming a Certified Instructor with our organization. This training provides the opportunity for success-based hands-on practice that is individually adapted for each participant. Participants receive both practical and theoretical skills in the following areas:
- Age appropriate skills – including physical practice, verbal skills and boundary setting
- Creating emotional and physical safety
- Group and individual management
- Adapting skills to meet the needs of different groups.
Working with real students helps participants learn, with the support of their trainers, how to teach both individually and in a team. At the end of the training, a plan for each participant’s next steps and follow-up training will be made.
KIDPOWER Comprehensive Program Training
For teaching children and their adults.
January 8th through January 13th, 2009.
Pre-Training Activities: Thursday, January 8th, 1:00pm-5:00pm. A full-force workshop will be held to give participants practice in our system of learning self-defense skills for themselves. In a separate location, anyone being fitted for a padded suit will receive fitting and training during this time.
Training Schedule:
Friday 9:00am-6:00pm
Saturday-Monday 8:30am-6:00pm
Tuesday 8:30am-5:00pm
Application deadline: November 15, 2008
NOTE: We will consider applications submitted after the November 15th deadline on a case-by-case basis.
TEENPOWER/FULLPOWER Comprehensive Program Training
For teaching teens and adults, including people with disabilities.
April 24th through April 29th, 2008
Pre-Training Activities: Thursday, April 24th, 1:00pm-5:00pm. A full-force workshop will be held to give participants practice in our system of learning self-defense skills for themselves. In a separate location, anyone being fitted for a padded suit will receive fitting and training during this time.
Training Schedule:
Friday 9:00am-6:00pm
Saturday-Monday 8:30am-6:00pm
Tuesday 8:30am-5:00pm
Application deadline: March 21st, 2008
NOTE: We will consider applications submitted after the March 21st deadline on a case-by-case basis.
PRE-TRAINING WORKSHOP: We will be doing a full-force FULLPOWER Introductory Workshop for adults from 1:00pm-5:00pm on the Thursday prior to each training. Anyone who has not had this training with our organization needs to plan to attend. We are also encouraging anyone who has not been to an adult training in a long time or who wants a refresher for any reason to join us. We are used to adapting this workshop to meet the needs of people of many different levels of ability. Even if your plans do not include teaching physical self-defense, we have found that having this training increases confidence in teaching all forms of personal safety.
APPLICATION PROCESS: All interested instructor candidates must first apply by sending a non-refundable $50 application fee along with general information about themselves and the reasons they would like to participate in this training program. Before coming to training, instructor candidates need to have been screened, approved and to have signed a training agreement. Instructor candidates MUST be screened before training. Therefore, it is preferable that training candidates apply well before the training dates. Please email us for more information or phone in the United States at (0) 1-831-426-4407.
FULL FORCE PADDED SUIT. Some of our centers offer Full Force Self Defense training with a Padded Instructor wearing a head-to-toe padded suit. This allows another dimension to teaching self-defense, but we have many successful centers that do not yet offer this option. However, padded equipment meeting our safety specifications is necessary for people who wish to be Padded Instructors for teaching Full Force self defense under our auspices. The cost for the whole suit and bag is about $1,400. Once you are accepted for the training, we will put you in direct contact with the expert who makes the equipment.
If you are going to be trained to use the padded full force suit, this suit must be ordered at least two months in advance of the training and you must have an appointment for suit fitting the day before the training program starts.
Comprehensive Program Training Fees and Logistics
The fee for each Comprehensive Program Training for KIDPOWER or for TEENPOWER/FULLPOWER is $1,500 per person plus $95 for the training materials for people who are starting centers in new communities. People who want to train as instructors in already established centers have a lower training fee. If there is a center in your area, please start by contacting that center.
The full cost of the training is $3,000 per person plus materials. However, we provide a heavily subsidized fee for individuals who are accepted into our certified instructor training program because these individuals are making a long-term commitment to being part of our organization. Because KIDPOWER is a nonprofit charitable educational organization, individuals can often obtain donations and grants in their own communities to help cover their costs in bringing services to their communities. Becoming part of our organization has both ongoing benefits and requirements that are described below.
What the Fee Covers:
The $1,500 fee covers pre-training support, the five-day training program itself, preparation of an individualized training plan, and the first year of post-training coaching as you work towards full certification.
During the training, lunch and mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks are included. People make their own arrangements for breakfast and dinner. Many motels and the hostel offer breakfasts and a refrigerator and microwave. You can also buy prepared food at one of many restaurants in the area. You can travel to Santa Cruz by shuttle or rental car. We will help you to make arrangements for a place to stay, but the cost is your responsibility. During the training, you are responsible for your local transportation, but we will help people to coordinate with each other for rides.
Note: After the training, each Center also pays 5% of its gross (before expenses) income as an Organizational Support Fee. If this amount is less than $300 per instructor after the first year of post-training coaching, the Center needs to plan to pay $300 per instructor-in-training or certified instructor for ongoing support with teaching, curriculum, funding development, marketing, and management. In the United States and Canada, Centers offering workshops also need to pay a share of the liability insurance separately once they are offering services.
Why Become Part of Our Organization?
Our vision is to create an international community of leaders, instructors and volunteers who will work together to bring high quality training to as many people as possible. Being part of our organization means that you will be able to teach important safety skills to people in your community with our ongoing support. In addition, you will be part of a professional, committed and supportive international community of leaders who are dedicated to making high quality self-protection and confidence building programs widely accessible, especially to those most in need.
You will also have access to a large pool of knowledge and experience in the form of our board of directors, executive director, assistant directors, center directors, program leaders and experienced instructors.
“The wonderful thing about this organization is that it ‘walks its talk’. The values of the organization are not just words on a piece of paper - everybody actually works really, really hard to uphold them on an organizational and inter-personal level.”
The HOW of what we do is as important to us as WHAT we do, not only with students but with everyone who is part of our organization. Therefore, we are committed to our organization being an honest community and see our work at all levels as being in a constant state of evolution. We work hard to have fair and clear agreements and standards and to uphold them. We are a supportive community in which people are encouraged to do what works well in their lives.
One of our most important values is that we have a safe organization. This means we do our best to ensure the physical and emotional safety of people at all levels of our organization and pro-actively identify and act on problems as soon as possible and anticipate and plan for new challenges.
We think it is crucial to work as a team with each other, with our students, and with other concerned people to bring the best services possible to the most people possible. We welcome people of any age, culture, religion, race, gender, political belief, sexual orientation and identity, marital status, any kind of disability, or income who share our vision and goals and can join us in upholding these values.
Certified Instructor Benefits and Requirements
People from all over the world have participated in our certified instructor program. We are dedicated to maintaining extremely high quality standards and ethics and only certify as instructors people who demonstrate that they can uphold our values and meet our Instructor Certification Standards for the programs they teach under our auspices.
The most important qualities for being a successful instructor are having a good heart, a good head, good emotional and physical health and a deep commitment to making a difference in the world through this work.
People who join our organization have a genuine interest in teaching children, teens and adults how to protect themselves from emotional and physical violence and abuse. They are ready to make a long-term commitment to being part of our organization.
Benefits
- The opportunity to work with a Trainer and/or a Center Director to develop an individualized training plan and ongoing support for your growth as a teacher.
- The opportunity to teach workshops through your Center, often without having to organize them yourself or to have support in setting up a Center in a new community.
- The opportunity to attend the 5-day Comprehensive Program Training at the subsidized fee of USD $1,500 plus a subsidized material fee of $95.
- Ongoing quality supervision and ongoing access to our program development.
- Access to our e-mail list-serve with content updates, articles, recent issues etc.
- The opportunity for further development of your own boundary-setting and personal safety skills.
- Experience in real classes with real students taught by outstanding instructors.
- The opportunity of becoming a better teacher through seeing, learning and practicing our teaching tools.
- Hands-on training in our skills and activities with the opportunity to get coaching by trainers on how to present these effectively.
- Being part of our international organization with permission to use copyrighted materials, programs and program names you are certified to teach; access to new curriculum development and use of our endorsements and references.
- Liability coverage in the USA and Canada.
- Reduced fees for program materials.
- Experience the personal satisfaction of teaching others simple and effective safety skills.
Requirements:
- That you are physically and emotionally healthy enough to do this kind of work, have leadership potential, and uphold high ethical principles.
- That you sign a Training Agreement that commits you to offering our programs only under the auspices of an authorized Center of our organization.
- That you make a consistent commitment to the Mission, Goals, and Values and Instructor Standards of KIDPOWER TEENPOWER FULLPOWER International.
- That you work under the auspices of a certified KIDPOWER TEENPOWER FULLPOWER International Center. This means you are working near and with a current center or you are starting a center of your own. If you move to an area where there is no center, you will need to work with the Central Office to set one up or need to make an agreement with the Central Office about being a traveling instructor under our auspices.
- That you make a commitment to ongoing communication and supervision.
Finally, You Can Learn More...
- Read about our positive and practical approach for teaching personal safety skills to people of all ages and abilities through purchasing one of our resource publications or signing up for our free monthly e-newsletter. Our Comprehensive Program Manuals are now available for purchase by the general public. These manuals have been developed during our over 17 years of teaching thousands of students and training hundreds of instructors.
- Read What it Means to be a KIDPOWER Instructor, by Erika Leonard, Assistant Director of Community Education.
For More Information
If you would like to find out more about the training process, please phone or email us (see below), and please be sure to pass this information on to others who you think might be interested.
