Personal Safety and Self Defense for children, teens and adults.

Serrvices for schools, youth organizations

Services for Schools, Youth Organizations, and Other Community Groups

KIDPOWER:  An Educator’s Perspective on Teaching Child Safety – an article by Head of School Peter S. Lewis, Ph.D.

In KIDPOWER workshops for schools and other organizations serving families and youth, we explain concepts through examples that are meaningful to our participants, practice skills through relevant activities and adapt teaching techniques to the individual needs and life situations of our students.  KIDPOWER focuses on teaching simple, effective skills in short interactive workshops and training educators how to integrate KIDPOWER safety lessons into their curriculum. For a definition and explanation of the tools we provide, please see What Is People Safety?

The KIDPOWER concepts and skills taught include:

• Safety with Feelings and Words – how to protect yourself from hurting words.
• Being Powerful to Be Safe – how to use your body to prevent most trouble before it starts.
• Safety with Touch and Teasing – how to set boundaries with people you know.
• Getting Help to Be Safe – how to make safety plans and be persistent in getting help from busy adults.
• Checking and Thinking First to be Safe – how to check and think first before you change your plan about WHERE you are going, WHAT you are doing, and WHO you are with, including how to be safe with strangers.
• Using People Safety Everywhere You Go  - how to apply People Safety skills to different kinds of problems, including bullying.

Parent/Caregiver Education

This entertaining, active program gives parents and other caregivers the opportunity to learn the KIDPOWER approach for introducing and practicing self-protection skills with young people.  For parents and caregivers of younger children, the program answers the question, “How can we teach our children to be safe without scaring them?”  For parents of older children, the program answers the question, “How can we balance our children’s drive for increasing independence with the need to keep them safe?”  Participants will learn methods to improve both the safety and the quality of their children's interactions with strangers and with people they know. 

Parent-Child Workshop

This workshop introduces the Everyday Safety Skills to young children ages four through eight years old and their adult caregivers.  The KIDPOWER instructor introduces skills through age appropriate stories, games and role plays.   Adults will be coached to practice these skills in role plays with their children during the class and given tools to continue reinforcing skills at home.

Classroom and After-School Programs

Everyday Safety Skills classroom programs give students the opportunity to practice a wide range of safety skills for dealing with strangers, bullies, peers, and trusted adults.  Classroom programs can be set up for grades K-12.  Teachers are required to stay in the classroom and learn along with their students so they can continue to reinforce the KIDPOWER skills throughout the school year. 

Training for Professionals

Training of Professionals workshops prepare teachers, counselors, social workers, law enforcement officials, health care workers, martial artists, youth group leaders and other professionals to integrate the KIDPOWER, TEENPOWER, and/or FULLPOWER Everyday Safety Skills with their own programs and activities.  Trainings can include illustrated curriculum with lesson plans and follow up support from KIDPOWER’s instructors.

Training for professionals can range from one two-hour workshop to two full days of training.  To fully implement the program, we have found it works well to schedule two two-hour trainings, as well as follow up support for staff people by phone or in the classroom.

Other Programs

KIDPOWER also offers after school programs, assembly programs, adapted workshops for individuals with special needs and specific life challenges, and workshops that include physical self-defense skills with a kick  pad or padded instructor.

For more information about our programs contact us at safety@kidpower.org or 800-467-6997.