Personal Safety and Self Defense for children, teens and adults.
Services for seniors and older adults.
SENIORPOWER for Older Adults
As we get older, we sometimes find that life changes can affect our sense of safety and our quality of life.
“When my husband died, I realized how vulnerable I felt going out alone. I had felt safe when
we were together, but I stopped going out as much when he died because I didn’t feel safe. This workshop gave my freedom back.”
SENIORPOWER workshops for older adults are designed to give participants skills that will help them feel safe while living life to the fullest. As people get older, they often experience emotional and physical changes. Participants have a chance to apply their strengths and learn new skills in a context that is safe, success-based and relevant to their current life situations.
Workshops include opportunities to practice skills to:
- Demonstrate awareness and confidence
- Advocate for themselves with friends, family, and people in positions of authority
- Avoid being targeted as a potential victim
- Set boundaries that are clear, firm, and polite
- Stay safe from verbal attack
- Address worries about safety during a home invasion
- Use their voices and their bodies to protect themselves if someone is being threatening
Workshops can include full force self-defense skills practice with a padded instructor, a segment that can be modified as needed so that participants can practice the skills with no impact to their own vulnerable joints, muscles, or bones.
SENIORPOWER workshops are short, one-time programs sponsored by organizations serving the elderly. We are very committed to working with staff and volunteers in agencies as well as participants. Our goal is to have the boundary-setting and self-protection skills we teach become part of the standard practices of social service agencies serving the elderly so that they can keep helping people learn these skills after our training is over.
"I am 78 and in relatively good health. Regardless of age or physical limitations, no one should ever have to be a victim."
"I was brought up in a world where nice women didn't raise their voices. I used to have nightmares where I was being attacked and couldn't make a sound. I am glad to know that I can yell when I need to."
"I am 66 years old with a disability and I learned how to use my body to knock down an assailant. I am still very careful about where I go, but now I know that I can take care of myself."
“I am in my late 70’s. Late one night I had a family emergency and found myself with car trouble in a bad neighborhood. The attendant in her bulletproof cubicle at the all-night gas station said that I had to use the telephone across the parking lot. Two carloads of men who were drunk or high on drugs started circling me and saying terrible things. If I had not taken SENIORPOWER, I would have collapsed and cried and surely been hurt. But I did just what we practiced in class. I put my hands up and yelled “STOP RIGHT THERE!” To my surprise, the men stopped. Then I yelled at them to get back in the car and yelled at the gas station attendant to call 911. When the men saw her pick up the phone, they raced off and I was safe!”
