Instructor Candidates begin teaching using the Kidpower Teaching Kits
Kidpower Instructor Training Program
Kidpower Comprehensive Program Training for Teaching Children and Their Adults – APPLY NOW– More information
We're ALWAYS looking for people who are interested in becoming Kidpower instructors! The training fee for people from currently active Centers is significantly less, so please your local Center for more information. Our goal is to provide high quality training to everyone, especially those most at risk of bullying, violence, or abuse.
People who join us 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.
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. If not, we have more information about starting a new center, and we’d love to help.
What is the path to becoming a certified Kidpower instructor?
- The application phase, when we consider and interview applicants. Outstanding instructors are the heart of our program and our future, so we invest significant time and resources in our Candidates from the moment we agree to work together. This means we can welcome a limited number and so are careful to select applicants who are motivated to do this work and who demonstrate the commitment and the ability to uphold our mission, goals, and values.
- The pre-training phase, when accepted Candidates prepare for the training by studying the program manual and workshop videos; by assisting in workshops where possible; and by identifying community connections they can build upon to create fieldwork practice teaching opportunities when they return home for the Supervised Fieldwork phase.
- The Comprehensive Program Training (CPT) Programs. We lead two CPT programs each year, Kidpower and Teenpower/Fullpower. Each CPT program is six days long and is held in Santa Cruz, California.
- Supervised Fieldwork, when Candidates gain experience teaching parts of program. This may include presenting in scheduled workshops but primarily includes leading short practice sessions the Candidate arranges in supportive environments, such as local schools and parent groups, with close guidance and supervision from a trainer. The Supervised Fieldwork phase includes video review and leads to gradual authorization to teach in different settings.
- Certification as a new instructor. The Candidate is certified to teach specific workshops as an Instructor as long as class plans are reviewed prior to teaching and workshops are evaluated afterwards with the Center Director or Trainer.
"The path of becoming and being a Kidpower instructor has been, for me, deeply rewarding. Strangely enough, having so clearly and proudly defined myself as a school teacher and a mother, I almost missed it altogether. Stretching my mind to imagine myself doing this kind of work felt scary because it was unusual. But I found when I stretched, I learned that Kidpower instructors don't look any one way."
Kidpower Instructor
Comprehensive Program Training
Our intensive, six-day Comprehensive Program Training (CPT) is a required step on the path to becoming a Certified Instructor. Like all Kidpower programs at every level, CPT is experiential, success-based, and individually adapted for each Candidate. Candidates have extensive, supported practice opportunities to build both practical and theoretical skills in the following areas:
- The Kidpower ‘People Safety’ Skill Set, including boundary setting, verbal skills, stranger safety, and physical self-defense
- Fullpower skills, to deepen understanding of the relevance of these skills for adults as well as for children
- Kidpower Positive Practice Methodology, and approach that can increase effectiveness in other areas of instruction as well
- Classroom management as well as individual student management skills
- Adapting and tailoring to address special needs of a group or an individual
- Public speaking and interactive presentation skills
- Team teaching and cooperative leadership
Candidates get in-the-moment coaching and support as they integrate all these skills through hands-on work with real students and their parents and teachers.
Kidpower Comprehensive Program Training
For teaching children and their adults.
Training dates for 2011 are Friday, January 21st through Tuesday, January 25th.
Pre-Training Activities: Thursday, January 20th prior to training.
Training Schedule:
Friday 9:00am-4:00pm
Saturday-Monday 8:30am-6:00pm
Tuesday 8:30am-5:00pm
Application Deadline: November 15, 2010
Teenpower/Fullpower Comprehensive Program Training
For teaching teens and adults, including people with disabilities.
When: Next training April 2011specific dates coming soon
How to Apply
All Applicants must follow this application process:
- Indicate interest and read all information carefully.
- Review the Certified Instructor and Center Director Qualifications.
- Answer screening questions and arrange an interview with the Training Coordinator to determine if applying to the training program is a good fit.
- Fill out an application form and pay a non-refundable $50 application fee by credit card, money order, or check. Checks should be made out to Kidpower and sent with the application to Kidpower, P.O. Box 1212, Santa Cruz, CA 95061
- Applicants selected as candidates are required to sign agreements prior to commencing training, and a limited number of candidates will be accepted. We recommend applying as early as possible.
Please email us for more information or phone (0) 1-831-426-4407 extension 1#.
Fees and Logistics
The fee for each six-day 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.
The $1,500 fee covers pre-training support, the six-day training program itself, preparation of an individualized Supervised Fieldwork plan, and the first year of Supervised Fieldwork coaching as you work towards full certification.
Certified Instructor Benefits
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.
Benefits
- Kidpower invests in each selected Candidate. Each Candidate has the capacity strengthen our organization and our ability to help others, and we pay for their participation. The $1,595 cost is a 50% fee that reflects Kidpower’s equivalent investment in the Candidate.
- You have the opportunity to work with a Trainer and/or a Center Director to develop an individualized training plan and receive ongoing professional growth support
- As an instructor, you have 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
- You’ll have quality supervision and ongoing access to our program development
- You’ll be welcomed onto our e-mail list-serve connecting Kidpower instructors and board members worldwide with discussion on content updates, articles, recent issues
- You will have the opportunity for further development of your own boundary-setting and personal safety skills
- You will get experience in real classes with real students taught by outstanding instructors
- You’ll strengthen your teaching skills through seeing, learning and practicing our teaching tools
- You will have hands-on training in our skills and activities with the opportunity to get coaching by trainers on how to present these effectively
- You will become 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
- While leading Kidpower, you will be covered under our liability coverage in the USA and Canada
- You will pay reduced fees for program materials
- You’ll have the personal satisfaction of teaching others simple and effective safety skills
For More Information
- Read about our positive and practical approach for teaching personal safety skills to people of all ages and abilities by buying one of our resource publications or signing up for our free e-newsletter. Our Comprehensive Program Manuals are now available for purchase by the general public. These manuals have been developed during our over 20 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
- If you would like to find out more about the training process, please phone or email us, and please be sure to pass this information on to others who you think might be interested.