Kidpower’s age-appropriate, effective and empowering approach to teaching child protection, positive communication and interpersonal safety skills could save their lives.
In these stressful times, it’s nice to know there is an effective program to help kids and their adults learn methods of staying safe and secure in the world.
Kidpower Safety & Self Defense workshops teach children from ages 6-12 valuable, lifesaving skills that they will retain for the rest of their lives.
This year, Peter Alsop, an award-winning singer/songwriter, lecturer, and humorist, as well as an accomplished educator, actor, producer, writer, and film director, will coordinate the workshop on Sunday, Feb.17, from 1 to 5 p.m., at Corazón Performing Arts in Topanga. Alsop, who received a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology from Columbia University Teachers College, and a Ph.D. from Columbia Pacific University in California. He participated in the workshop with his two daughters, Megan and Willow when they were children.
According to its website, Kidpower (kidpower.org) has been around since 1989, “providing skills-based ‘People Safety’ education and resources for children, teens, and adults of all abilities to stop abuse, bullying, abduction, and other violence, while building skills for healthy relationships.” More than 95 percent of Kidpower workshops are coordinated by teachers, social service providers, business owners, scout troop leaders, or parents.
“This really helped me as a parent,” Alsop said. “I was of two minds when I started, angry that we have to teach this to our children, and lifted that my daughter felt so empowered and confident.
I felt much more comfortable when the kids knew how to take care of themselves. When they knew to stay out of unsafe places, we let them have more freedom. It lent itself to more openness about what they were doing and what was going on. We can’t protect our kids from all this stuff without giving them skills to protect themselves; that is why the program is so important.”
Alsop referred to a recent attempted kidnapping in Calabasas and the shocking kidnapping of 13-year-old Jayme Closs in Wisconsin, who was recently found safe.
“One in three young women are sexually abused before the age of 18,” Alsop cited. “One in five young men are abused before they are 18. Those figures are not changing much; I’ve heard them for years and years and years.”
Now, years after his own, now adult daughters learned Kidpower, Alsop looks forward to having his own grandchildren, Quinnlyn, 9 and Leon, 7, participate in the upcoming February workshop.
“It’s a gift that is going to give back to kids throughout their lives,” Alsop said. “This is important, we need to pass this on to the next generation.”
Kidpower, Teenpower, Fullpower International is a global nonprofit leader dedicated to providing effective and empowering child protection, positive communication, and personal safety skills for all ages and abilities.
Since 1989, we have served more than five million children, teenagers, and adults, including those with disabilities, locally and around the world through in-person workshops, educational resources, and partnerships.
“In the greater San Francisco Bay area, every year we work with hundreds of public and private schools, organizations serving people with difficult life challenges, and families,” writes Ellen Frankel, M.S.W., Kidpower California Lead Program Coordinator. “We give our students the opportunity for successful practice of ‘People Safety’ skills in ways that help prepare them to develop healthy relationships, increase their confidence, take charge of their emotional and physical safety and act safely and respectfully towards others.”
KIDPOWER WORKSHOP SIGN-UP
The workshop is for children, ages 6-12, who may bring two adults each. Cost is $165 per child. Space is limited and registration is required. To register, call Peter Alsop at (310) 428-0504; or email Peter@peteralsop.com.
The Kidpower workshop will take place on Sunday, February 17, 1-5 p.m., at Corazón Performing Arts Center, 125 S. Topanga Canyon Blvd. (next to Rocco’s Italian Restaurant)
VIDEO LINKS My Body—A short video of a Kidpower workshop held at the Theatricum Botanicum with the late John Ritter. To watch the full video, Wake-Up.
