Organizational Background

KIDPOWER•TEENPOWER•FULLPOWER International is a community-based, nonprofit organization founded in Santa Cruz, California, in 1989. Our success-based prevention programs have been created with the help of experts in education, mental health, child development, martial arts, rape crisis intervention, child safety, and law enforcement.

ORIGINS AND LEADERSHIP

In collaboration with many other committed individuals, Executive Director/Co-Founder Irene van der Zande has led the development of services, training of instructors, creation of curriculum and written materials, and organization of centers since KIDPOWER started. The incident that inspired KIDPOWER happened in 1986 in Santa Cruz, California when Irene protected 8 young children, including her 7-year-old daughter and her 4-year-old son, from a man who was threatening to kidnap them. With her expertise in nonprofit organizational management and child development, Irene gathered educators, law enforcement officials, mental health professionals, martial artists, safety experts, and parents to establish KIDPOWER.

Ellen Bass, co-author of the ground-breaking book, The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse is the Founding President of the Board of Directors. Timothy Dunphy, a sixth degree Black Belt and international champion in Taekwondo, is the other Co-Founder. Hundreds of highly dedicated and talented people teach our programs, organize our workshops, lead our centers and serve on our Boards of Directors. These individuals are leaders in their own communities. They include social workers, attorneys, therapists, martial artists, educators, physicians, police officers, and business people.

KIDPOWER’S FULL FORCE ROOTS

After the incident that brought her into this work, Irene wanted to know more about how to defend her children. She had successfully stopped the man threatening her children by yelling and by ordering a bystander to help, but she kept worrying, “What if he had knocked me down?”  To answer this question, Irene took the Model Mugging Women’s Self Defense Course originated by Matt Thomas. This program had a head to toe padded instructor so that students could really hit and really kick as part of their training. Irene was impressed with the results, not only in her self defense skills, but also in her overall confidence.

Irene’s background was in nonprofit organization management and in child development. Because she wanted to make sure that there would be a class available when her daughter was old enough to take one, Irene became President of the Board of Directors of a nonprofit organization that was going to spread Model Mugging worldwide. She facilitated many meetings between the co-founders of Model Mugging and helped with the further development of their system. Eventually it became clear that people in Model Mugging needed to do their work separately rather than together.

Irene then went on to co-found two other nonprofit organizations in 1989 called KIDPOWER and The IMPACT Foundation. During the time she was leading the development of KIDPOWER and TEENPOWER, Irene also co-led international instructor training programs teaching adult women through IMPACT Self Defense for five years in Los Angeles. IMPACT eventually became a loose association of chapters of for-profit and non-profit groups that share ideas and information.

KIDPOWER’s full name is now KIDPOWER TEENPOWER FULLPOWER International. The mission is to help people of all ages, abilities, and walks of life learn to stay safe, act wisely and believe in themselves. The international organization provides ongoing local center support, program development, instructor training, and quality control.

As a result of Irene’s history with this work, the physical self defense background of KIDPOWER is linked to Model Mugging and to IMPACT Self Defense. Full force self defense programs using the head to toe padded instructors are now called by many names around the world. Most have their roots in Model Mugging and draw from many of the same skills and strategies. However, KIDPOWER has developed its own unique approach and emphasis in teaching safety and self defense. Our services are highly recommended for being extremely upbeat, effective, designed to be emotionally and physically safe, hands-on, and tailored to the ages and life situations of our students.

INTERNATIONAL CENTERS

The Main Office provides support for over affiliated 20 centers and offices in the United States, Canada, Europe, and New Zealand and conducts direct services throughout California. In addition, KIDPOWER collaborates with other agencies to increase accessibility of our positive and practical approach to teaching personal safety skills. In our pilot Confident Kids program with the Youth Education Services of the national New Zealand police, KIDPOWER skills are being introduced in public schools throughout New Zealand. In collaboration with a psychologist working with AMAL in Pakistan, we are reaching out to organizations around the world serving children living and/or working on the streets. KIDPOWER has trained more than 150,000 people worldwide. Our students report using their skills in a positive way on a daily basis.  Many have defended themselves successfully from real-life assaults. They tell us that our training has dramatically improved the quality of their lives.

CANADIAN CENTERS

There are two centers in Canada, in Vancouver and Montreal. A Vancouver office was originally established in 1995, but the center had not been active for some time until recently. KIDPOWER Vancouver was reactivated with a new Center Director in November 2003 and has been conducting workshops since May 2004.  The Montreal center has status as a recognized charity with revenue Canada. The Vancouver center is recognized as a Non Profit Society in the province of British Columbia and is in the process of applying for status as a recognized charity.