Self-Defense Stories

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I'm Prepared  
I was sleeping on the pullout couch at a cousin's and having a nightmare about being attacked. In my dream (and in real life) I put my hands up and yelled "NO" really loud—loud enough to wake myself up—as I brought my leg up to hit the couch's armrest in the 'groin.' Thanks for the reminder that even if I'm fully asleep, I'm prepared. :) Terin

Words Work 
A  man attempted to crawl in my window.  Thanks to the skills learned through IMPACT, I was able to verbally thwart him. Melissa

When Words Are Not Enough Sometime after completing the IMPACT for Girls program, I was  with my 8 family members returning from a New Year’s Eve party and going through a big crowd, I felt someone place a hand between my legs. I followed the arm up and looked at the stranger. He was bold enough to keep standing in front of me, not expecting me to do anything. “No, that’s not happening!” I  yelled.  I struck him and he fell into the crowd.  Angie

Tweets

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Self-Defense News

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Self-Defense Training Prevents Sexual Assault

Self-defense training cut risk of rape nearly 50%. Senn and colleagues New England Journal of Medicine 2015

Self-Defense Training: More Confidence & Fewer Sexual Assaults

Women who participate in self-defense training are less likely to experience sexual assault and are more confident in their ability to effectively resist assault than similar women who have not taken such a class. Hollander Violence Against Women 2014

Young Men Stop Rape in Kenya

After training in a gender-violence prevention program, Kenyan boys and young men were three times more likely than their untrained classmates to report that they’d successfully intervened to prevent an assault on girls or women. Keller and colleagues Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2015.