Bridges to People Safety

Practicing Stop Power

Through our Fullpower, Teenpower, and Kidpower programs, we have been serving adults, teens, and children with special needs and their families since our organization began in 1989.

Our Bridges to People Safety initiatives include a number of projects to “bridge” the gaps between what we currently offer and adaptations that have been requested by different groups with specific concerns. Our goal is to give families, teachers, and other professionals tools to make the teaching and support of emotional and physical safety skills an ongoing part of the daily lives of adults, teens, and children who have developmental delays, physical disabilities, or other difficult life challenges.

Each of these projects has grown out of requests from our work with organizations and schools serving people with developmental delays, physical disabilities, and other special needs, and their families. They have found our program and materials to be very effective, but have asked for more training and support materials for easier integration of the skills we teach.

Current Bridges to People Safety Initiatives

Comments From Local Professionals Serving People With Disabilities

Sampling of Collaborative Partners Serving People With Disabilities

Kidpower’s International Safety Signs

Current Bridges to People Safety Initiatives

Bridges to People Safety for Individuals With Limited Speech.Thanks to a three-year grant from the Special Hope Foundation, this initiative is developing, field-testing, and making widely available a new approach, new materials, and training for educators, other professionals, and family members who want to teach Kidpower’s success-based violence prevention and intervention skill building to individuals with developmental delays who don’t speak at all or who use very few words to communicate.  See Kidpower’s International Safety Signs for materials now available.

Bridges to People Safety for Children Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. We are currently a member of the national committee for the OUR Children project, which is a child abuse prevention program sponsored by Hands and Voices. We have been providing materials and consultation to help with the development of this program.

Bridges to People Safety to Prevent Domestic Violence. Thanks to a grant from Verizon Wireless, we have created a Relationship Safety Handbook showing how to use “People Safety” skills to prevent and stop interpersonal violence. We are seeking funding for an extensive pilot program to provide training to integrate the teaching of these skills and concepts into the practices of shelters, organizations, and law enforcement agencies.

Bridges to People Safety to Build Independence for Adults With Developmental Delays. This initiative provides effective ‘People Safety’ life skill building to people with developmental disabilities, and their support network in collaboration with HOPE Services. HOPE provides a full range of integrated social services that address the evolving and lifelong needs of individuals with developmental disabilities, including community living, community employment, community-based day and work activities, all designed to help people with developmental disabilities participate fully in their communities.

This project will equip people with developmental disabilities at HOPE with the tools and skills to navigate effectively and safely in these arenas and will provide HOPE staff with professional training and individual coaching to teach these skills to their clients on their own on an ongoing basis.

Bridges to People Safety for Families with Special Needs. This initiative provides a unique and powerful form of experiential success-based intervention training. Families learn how to use People Safety skill building practices to help prevent social-emotional behaviors that can negatively impact interpersonal relationships and/or personal safety for children with disabilities; their families; and program staff.

Bridges to People Safety for Individuals with Autism/Aspberger’s. We are currently conducting pilot workshops to further adapt our curriculum for this very vulnerable group.

Bridges to Health Care to Improve Health Care Access for People with Disabilities. This initiative is aimed at improving health care access for people with disabilities including those with autism-spectrum behaviors, and their support networks. This project will help to improve their social-emotional ‘People Safety’ skill sets necessary for effectively accessing and interacting with health resources and the world around them. It has been designed to equip them with tools and skills to address disparities in health care access and interaction, as well as managing risks such as getting to and from healthcare facilities safely using public transit, dealing with harassment, getting help, etc.

Bridges to People Safety for Youth in Danger.This initiative shows professionals from NGOs in developing countries how to adapt the Kidpower system of teaching People Safety skills to help youth in danger. Our goal is to help prevent violence and abuse against young people who are living and/or working on the street, who are being exploited because of economic vulnerability, or whose communities have been disrupted by war or natural disaster.

Comments From Local Professionals Serving People With Disabilities

“Kidpower ‘People Safety’ skills are absolutely crucial for the well-being of our consumers, who face a much higher risk of bullying, abuse, and other forms of violence due to their special needs.”
~ Mitchell Eckstein, CCS Social Worker, San Mateo County Health Department

“The Kidpower program far exceeds other programs we have reviewed because it presents real situations to students and allows the positive experience of how to deal with them successfully…The benefits of the training are immense. We have received tremendous positive feedback from our staff and have been delighted with the widespread results we have already seen.”
~ Hal Ledbetter, Senior Director, Special Education, Santa Cruz County Office of Education

“From our different perspectives as a public school special education teacher and an administrator working with students with severe, multiple disabilities, we’d like to express our enthusiastic support for the Kidpower program!”
~ Barbara Berman, Principal, & Eloise Lovelace, Teacher, Contra Costa County Office of Education

“As many of our clients are seniors, and all are visually impaired, fighting the fear that can come along with frailty and disability is a daily challenge. Your workshops spoke directly to that challenge and assisted our clients in feeling stronger and more confident in themselves and their ability to enjoy the surrounding world safely.”
~ Sarah Conner, Education/Recreation, Santa Clara Valley Blind Center

“I felt confident that [Kidpower] understood our population and would address their needs. I was not disappointed…Everyone felt positive, appreciated, and empowered.”
~ Flora Kupferman, Special Education Consultant, Bureau of Jewish Education

“I have seen firsthand how Kidpower’s distinctive training method brings about significant, positive, and practical change, both in the skills of our clients as well as in the skills of our staff supporting them.”
~ Diane Smith, Associate Director, Kainos Home & Training Center

“If I were asked to come up with one example of an extremely successful, meaningful, relevant, engaging, and fun workshop, the first thing that would come to mind would be the Kidpower workshop…Every person deserves the right to be able to wake up in the morning and have the confidence that he/she will be safe in their environment. I believe the Kidpower workshop gave them the skills to feel this confidence.”
~ Lisa Halperin, Supervising Therapist, Alameda County CCS

“Programs like yours play a valuable role in providing organizations such as DCARA with important information which will benefit the communities we serve…We were able to gain both the knowledge and practice of various concepts of personal safety and self-protection which can then be shared with the deaf and hard of hearing community.”
~ LaRonda Zupp, Program Manager, Deaf Counseling, Advocacy, & Referral Agency

“[Kidpower] makes it obvious that everyone can take control of a situation no matter the difficulties they face or the disabilities they have…. Their diverse ability to work with not only our staff but with our clients is well shows the strong foundation their program is build on and the effectiveness of the tools they use to teach.”
~ Soheila Razban, Director of Adult Services, Abilities United

“Kidpower’s skills and methodology are particularly relevant for Hope staff and consumers, who deserve these skills both to keep themselves safe from violence and abuse and also to communicate clearly and effectively to build the strongest possible relationships in the workplace, at home, and with peers.”
~ Lori Arnberg, Director, Central District, Hope Services

Sampling of Local Collaborative Partners

Abilities United (formerly CAR)
Achievekids Palo Alto
Alameda County Unified School District – Special Education
Albany Unified Special Education/Adaptive PE
Aptos Middle School, San Francisco – deaf/HOH and DD
Berkeley Center for Independent Living
Berkeley High School
Berkeley Unified Deaf/HOH program at John Muir Elementary
Bay Area People First **
Bureau of Jewish Education
California Children’s Services **
California Orientation for the Blind/State Department of Rehabilitation
California School for the Blind
Castro Valley Adult School
Central Coast Center for Independent Living
Children’s Hospital Oakland
Community Gatepath
Community Resources for Independent Living
Contra Costa County Office of Education
Contra Costa Interfaith Housing
Deaf Counseling, Advocacy, and Referral Center
Down Syndrome Connection
Fred Finch Youth Center
Friends of Children with Special Needs
Hatlen Center for the Blind (formerly Living Skills Center for the Visually Impaired)
Hayward Adult School
Hope Services
Jeena
Kainos
La Tercera Elementary, Petaluma
Learning Links Preschool
Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired
National Institute for Art and Disabilities
New Haven Unified School District
Oakland Unified School District
Palo Alto Unified School District
Parents Helping Parents
Park Middle School, Antioch
Salinas Adult School
San Andreas Regional Center
Santa Clara Valley Blind Center
Santa Cruz County Office of Education Special Education Program
Soquel High School Post Senior Program
Support for Families of Children with Disabilities
Through the Looking Glass
West Contra Costa Unified School District’s Deaf/HOH program at Harding Elementary