Press Release — For Immediate Release
July 10, 2009
Kidpower Turns 20, Celebrates With An International Conference
Invites Public To Community Day – Free Workshops
Santa Cruz, CA, July 10, 2009 — The upcoming Kidpower Conference will celebrate 20 years of empowering people of all ages and abilities with skills to build safer lives and healthier relationships. Kidpower is an international grassroots nonprofit organization founded in Santa Cruz that now reaches around the world, with centers across the US and Canada as well as in Lebanon, India, New Zealand, Sweden, Ghana, and Mexico.
On Sunday July 26, 2009, Kidpower is inviting the public to participate in the Community Day, which features workshops by several well-known speakers whose expertise has played a major role in making Kidpower a leader in the personal safety field.
Kidpower’s Founding Board President Ellen Bass, award-winning poet and co-author of the groundbreaking book The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, as well as Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth – and Their Allies, and Lillian Roybal-Rose, internationally known expert in cross-cultural communication, will be among the presenters at Kidpower International’s 20 Year Anniversary Conference. The event will be held at the Monte Toyon Conference Center in Aptos, California, at 220 Cloister Lane, 95003.
Workshops on Community Day include It’s Not That Hard – The Simple Art of Writing a Story with Ellen Bass; Cross-Cultural Communications with Lillian Roybal-Rose; Sculpting and Songs to Build Power with singer and entertainer Peter Alsop, PhD; Child Management – The Kidpower Way with Erika Leonard; and Teaching Relationship Safety to Teens and Adults with Irene van der Zande. The $100 fee includes all presentations, and breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Kidpower’s organizational structure represents a successful model of global collaboration, with people working at the local, grassroots level training members of their respective communities. Former Board President Nancy Driscoll says, “Safety is a fundamental right, not a privilege. Our vision is to work together to create cultures of respect and caring for everyone, including those with special needs.”
Kidpower’s innovative and acclaimed services have developed through input and leadership from experts in education, child development, crisis prevention, psychology, health care, law enforcement, and communication. Kidpower stands out in the personal safety field not just because of its content, but because of its unique, positive method, making powerful skills accessible to girls and boys, women and men, of different backgrounds, cultures, and abilities.
“Our goal is to build our students’ skills to make the safest, wisest decisions for themselves in their everyday lives,” says Irene van der Zande, Executive Director and Co-Founder. “Even in very challenging or dangerous life situations, people have the power to make choices that can prepare them to protect themselves from harm and to take charge of their well-being. Kidpower teaches them how to use that power.”
To register, contact Kidpower at 426-4407 Extension 1# or safety@kidpower.org.
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