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Having fun rehearsing how to turn problems into successful practices. With joy and compassion, Institute participants develop skills and strategies in how to advocate for the well being of young people and teach them how to be safe with people.
We are honored by the many positive responses to our Skills for Child Protection Advocates Training Institute and excited to let you know that we are offering three sessions of our 3-Day Institute over the summer and fall of this year – in three locations: California, North Carolina and Montreal!
Our Kidpower Skills for Child Protection Advocates Training Institute is a unique training, focused on hands-on, positive actions adults can practice and take back to their communities to protect and empower young people with proven skills to prevent abuse, bullying and violence – while also improving and building healthy relationships.
This is also a very special opportunity for people outside of the Kidpower Instructor community to train directly with Irene van der Zande, Kidpower’s founder and executive director, supported by experienced local Kidpower trainers, learning how to apply her “Problems into Practices” method to your own life and work.
“With three days of learning, role plays, customized practices, and ongoing support, Irene is a master at both teaching personal safety skills and helping others apply them to the situations they find themselves in,” says Kidpower North Carolina co-director, Dr. Amy Tiemann, PhD., who will be hosting and co-facilitating an Institute this fall. “Whatever challenges someone throws her way, Irene can come up with a constructive solution. She puts this all together in a way that helps transmit Kidpower skills to others, to take back to their own communities.”
Who should take this training? It is clearly beneficial for school teachers and administrators, therapists, parents, and anyone who works directly with children.
So far, an amazing variety of people have attended, traveling sometimes great distances to participate: a social worker from Singapore, a researcher in traumatic brain injuries from Seattle, 3 staff members from a Bay Area housing shelter, a therapist from Minnesota, a Red Cross trainer from Nepal, a mom from San Francisco, a psychologist from Guatemala, a US youth sports organization training director, a college professor from Vietnam, an airport security expert from France, the director an educational institution helping young girls get off the streets in India, and martial arts instructors from DC, New Zealand and Australia.
The Kidpower Child Protection Advocates Institute was developed to create a substantial, significant professional development training for people who want to really learn the Kidpower “Turning Problems into Positive Practice” Teaching Method and apply this knowledge, without undergoing the extensive process of becoming a certified Kidpower Instructor or opening a Kidpower Training Center.
Therefore this training is perfect for professionals in the fields of education, social work, health care, law enforcement or human relations, and it is open to parents and other caring adults as well.
2015 Institutes will be held in the following locations:
1. California, near San Francisco, on August 10, 11, and 12 at the California Orientation Center for the Blind in Albany (East Bay).
2. North Carolina on October 5, 6, and 7, at the Redwoods Group training center, Morrisville, North Carolina – near the Raleigh-Durham International airport (RDU).
3. Montreal, Quebec in October (dates – TBD) – French language.
Learn more about the training, register online and see photos and quotes from participants on our Child Protection Advocates Institute webpage.
To inquire about attending a Kidpower Child Protection Advocates Training Institute – or to organize this one-of-a-kind, 3-day professional training for your organization or in your community, please email safety@kidpower.org.
Published: April 8, 2015 | Last Updated: April 8, 2015
Beth McGreevy
Beth (she/her/hers) is the Web Communications Director and a Senior Program Leader for Kidpower International. She is a former journalist, now writing & editing coach, business technology and strategy consultant, child protection and gender inclusion advocate, and has been a Kidpower instructor (for all-ages) since 1992.
