Many years ago, I had the honor of visiting our New Zealand Centre. At that time, Owen Sanders, manager of the Youth Education Services for the New Zealand Police was skeptical that a personal safety curriculum from the United States would be relevant for New Zealand. I pointed out that our programs had been developed thanks to people from many different countries, including New Zealand, but he was still not convinced.

At the urging of Constable Ian McKitrick, Owen agreed to observe a Kidpower school workshop being taught by Centre Co-Founders and Senior Instructors Cornelia Baumgartner and Martin Hartman. I sat next to Owen and could see that although he was intrigued by how much fun the children were having practicing the skills, he was still resistant. Pointing out that Kidpower is an experiential program, I invited him to play The Tiger Game with me, which is one of the ways that we practice awareness.

Owen crept up behind me and, knowing much more about tigers than I did, gave a realistic portrayal of an attacking tiger, which sounds more like a high-pitched shriek rather than a growl. Even though I was slightly startled, I turned around and got into Ready Position. He pretended to be a tiger creeping back into the jungle and then acknowledged that my showing awareness and confidence had indeed made him feel like stopping the attack.

Cornelia and I then worked with Owen and with their curriculum director Jill Palmer to make Kidpower skills and teaching methods available to New Zealand teachers in a format that complimented their Keeping Ourselves Safe and Kia Kaha abuse and bullying prevention curriculum. The Confident Kids programme is the result of our collaboration.

For many years, the six colorful Confident Kids posters, each illustrating an essential safety skill, and the Teacher’s Guide, describing how to teach these skills, have been used in schools throughout New Zealand.