ABOUT US

Emerging Strategies is a 501 (c)(3) not for profit organization founded in 2001.  We have significant accomplishments in our first 6 years of operation.  Emerging Strategies has delivered 8 young teen personal safety classes and 11 older teen and adult personal safety classes as well as awarded over 30 individual scholarships.

Mission Statement
Our mission is to provide personal safety and anti-bias education and to evaluate curricula and teaching methods.

Objectives
Our goal is to work with children and teens as well as their educators and service providers. We will fulfill this vision through education, program evaluation, and curricula development in the fields of violence prevention, recovery from trauma, and anti-bias education.

  • Powerful Communication
    Students learn and rehearse confident, powerful body language, tone of voice and facial expression so they can advocate for themselves and for others.
  • Awareness and Avoidance
    Students learn street smarts to recognize and avoid potentially dangerous situations: how to read and respond to subtle cues and pre-incident indicators and how to use verbal and psychological strategies to enforce boundaries with strangers.  Students learn how to identify and articulate their feelings and limits with familiars: stop unwelcome touch or attention, deflect peer pressure and reduce inappropriate risk taking, and deal effectively with bullies and bias.
  • Physical Skills
    Students learn how to recognize the stages of progressive boundary violations and use self defense strategies to enforce boundaries and prevent an assault.

This education is delivered in short term training which has an immediate and sustainable impact.  It is not just cognitive, but experiential education, which goes beyond information and actually changes behavior.

These three skill sets dramatically reduce vulnerabilities to boundary violations, bullying and bias, and violence that arise because of age, gender, social and emotional stages of development.  These vulnerabilities are heightened by poverty and lack of other resources.  For example, being witness to or being the victim of violence, or having other traumatic experiences interferes with daily life in ways we take for granted – the ability to be attentive at school, have hope and perseverance, form satisfying and healthy relationships and the ability to accurately perceive and appropriately respond to, in appropriate behavior and language.

We focus our efforts on underserved communities and those who have experienced traumatic events because of the likelihood these crucial skills would not be accessible if we did not come to them.  There is no cost to those who participate in our programs.

 

CURRICULUM

Personal Safety/Anti-Bias Education 
Our workshops are designed to empower students and enhance their personal safety. Skills are taught using real life scenarios that recreate the types of challenges that children and teenagers are likely to encounter. Scenarios include street crime, bullying, teasing, peer pressure, social cruelty, relationships, and unwelcome attention.

Our approach to education emphasizes better communication skills as the foundation for personal safety. Students learn how to recognize and protect their emotional and physical integrity by practicing communication skills to express difficult thoughts and feelings. Students learn through success and gain confidence in their ability to handle themselves in challenging situations.

Teaching Communication Skills, Assertiveness and Physical Self Defense Strategies
Our hands-on approach emphasizes practice in realistic role-playing scenarios.  By rehearsing in a safe environment, students experience what it feels like to stand up for themselves and others in a wide variety of uncomfortable situations. They become comfortable and adept at saying, “No” when they mean no and saying, “Yes” when they mean yes. 

Physical Boundaries with Strangers
Students learn to:

  • recognize danger from a distance
  • use street-smart behavior, body language, and awareness to avoid being targeted for assault
  • verbally and physically enforce boundaries
  • deal with bullies and hate crimes

Physical and Emotional Boundaries with People We Know
Students learn to:

  • recognize the stages of progressive boundary violation that can result in acquaintance rape
  • deal with peer pressure, drug use, and inappropriate risk taking
  • identify what verbal and physical options are successful in stopping an assault
  • take preventative measures and apply commonsense rules

Transforming the Community through Allied Behavior
Walk the Talk Workshops provides training to all community members to support a caring and inclusive culture.  Walk the Talk participants learn to speak up and take action against bias, social cruelty, bullying, and exclusion. The Walk the Talk curriculum focuses on:

  • SELF AWARENESS and the cultivation of a positive self-concept and group identity
  • CRITICAL THINKING about bias and stereotypes and their impact on relationships and communities
  • SKILLS to set boundaries and communicate powerfully and respectfully
  • COURAGE to address social cruelty and exclusion and to advocate for each other as allies in creating a caring and inclusive culture.