be aware
Your girl needs to be able to instantly “see” whether a man is good or bad. The only way to teach her is to show her how each type of man behaves around girls. We help her use her eyes, her ears, and her intuition to instantly identify a good or bad man and give her tools to make good decisions.
Avoid or Assert
Using her new awareness skills, she has increased her safety by 90%. Now she needs to be given permission to say (assertiveness techniques) and do (avoidance techniques) anything necessary to ensure her safety or to reframe the situation to her advantage. It’s about being proactive.
Fight (If You Must)
Sometimes a girl is surprised and finds herself in a bad situation. She has seconds to cause surprise and to aid in an escape. Fighting is an option and she must have gross motor skills to use her hands, arms, legs and feet as weapons. We give her options to practice if she chooses resistance.
escape (A.S.A.P.)
A girl is most safe when she is aware of her surroundings, recognizes bad behavior and avoids the bad situation completely. We prefer she not have to fight. She will be shown and given time to practice getting help from good people and forcing them to help her in an emergency.
I was a cop for 31 years, and one of the worst things I had to do in my 30 year police career was knock on doors asking, “There is a little girl missing. Did you see her walking down this street yesterday?” It haunted me. Then a short time later, in another state, a news bulletin showed a young girl being approached by a predator, threatened and taken away. Fearing for my girls, I read Protecting the Gift by Gavin DeBecker. He stated that kids needed to know how to be assertive, and that in doing so, they were less of a target for child predators. Yet, he didn’t tell us how to do it. My wife Annmarie, teacher of 20 years, and I put our heads together and created programs teaching both kids and parents how to spot bad people, become assertive, and fight back if necessary. Pulling from my police training background, and Annmarie’s teaching experience we created a program that was safe for the mind, good for the body, and teaches girls how to never become a victim or survivor of abuse.