Under current professional requirements, all Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW) must earn 30 continuing education credit hours every two years. Completion of IMPACT’s intense self-defense training program now furnishes LCSWs with 18 of those credit hours.
“Quite a few social workers have participated in our training over the years,” says IMPACT instructor Margaret Vimont, herself an LCSW. “Time and again, they affirm that discovering a sense of their own power through IMPACT has helped them immeasurably in their work with clients who have been touched by violence. It really gives them a different lens through which to see clients who are struggling with a lack of personal and physical power in their own lives.” Vimont, who walked into her first IMPACT class in 1988, currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Chicago-based nonprofit agency Jewish Child & Family Services, as well as instructing a Tae Kwon Do program as a fourth degree black belt.
Mary Reynolds, Licensed Clinical Social Work, shares what IMPACT training meant to her. I've been to a LOT of professional development trainings in the past, but few (if any!) compare to the IMPACT Core Program I took in March 2010. My primary work is with adults and children who have experienced or witnessed domestic, sexual and/or community violence. While tremendously rewarding, this work is also quite emotionally taxing. It can be difficult to sustain my own personal feelings of safety in the face of so much violence, and maintaining hopefulness is a challenge when violence almost seems inevitable.”
“I also do a lot of home- and community-based work, and was finding myself feeling isolated, fearful and unsafe. I challenged myself to find a way to confront and sort through those feelings, and so signed up for the IMPACT Chicago Core Program. IMPACT was enriching, both professionally and personally. I am more confident in myself on many levels: I now know that I can set and stick to firm boundaries (even if I'm trembling on the inside), that I can communicate my needs with conviction, and that, if I need to, I can defend myself physically. I'm much stronger than I ever even knew I was--both emotionally and physically--and I'm grateful to have discovered that. These are skills I will help my clients unearth and embrace as they discover their own immense, innate strength. I fully intend to recommend IMPACT to clients in the future. Honestly, the training was amazing enough on its own to be truly life-changing. 18 CEUs are just icing on an already incredible cake. Thanks, IMPACT!”
Cathie Bazzon
IMPACT Core Program grad
Rogers Park Community Council
Director, Senior Initiatives Program
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