Prevention, Action, Change: Words to Live By

In “Self-Defense, Through a Different Lens,” Maine Women featured the work of Clara Porter, Portland Maine empowerment self-defense instructor and founder of Prevention, Action and Change.  Porter says empowerment self-defense includes physical tools, verbal tools, and awareness of the root causes of violence and that prevention, action, and change are words she lives by.

Department of Justice Addresses Gender and Race Bias

Attorney General Loretta Lynch has announced that the Department of Justice has new guidelines for addressing sexual assault cases in local departments and communities. Officers are to treat victims with respect, investigate each complaint, test all rape kits, and keep data on each case.  Officers who commit sexual assault and domestic violence are to be held accountable by their local departments for their behavior.

            Carol Tracy, executive director of the women’s law project, recommends that local departments also need to raise awareness of the ways that racial bias affect policy and practice. For more details, see Danielle Paquette “Gender and racial stereotypes derail rape investigations, attorney general says.” 

Retraining the Freeze Response

In “’Run, Hide, Fight’ is Not How Our Brains Work, “ Joseph Ledoux examines the three-step safety plan  from the FBI and Homeland Security of run, hide, fight.  Ledoux argues that scientifically the advice falls short because people are hard-wired to freeze in the face of danger.  He posits that we cannot just tell people to stop freezing but that we have to learn how to interrupt a freeze response—what he calls cognitive reappraisal.  Self-defense training is one way to retrain the freeze response and to enhance our ability to shift from freezing to action. 

Thank you to 2015 IMPACT Chicago Volunteers

Thank you to all the volunteers who keep IMPACT going! 

Lisa Amoroso                                   Rob Babcock                   

Tara Brinkman                                 Ann Botz

Bruce Brio                                       Natalie DeMariobus         

Laura M. Dini                                  Tess Given

Kathleen Grant                                Debborah Harp                 

Vesna Havran Mueller                      Courtney (Childs) Henderson

Sheila Hickey                                  Jesse Holzman

Katie Kramer                                   Naomi Love

Jim Lucas                                        Shannon Mahoney

Rachel Marro                                   Carol Middleton

Deb Mier                                          Mark Nessel

Molly Norris                                     Kim Ruhana

Ben Ruiz                                          Arden Schuman

Katie Skibbe                                    Daniel Teafoe

Martha Thompson                            Nate Tracy-Amoroso

Margaret Vimont                             Janean Watkins

Laura Weiss                                     Nat Wilson
Shu-Ju Yang

We invite you to volunteer  in 2016! 

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