We Call It Self-Defense

We call it "self-defense" because an empowering experience where you find your voice, increase your awareness, discover the power of your body, and build a strong community of women is too many words.

Nine years ago, Cathy Bazzon, IMPACT grad, wrote about the power of an IMPACT Chicago workshop at a community center. Grant funding like what we have received from the Latin School Student Philanthropic Initiative for 2020-2021 helps us bring self-defense to everyone. Excerpts from Cathy's original post "Why We Call It Self-Defense" are below. 

It was a wish to reach women of diverse backgrounds that prompted Martha Thompson, IMPACT Chicago instructor and IMPACT Director at the time, to start applying for grants. “While IMPACT is primarily a volunteer-led organization, our operating costs are substantial,” she explains.  “Because of the full contact during workshops, we have to have insurance that would pretty much cover a football team.  Then we have to run a not-for-profit, pay our instructors, maintain our equipment, do ongoing professional development—it adds up really quickly.”  “Depending on the course, fees can reach several hundred dollars,” notes Thompson, “and a lot of women simply don’t have that kind of money.”

Upon analyzing participant demographics, Thompson realized that the organization was serving mostly white women, ages 25 to 40, with middle incomes or higher.  “And that meant we were not meeting our mission,” she says.  “If we want to reach women, we have to go where women are,” she says.  “Not only do we want to train a variety of women, but we want to work with a bigger vision of anti-violence work.”Expanding that vision means building relationships with other organizations already committed to empowering women.