Donors Make an IMPACT!

Tuition covers about 65% of the costs of the Core Program and IMPACT for Girls.Donors cover the rest.It is not too late to donate.Please send a check to IMPACT Chicago, 4057 N.Damen Ave, Chicago IL 60618 or contact Tara at info@impactchicago.org to donate through Paypal.Unless otherwise noted below, the donation was to the IMPACT Chicago General Fund.Thank you to all those who supported the IMPACT Chicago 2015 Fund Drive!

Anonymous

Jeanne Adams

Janet & David Altman

Lisa Amoroso - in honor of the IMPACT admin team

Arlene Benzinger

Dolores & Glenn Bjorkman

Susan Blessing

Jill Britton - on behalf of IMPACT’s Board of Directors

Patricia Broughton

Sheila Carson - on behalf of Katie Kramer

Darcy Chamberlin

Wesley & Kimberly Clifton

Nancy Cohen

Christina Coines

Christina Collins

Maury Collins

Dianne Costanzo - in memory of Adrian Costanzo

Cynthia Coy - in memory of Marilyn Coy

Tammy & Jim DeBoer - on behalf of women everywhere

Julie Dorfman & Jerry Herst - in honor of Dori Conn

Maureen Dunn

Carla Eisenberg

Cheri Erdman

Carol Ference

Kira Freigang

Gwyn Friend

Eileen Gelblat

Tess Given

Robyn & Tijuana Gray

Debborah Harp

Margit Henderson

Victoria Herbert

Constance Heyer - in memory of Deborah Ann Heyer

Belinda & Ed Hidalgo

Demetria Iazzetto

Loretta Jackson

Valerie Jenkins

June Kirk

Katherine Knapowski

Mary Komparda--in honor of Dianne Costanzo

Kelli Landes

Susan Landwer - in memory of Denise Fox

Ruth Lipschutz

Carmen Maso

Marianne Merola

Dorothy Meyer

Clara Orban

Lauren Perez

Liz Pfau

Rachel Pildis

Lisa Pines

A.C. Racette

Don & Judy Rosedale- on behalf of Katie Skibbe

Roger Safian

Laura Sanders

Therese Schmieg

Gail Schubert

Janette Scott

Christopher Siebert

Katie Skibbe

Linda Stawicki - on behalf of Jill Britton and Henry Borczyk

Martha Thompson-in honor of the Admin Team--Kathleen, Laura, Lisa, & Tara

Allison Tolman - on behalf of Molly Norris

Iris Waichler

Gail Warner

Five Questions to Evaluate a Self-Defense Tip

Empowerment Self-Defense Instructor Joanne Factor of Strategic Living in Self-defense offers five questions to help decide whether any specific piece of advice is empowering and worth adding to you self-defense toolkit.

1. Is it based on reality? 

 2. Does it give you tools you can use? 

3. Does it make your life bigger? 

4. Does it avoid blaming those targeted for attack? 

5. Does it prioritize self-determination? 

                         

For more details about these five questions and other great resources, check out Joanne Factor's newsletter

Parties and Sexual Assault

Researchers Jason Lindo, Peter Siminski, and Isaac Swensen have found that events that intensify partying on college campuses increase reports of rape by 28 percent.  Offenders are typically in the same age range as the victims and include offenders known to the victim as well as those unknown.

Given that the majority of sexual assaults are not reported, the number of sexual assaults is likely much higher than reported. The researchers recommend limiting alcohol consumption at parties to reduce incidents of sexual assault.

Lindo, Jason M., Peter Siminski, and Isaac D. Swensen. December 2015. College Party Culture and Sexual Assault. NBER Working Paper No. w21828. Available at SSRN.

Power in Action

Victory

Wonder Woman/Super Hero

 Amy Cuddy, Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, is a social psychologist who studies the relationship between body language and feelings of competence and power introduced the concept of “power posing.” I call them "Victory," "Wonder Woman," and "Oprah" or "Rapinoe" [updated after Megan Rapinoe led the U.S. Women's National Team to victory in the 2019 Women's World Cup].
The idea is that even if we fake powerful body language it affects the way we think and feel. Similar to what we do in IMPACT to get our bodies doing powerful things and before we know it we feel powerful. 
 

Oprah

Doing “power poses” in IMPACT is lots of fun and introduces the idea of feeling power in our bodies very quickly.  

Megan Rapinoe

Why don’t you try out these power poses and see what you think. 

Martha Thompson

IMPACT Chicago Lead Instructor

Co-Chair IMPACT Administrative Team

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.