Upcoming classes
Active Bystander Skills for Stopping Anti-Asian Hate ONLINE
Empowerment & Self-Defense for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans ONLINE
About our classes
Defend Yourself has classes for everyone, no matter what your age or ability. Whether you’re dealing with street harassment, going off to college, healing from abuse, or meeting any other challenge, we offer skills you can use. DURING THE PANDEMIC, ALL OF OUR WORKSHOPS ARE ONLINE.
Live life with more confidence, more safety, more freedom, + more fun!
Join us to learn how to prevent and avoid harassment, attack, and abuse; how to stop a threatening situation with words; and physical strikes to use against common attacks.
- All of our classes are tailored to the life situations and experiences of the students.
- All of our classes are open to people of all abilities: You don’t have to be an athlete or a martial artist to help yourself be safer. All of our classes are held in wheelchair-accessible spaces. If there’s something else that would help you be able to participate, please let us know.
- All of our classes have limited sliding-scale spaces for those who can’t afford the full fee.
- And all of our classes are fun!
If you sign up for a class and are unable to make it, we’ll give you a partial credit toward another class. We’re unable to make refunds.
Active bystander skills for stopping anti-Asian hate
You have the power to help keep Asian Americans safer. Do you know what you’d do if you witnessed a verbal or physical confrontation, either in person or virtually? How often do you wish you’d said something when you saw someone being targeted? Active bystander training is a proven method for interrupting problematic behavior.
Join us to learn how to assess a situation and choose a response to reduce harm to those targeted while keeping yourself safe.
We’ll cover:
- A social-justice framework for understanding the role of bystanders in interrupting oppression
- Reasons to get involved when you see a problem, and reasons not to
- Overcoming barriers to intervening
- The 5 steps of bystander intervention
- De-escalation basics
- 4 tools for intervening
Read more about our active bystander trainings in The Washington Post.
Who: Open to all genders age 14 and up. Maximum enrollment is 50.
When:
Thurs., April 22, 6-8:30pm Eastern
How: The workshop is free; registration is required. Donations are accepted to cover our costs and help us offer free empowerment and self-defense training to Asian American and Pacific Islander people. Please let us know when you register what accommodations you may need (such as ASL or Spanish interpretation) or email us.
NOTE: By registering, you agree to hold confidential other peoples experiences and stories shared in the session. For safety reasons, no recording is allowed, and the session will be closed to entry 10 minutes after it starts.
Empowerment & Self-Defense for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans
We dont have to tell you that verbal and physical violence against A/PI people are spiking. Join us to get more skills for keeping yourself safe.
Youll learn:
- The 5 basic elements of boundary-setting
- How to bring the temperature down when someone is escalated
- 2 simple physical strikes for the worst-case situation
and more!
NOTES: This workshop is led by an Asian American trainer. It’s for Asian and Pacific Islander people. If you’re white or non-A/PI BIPOC and want to help, please join us for our workshop on Active Bystander Skills for Stopping Anti-Asian Hate (registration is above).
Who: Open to women, trans men, and nonbinary/gender nonconforming people, age 16 and up, who identify as A/PI. Maximum enrollment is 30.
When:
Friday, April 16, 6-8pm Eastern
How: The workshop is free; registration is required. Donations are accepted to cover our costs. Please let us know when you register what accommodations you may need (such as ASL or Spanish interpretation) or email us.
NOTE: By registering, you agree to hold confidential other peoples experiences and stories shared in the session. For safety reasons, no recording is allowed, and the session will be closed to entry 10 minutes after it starts.
Don’t see what you want?
Please sign up for our newsletter, and we’ll let you know when workshops are scheduled.
In the meantime, if you’d like some training in personal safety and self-protection skills, you can bring us to you! If you have any group (friends, neighborhood, workplace, faith group, club/team, etc.), we’ll customize a workshop to your needs – and we can do it online.
