Upcoming classes
Online workshop:Empowerment and Self-Defense for A/PI people
Online workshop: Active bystander skills for stopping anti-Asian hate
Get Empowered! A Self-Defense Happy Hour
On My Own: Independence Skills for Tweens
Active Bystander Training
Safer & More Confident: Six Weeks of Empowerment Self-Defense
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.
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.
Online workshop: Empowerment and Self-Defense for A/PI people
Attacks on Asian/American and Pacific Islander people are spiking. Join us to learn basic verbal and physical skills to help keep yourself safe.
We’ll cover:
- 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!
Sessions will be subtitled.
NOTE: This workshop is for A/PI people. If you’re not A/PI and want to help keep A/PI people safe, please join us for our Active Bystander training (see below).
Register below
This webinar is offered for free, with the option to give a donation. You will be directed to the donation page after filling out this form. Your aid will help us offer these workshops while we can’t support the community in person.
By registering, you agree to hold confidential other peoples’ experiences and stories shared in the session. No recording is allowed. The session will be closed to entry 10 minutes after it starts.
Sessions are every Sunday starting 4/26 at 4 pm Eastern.
Online workshop: Active bystander skills for stopping anti-Asian hate
Attacks on Asian and Asian American people are spiking. We all can take action to interrupt verbal and physical hate. And we all have concerns that can prevent us from stepping up. Skills are the antidote to those concerns. Join us to learn how to assess a situation and choose a response to reduce harm to the person targeted while keeping yourself safe.
We’ll cover:
- A social-justice framework for understanding the role of bystanders in interrupting oppression
- Reasons to intervene 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
Sessions will be subtitled.
Read more about our active bystander trainings in The Washington Post.
Register below
This webinar is offered for free, with the option to give a donation. You will be directed to the donation page after filling out this form. Your aid will help us offer these webinars while we can’t support the community in person.
By registering, you agree to hold confidential other peoples’ experiences and stories shared in the session. No recording is allowed. The session will be closed to entry 10 minutes after it starts.
Get Empowered! A Self-Defense Happy Hour
Do you know what you’d do if someone rubbed up against you on the Metro? How about if a co-worker kept asking personal questions, or if harassers yelled at you on the street? We cover these and other situations.
You’ll find the power in your body and mind to practice boundary-setting as the foundation of self-defense, and effective strikes for a last resort.
Only 10 slots, so sign up now!
Who: Open to women, trans, and gender-nonconforming people age 16 and up
When: Wednesdays, 6:30 – 8 pm (these are one-time, freestanding workshops, not a series)
- May 11
- July 8
- September 9
- November 11
Where: The DC Center for the LGBT Community, 2000 14th St NW #105, Washington, DC.
How: $35; register below. Please contact us if you can’t afford the full fee.
On My Own: Independence Skills for Tweens
Parents: Is your late elementary school or early middle school child heading to school on their own? Walking alone or with other kids? Beginning to take public transit? Staying home alone for longer stretches?
In this workshop geared to 9- to 12-year-olds, Defend Yourself will share skills to help them be logistically, mentally, and emotionally ready for these and other situations, as well as strategies for if something doesn’t go as planned. Parents are encouraged to participate.
Spend an afternoon with your tween helping them cultivate independence, critical thinking, and safety — and give yourself some peace of mind.
Who: Open to tweens, ages 9-12, and their parents
When: Saturday, May 2, 2-4:30 p.m.
Where: Willow Street Yoga, Takoma Park (2 blocks from the Red Line)
How: Register for the class. It’s $110 for each child/parent pair (if more than 1 child per parent, $50 for each additional child). Please contact us if you can’t afford the full fee.
Active Bystander Training
Are you concerned for those who face hate speech or even violence?
We all have chances to interrupt potentially harmful situations — anything from microaggressions to physical threats. And we all have concerns that can get in the way of stepping up. We may fear for own safety, worry about being embarrassed, think it’s not our business, be afraid of making the situation worse, or something else.
Skills are the antidote to those concerns. Building on what you already know, in this hands-on workshop you’ll develop the skills to assess a situation and choose a response. We teach creative strategies for responding to harassment and ways to de-escalate aggressive behavior. We can promise that you’ll leave with more choices for difficult situations.
To learn more about what a workshop is like, check out this article in The Washington Post.
Who: All genders, all abilities, age 14 and up
When: Wed., April 7, 6:30-8:30 pm
Where: The DC Center for the LGBT Community, 2000 14th St NW #105, Washington, DC.
How: $49; register below. Please contact us if you can’t afford the full fee.
Safer & More Confident: Six Weeks of Empowerment Self-Defense
Do you know what you’d do if someone rubbed up against you on the Metro? How about if a co-worker kept asking personal questions, or if harassers yelled at you on the street? We cover these and many, many more situations in this six-week class.
We’ll cover everything from street harassment to defending yourself against chokes and grabs; from prevention to assertiveness, from physical strikes to healing. You’ll find the power in your own body and mind to learn and practice boundary-setting and clear, direct communication as the foundation of self-defense.
Who: Cis and trans women, teen girls, trans men and non-binary people age 16+. Open to all abilities, sizes, and fitness levels: You don’t have to be a martial artist or an athlete to help yourself be safer!
When: Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m., April 15, 22, 29 and May 6, 13, 20.
Where: The DC Center for the LGBT Community, 2000 14th St NW #105.
How: $230 per person. Please contact us if you can’t afford the full fee.
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, book group, club/team, etc.), we’ll customize a workshop to your needs.
