Copyright Notice
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Dear Readers,
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I saw a beautiful example of teamwork earlier this week on my way to teach a workshop for people with developmental delays.
A
man was running fast while pushing another man who was sitting in a
wheelchair. It turned out they were on their way from the bus to my
class. The man who was doing the pushing was fully blind and his friend
using the wheelchair was calling out directions so that they wouldn't
bump into anything.
During the class, these two friends kept helping each other out, learning our skills with humor and joy.
Teamwork is one of our core values in KIDPOWER and I was moved to see such a clear example of how sharing what we can each do enables us to become more than the sum of our individual parts. One man had legs that didn't work and couldn't walk. One man had eyes that didn't work and couldn't see. Yet together, they could run with amazing freedom.
Thank you for being part of our KIDPOWER team. Like those two men, we can do much more together than we can each do alone.
Wishing joy and safety to you and your loved ones,

Irene van der Zande KIDPOWER Executive Director/Co-Founder
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CUSTOMER POWER!
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Reader's Problem: Sales clerks and waiters are often really rude to me. I feel frustrated because they don't seem to respect me as a customer. I don't want to be rude myself, but can't figure out what else to do.
KIDPOWER Answer: It is normal to feel as if the only way to fight rudeness is with rudeness. However, trying to fix poor service with insults or anger is not likely to get you the results you want and often leads to a bad reaction that can ruin your day.
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| Read More |
Special Holiday Offer: Buy 5 Get 1 FREE! The KIDPOWER Book for Caring Adults
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Searching for holiday gifts for your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers? Need something special for your children's daycare providers, teachers, coaches, and troop leaders?
The KIDPOWER Book for Caring Adults is the perfect solution for everyone on your holiday shopping list!
The KIDPOWER Book for Caring Adults: Personal Safety, Self-Protection, Confidence, and Advocacy for Young People was created in response to the requests of thousands of people who wanted a comprehensive description of our program that they could use in their daily lives. As the mother of the mother of a five-year-old son and a ten-year old daughter wrote to us, "For years I have struggled with how to approach the subject of safety with my kids, but haven't known how to do it without scaring them. Your new book is great because it makes it so easy. I just read the background information and then do the activities with my kids. They find these exercises interesting rather than upsetting - and I feel SO much better!"
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| Unique KIDPOWER Workshop Opportunity |
Once a year, as part of our international instructor training program, we provide a unique workshop opportunity for children ages 6 to 11 and their adults. Under the leadership of our most senior instructors, people in training practice teaching with "real students" with in-the-moment coaching. The result is that students get excellent training with a great deal of individual opportunity to practice. As one mother explains, "I travel for a couple of hours each way to Santa Cruz almost every year in order bring my family to this program. It's fun to meet people from so many different places and I have found that my children learn a tremendous amount when they get to see adults learning. They like the idea that they are helping to prepare these adults to teach KIDPOWER in order to reach a lot more kids. In addition, I have easy access to very experienced people who can answer my questions." This January, our instructor training program will include people from Canada, India, and Sweden, as well as California, New York, Texas, and Vermont. You can join us on Sunday, January 13th, for a three-hour Parent-Child KIDPOWER Workshop that will include physical self-defense skills taught with kick pads. (Note: This is NOT the full-force program with the head-to-toe padded instructor, which we also provide at other times.) Thanks to community support, we can offer this workshop on a sliding scale fee of $25 to $75 dollars per child, based on ability to pay. As many support adults from each child's life as possible are encouraged to attend at no extra charge. We have found that the more that families have a common language around personal safety issues, the safer everyone is.
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2008 Instructor Training
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The biggest benefit of becoming a KIDPOWER instructor is in seeing how a few hours of time can make such a big difference in bringing safety and confidence to our students - giving them skills that they can use right away and that can make their lives better for years. We are now accepting applications for our 2008 Instructor Training Programs.
The KIDPOWER Training will be held from the afternoon of January 10th through January 15th. The TEENPOWER/FULLPOWER Training will be held from April 25th through April 29th. Please note: Fees posted on our website are for people are getting started in new communities. These are different for people who are from our current Centers or who are part of our California Regional Center that hosts the training programs. Contact your local center or the central office for more information.
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California Workshop Schedule
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Our current public schedule is updated monthly and includes a variety of workshops for children, teens and adults in Berkeley,Palo Alto, Petaluma, the Santa Cruz area, and Santa Rosa.
Most of our services are not on the public schedule because they are organized privately by individuals, schools and organizations. We are happy to provide support to help you to organize programs for the important people in your life.
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WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT!
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MANY THANKS to our hundreds of donors and volunteers. Your generosity is making a big difference in our ability to help others.
MANY
THANKS to the Corporate, Foundation, Service Club, and Government
Partners of our Central Office: Albany Lions, Allstate Foundation,
Applied Materials, Atkinson Foundation, Bank of the West, Bayer
Foundation, Big Sky Creative, Blue Shield of California Foundation,
California Endowment, Canadian International Development Agency, Castro
Valley Rotary, Citigroup Foundation, Cisco Systems Foundation, Coast
Commercial Bank, Santa Cruz Commission for the Prevention of Violence
Against Women, Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, Community
Foundation Silicon Valley, Community Printers of Santa Cruz, David and
Lucile Packard Foundation, The Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation, DeAnza Lions, Deluxe Corporation Foundation,
Driscoll's Charitable Fund, East Bay Community Foundation, Ecolab,
Ephraim Foundation, Finish Line Youth Foundation, Freedom Rotary, Fremont Bank, Gayle's Bakery and
Rosticerria, Giant Steps Foundation, Google, Greater Bay Bancorp,
Guidant Foundation, the Health Trust, Hitachi America, Ltd., Hitachi
Data Systems, Hitachi High Technologies America, Inc., Hitachi
Foundation, Hyperion Solutions, Insurance Industry Charitable
Foundation, In N Out Burger, JM Long Foundation, Kaiser Permanente,
Jean and Ed Kelly Foundation, Lowell Berry Foundation, Lucile Packard
Foundation for Children's Health, CTB/McGraw-Hill, Mechanics Bank,
Mervyn's, Omega Nu, Peninsula Community Foundation, Plantronics, Porter
Sesnon Foundation, Arnie Kamrin of PPi Technologies Global, Radio
Shack, Rite Aid Foundation, Ruddie Memorial Youth Foundation, Russell
Investment Group, San Lorenzo Valley Rotary, San Francisco Foundation,
Santa Cruz Medical Clinic, Scotts Valley Lions, Scotts Valley Rotary,
Seagate, sharpdots.com, SmithMicro, Sonora Area Foundation, Staples
Foundation for Learning, Target Stores, Tides Foundation, Tuolumne
County First 5 Commission, TRIO Foundation, Union Bank of California, Union City Lions,
Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation, Verizon, Vodaphone, Waste
Management, Wells Fargo Foundation, West Marine, and the Y. & H.
Soda Foundation.
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