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Wild Women Forge Forward

"Moving from strength to strength."

- Dr. Tammy Yard McCracken, Pys.D

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What we do~

  • Instructor Education & training for existing personal safety professionals. We provide relevant & effective women’s self-defense education anchored in statistical data, research, and neurobiology.  We fill gaps most instructors don't realize they have and give them a powerful way to fulfill their personal commitment to their students in their own networks. 
  • Instructor Development for women new to the personal safety profession by developing data-driven skills in prevention and physical personal safety in a supportive community where we seek to embody the phrase "a rising tide floats all boats". 
  • Provide online education and continuing education for our professional community.
  • Provide online education for our larger community on a range of topics related to personal agency & personal authority.

For details on our instructor training please scroll down

Why we do it ~

We believe all women deserve the opportunity to step into their agency and personal authority through valid, effective, & relevant community level education. Taught without fear mongering or victim blaming.

We believe when WOMEN teach personal safety workshops, the participants will gain invaluable freedom to talk openly about the shared lived experience faced by so many of us. Bringing the unspoken into the light where change becomes possible.

Why us~

500 Rising started as a face-palm blog post. A personal rant by our founder about the #METOO movement. The METOO movement helped bring awareness to the stubborn statistics in sexual violence. But what no meme or hashtag can do (and yes we have a hashtag too), is give Target demographics the skills necessary to change the statistics at a personal level.

We do believe the final solution is social/cultural change. We also know fundamental cultural shifts take decades and we aren’t willing to wait.  

The current approaches to women's self-defense are incomplete at best. This includes self-defense powerhouses such as BJJ & Krav Maga.  

 

What we do; the details~

  • Instructor Education & training. Providing existing instructors relevant & effective women’s self-defense education neglected in common training systems.  Topics addressed include:
    • Threat assessment & situational awareness specific to the socio-cultural realities of conflict/violence against women
    • The social & psychological evolution of violence specific to women
    • Conflict management along with nuances such as gender related authority biases
    • Psychological realities impacting training/education, retention & use of personal safety skills. 
    • Impact of trauma on training, personal decisions re: safety, etc.
    • Legal & ethical realities of teaching, learning, & using personal safety skills including boundary management.
    • Research based teaching technologies enhancing acquisition and retention of learned skills including physical skills in self-defense.
    • Psycho-social reality of boundary management
    • Skills for managing the psycho-social impact of personal relationship with the threat and -
    • Instructor education on who/how/where/why known perpetrators become a common factor bypassing even the most confident & skilled self-defense or martial arts practitioner. 
  • Instructor Development: working within our established, research/data based curricula, we help women new to the personal safety profession develop effective skills to become trainers in personal safety education:
    • all of the above and -
    • personal coaching in skill development
    • community of experienced professionals 
    • resources for planning & executing workshops 
    • and more
  • All fully licensed instructors with 500Rising operating in the United States & U.S. Territories are covered by 500Rising's liability insurance while operating under the established parameters of our licensed instructor agreement. 
A curriculum outline for our level 1 and level 2 courses along with our code of ethics can be found on our CERTIFICATIONS page along with credentialing requirements.

We don't~

  • require you to leave your existing martial art or self-defense organization
  • expect you to join our network of professionals when you complete our programs 
  • expect you to abandon previous training/skills (we do ask you critically assess them against women's self-defense needs)
  • we don't support, condone, or allow unethical behavior

 

We stand on strong shoulders of women who have gone before us.

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