Workshop Menu

✓ Physical Practice ✓ Empowerment Self-Defense

This introductory physical self-defense training will teach you fundamental blocks and strikes to get away safely. You will learn practical ways to manage distance while using footwork and complete exercises and drills to improve your muscle memory when responding to sudden physical attacks. 

The curriculum can be executed in a 2-hour introductory format or in a two part format. For the latter, participants must complete part 1 before advancing to part 2.  

You will learn: 

• Self-defense circle  

• Levels of danger and threat 

• Situational Awareness 

• Safety stance 

• Distance and footwork

• Fundamental blocks and strikes 

• Use of common objects 

• Aftercare

Formerly known as “Upstander”

✓ Verbal Techniques ✓ Community Empowerment ✓ Empowerment Self-Defense ✓ Physical Practice (OPTIONAL)

This training will help adults recognize the continuum of stress, which has the potential to result in crisis and violence. You will examine how intersectional identities -- including gender, race, age and more-- shape how you de-escalate situations. Through scenarios and role playing, you will practice setting clear boundaries and using concrete de-escalation skills at your own pace and comfort level.  

There is an option to include physical techniques. 

You will learn: 

• De-escalation techniques 

• Practice scenarios

• Safety stance 

• Aftercare 

If including physical techniques, you will learn: 

• Distance and footwork  

• Fundamental blocks 

• Everyday objects for self-defense

✓ Physical Practice ✓ Empowerment Self-Defense

This workshop addresses concerns around confrontations involving weapons. We will talk openly about the reality of these situations, distinguish between a threat versus an attack, and review basic skills and considerations for survival.  

You will learn: 

• Self defense circle 

• Levels of danger 

• Threat versus attack 

• Safety stance & movement 

• De-escalation & communication considerations 

• Blocks & deflections 

• Defensive strikes 

• Considerations for defense against blades 

• Considerations for defense against firearms

✓ Verbal Techniques ✓ Community Empowerment

Non-Violent Communication (NVC) is a communication style that aims to increase understanding and empathy, and is based on the idea that people can be compassionate and address conflicts in a way that reduces harm and increases understanding. With activities throughout, this workshop provides participants with tools for the workplace and beyond that reduce blame and shame and increase community and empathy.

You will learn: 

• The basic tenets of non-violent communication

• how power and positionality relate to our conversations

• our own responses to conflict and how to navigate them

• new ways to communicate

✓ Verbal Techniques ✓ Community Empowerment

At the Center for Anti-Violence Education, we believe that there are opportunities to build towards communities of care before, during, and after hate violence takes place. When it comes to people we know, speaking up against interpersonal violence & harm or oppressive ideologies can be challenging and complex. When sitting across the table from someone, perhaps sharing space, food, or work-- how do we intervene? In this workshop, you'll co-create strategies of care and safety for yourself and for others. You'll explore the connections between oppressive ideologies, and how they show up in our institutions and relationships. You'll learn tools and strategies to create systems of support, and intervene when microaggressions occur.

You will learn: 

• The four levels of oppression & social location

• Boundary setting

• Calling-in strategies

• Aftercare

✓ Verbal Techniques ✓ Community Empowerment

Research shows that having no community response to hate violence is interpreted as acceptance by the perpetrators, the public and — worse — targeted communities. Communities across the U.S. continue to utilize creative strategies to disrupt and prevent violence, while supporting the healing of impacted community members.

We will explore the range of possibilities for small or large community action to interrupt oppression institutionally and interpersonally while leading with dignity, compassion, and love. We will examine our strengths, relationships, and resources, and how we can apply them towards building beloved communities.

You will learn: 

• How to “imagine otherwise” toward building beloved communities

• Restorative frameworks for navigating conflict

• Definitions of different types of power

• Resource and relationship mapping tools and strategies

✓ Verbal Techniques ✓ Community Empowerment

In this workshop, participants will learn more about the history of queer and trans people - both their joy and their continued resistance in the face of targeted violence, from the Stonewall Riots to the Stonewall Protests. There will be interactive discussions around the differences between gender identity, gender expression, and sexuality, and the roots of transphobic oppression.

Tools and strategies for intervening as a bystander and de-escalating conflict will be explored by participants, in order to disrupt real life scenarios.

You will learn: 

• LGBTQ+ History

• Root causes of transphobia

• Active bystander intervention strategies

• Aftercare

✓ Verbal Techniques ✓ Community Empowerment

In this workshop, participants will explore the history and ongoing impact of anti-Blackness in the United States. The session includes intentional space for self-reflection, inviting participants to examine how their own positionality shapes the ways they understand and engage with prejudicial narratives. Through interactive discussion, we will explore the historical intersections of race, class, and gender politics, and examine the roots and structures of racial oppression. Participants will also be introduced to practical tools and strategies for bystander intervention, with particular attention to environments where interpersonal relationships and group dynamics are central.

You will learn: 

• The impact of slavery to mass incarceration pipeline

• The racial history of Nixon and Reaganomics (70s and 90s) 

• Self-reflection on internalized anti-blackness 

• Calling-in and calling out strategies 

• Aftercare