IMPACT Safety Organization

Overview

IMPACT Safety, is a nonprofit organization established in 1993.  Our mission: Building safety from the inside out. We teach people of all ages and abilities the critical emotional and physical skills necessary to reduce risk, prevent violence, make safe choices, and live and work with greater confidence.

IMPACT SAFETY TODAY

IMPACT Safety teaches practical skills to enhance personal safety and confidence for adults, youth, individuals with special needs, organizations and corporations in Central Ohio and around the state. Women, teens, children, and men can learn these effective strategies that prevent violence. Organizations can help their employees enhance their sense of safety and confidence in the face of risk through safety awareness courses and workshops.

IMPACT Safety teaches the following life skills:

• Deterring potential assailants
• Reading nonverbal communication
• Protecting personal boundaries
• De-escalation tactics
• Emotional Control
• Physical skills if necessary
• To communicate effectively in confrontation.
• To say “no” clearly.
• To sharpen instincts.
• To recognize the warnings signs of danger.
• To use emotions, including fear, to keep safe.
• To utilize “muscle memory”

WHAT MAKES IMPACT DIFFERENT?

IMPACT Safety is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit organization based on the tenets of personal safety. IMPACT Safety employs a differentiated strategy of building individuals’ physical safety in conjunction with individuals’ emotional safety. IMPACT programs are unique in their methodology.

To this end, IMPACT has evolved on a different plane than has its perceived “competition,” which are primarily programs that focus on techniques of self defense. Most of the other programs (with which IMPACT is frequently categorized) take a reactive approach.

IMPACT is proactive. IMPACT sees traditional self-defense as an option of last resort. While it is vital for individuals to make appropriate choices in threatening situations, it is equally if not more important for individuals to learn how to avoid and/or recognize a potentially threatening situation before it unfolds. Hence the age-old saying: “An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure.”

IMPACT views this approach as incomplete. Let’s face it: when one is assaulted, the damage is not just physical—it is emotional and psychological. The body works as a whole unit—physical, emotional and psychological. Preparing one part of the self (the physical) without effectively preparing the other parts (emotional and psychological) can become, with all good intentions set aside, a recipe for disaster. This is why IMPACT focuses on “state-dependent” learning. This allows participants to emotionally experience what it is like to be confronted or assaulted. This is accomplished by re-creating realistic scenarios that elicit fear, anger, frustration or any other emotion that would occur in an actual confrontation or assault.

By teaching individuals to experience this anxiety, and fear, they become more effectively trained in how they can respond in a potentially threatening situation. After all, most of us have no idea how we would respond until confronted with such a situation head-on, which we hope never happens. This is just one example of the IMPACT difference.

The core outcome of all IMPACT programs, regardless of population served, age of participants, or length of program duration is that participants leave with an increased sense of both physical and emotional personal boundaries. Individuals benefit from a deepened understanding of these boundaries and from the choices available to them should their boundaries be crossed.

IMPACT Chapters

IMPACT is an international organization offering assertiveness and realistic full-contact personal safety training for women, men, children, youth, teens, seniors, and those with special needs. Our goal is to provide training that empowers individuals to make effective personal safety choices. For program information, contact an organization near you.

CALIFORNIA—LOS ANGELES

IMPACT Personal Safety, Inc.

PO Box 931541
Los Angeles, CA 90093
Phone: (310) 360-1096
Email: impactla@aol.com
Website: www.impactpersonalsafety.com

CALIFORNIA—SAN FRANCISCO/BAY AREA

IMPACT Bay Area (formerly BAMM)

1724 Mandela Parkway #1
Oakland, CA 94607
Phone: (510) 208-0480
Email: info@impactbayarea.org
Website: www.impactbayarea.org

COLORADO

IMPACT Personal Safety Colorado

700 N. Colorado Blvd., #180
Denver, CO 80206
Phone: (303) 956-6643
Email: info@impact-colorado.org

Illinois

IMPACT CHICAGO

4770 N Lincoln Ave. # 6
Chicago, IL 60660
Phone: (773) 338-4545
Email: leslie@impactchicago.org
Website: www.impactchicago.org

MASSACHUSETTS

Boston IMPACT

420 Pearl St.
Malden, MA 02148
Phone: (781) 321-3900
Email: info@impactboston.com
Website: www.impactboston.com

NEW MEXICO

IMPACT Personal Safety

PO Box 8350
Santa Fe, NM 87504-8350
Phone/Fax: (505) 992-8833
Email: info@impactpersonalsafety.org
Website: www.impactpersonalsafety.org

NEW YORK/NJ/PA/CT

Prepare Inc.

147 W. 25th St., 8th Floor
NY, NY 10001
Phone: (800) 442-7273 or (212) 255-0505
Email: prepareinc@aol.com
Website: www.prepareinc.com

NORTH DAKOTA

University of North Dakota Women’s Center

P.O. Box 7122, UND
305 Hamline St.
Grand Forks, ND 58203
Phone : (701) 777-4300
Email: undwomenscenter@und.nodak.edu

OHIO

IMPACT Safety

A Program of LifeCare Alliance
1699 West Mound Street
Columbus, OH 43223
Phone: 614-437-2936
Email: info@impactsafety.org
Website: www.impactsafety.org

OREGON

PDX Prepare Portland

8119 N. Syracuse St., #1
Portland, OR 97203
Phone: (503) 764-8344
Email: perpareportland@gmail.com
Website: www.prepareportland.org

WASHINGTON D.C.

D.C. IMPACT Self Defense

1716 Newton St. NW
Washington, DC 20010
Phone: (202) 328-1203 or (866) 638-5165
Email: info@dcimpact.org
Website: www.dcimpact.org

ENGLAND

IMPACT UK

P.O. Box 38883
London W12 9XP
Phone: 020 8743 7827
Email: lcps@lcps.demon.co.uk
Website: www.londoncentreforpersonalsafety.org

ISRAEL

IMPACT Israel

37 Pierre Koening
Jerusalem
Phone: 011-972-2-678-1764/94
Email: elhalev@elhalev.org
Website: www.elhalev.org