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Organizations host teen safety training at Roswell Area Park
By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com
ROSWELL, Ga. — Metro Atlanta nonprofit Revved Up Kids partnered with the Roswell Police Department to host a day of personal safety and self-defense workshops for children and teenage girls on March 11 at Roswell Area Park.
The two-hour sessions were split by age, with the first for children 6 to 11 years old and the second sessions for teenage girls ages 11-18. About 15 teenage girls and their parents gathered in the auditorium for a conversation on personal safety and a lesson on basic self-defense moves.
The seminars were hosted by Alli Neal, founder of Revved Up Kids. She began the organization in 2009 to protect children from sexual abuse exploitation.
“We want to proactively equip them, but also want to prepare them if things go wrong,” Neal said.
The workshop is split into a few main sections. First, Neal presents various scenarios and asks the girls what they would do. She provides tips on how to safely navigate dark parking lots, parties and various social situations while pointing out common red flags for exploitation.
Then the girls practice self-defense moves on prop figures. After the activity, they reaffirm the lessons from the day. Parents can participate at certain points, but Neal said its important that the information comes from her.
“Even though a lot of the stuff we say may be similar to what their parents say to them, they hear it differently from us,” Neal said.
The workshop pushes parents to have “family conversations” about difficult topics. Neal said she sees that parents don’t know how to have conversations with their kids about sexual predators.
Paige Laine brought her daughter Shelby to the seminar after the teenager was pulled over by police on a quiet road at night. Laine said she’s glad it was a real police officer that pulled her over, but it helped her realize all she had not told her daughter about personal safety.
The founder said the solution to sexual predators is not to bar children and teens from common activities, like using Snapchat and TikTok.
“You can’t just do that if you want to keep your child safe,” Neal said. “If you forbid it, they’re going to sneak behind your back, and if they get in trouble they won’t come to you.”
Instead, Neal tries to meet parents and children where they are. She knows social media is how children interact with each other, so she runs multiple workshops devoted to navigating the internet, both for parents and children.
“Most of the time it’s the adults fear that gets in the way of children’s knowledge and safety,” Neal said.
Neal said parents are grateful to be taught the “dialogue” they can have with their children on safety and exploitation.
She listed several key tips she wants parents to teach their children.
The first, bodily autonomy, emphasizes that children get to decide who touches them. She also said parents should teach their kids to trust their instincts and understand that respect is a two-way street.
Roswell Police Department hosted the sessions as part of an ongoing partnership that Neal said started before the onset of COVID-19. The organization has hosted a few self-defense sessions each year with the police department.
“It’s a priority for the Roswell Police Department to equip our young people with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to keep themselves safe,” Roswell Public Information Officer Tim Lupo said. “Our partnership with Revved-Up Kids who provide an excellent, well-received curriculum, is one of the ways we accomplish that goal for our community.”
Neal hopes to eventually replicate those police partnerships in nearby communities like Johns Creek, Milton and Alpharetta. She also is seeking enough funds to make the program free for all.
For every group that pays tuition, the nonprofit trains another group free of charge. The Roswell workshop offered scholarships for teenagers in need after some attendees paid the “tuition.” She also runs seminars in disadvantaged parts of the community at no cost.
The nonprofit plans to hold another self-defense and personal safety training with Roswell Police Department sometime in summer 2023.