Assert Empowerment Self Defense

Program Mission: Bring Trauma-informed, Effective Physical Self Defense to the LGBTQAI Community of Greater Nashville, Tennessee and Beyond

Program Goals:
1. Create a Sustainable Network of Empowerment Self Defense Instructors to Support Outreach into Metropolitan & Rural Communities;
2. Provide Services and Resources to LGBTQAI Community Members in Areas of the State Where Personal Beliefs Vilify and "Other" Vulnerable Community Members;
3. Offer Community Members an Alternative in Personal Defense Training and Education That Is Conscious of the Community's Challenges.

Program Challenges:
1. Trauma and Identity Informed Education: How can we discuss and explore potentially triggering subject matter around personal safety safely?
2. Effective Physical Self Defense: How do we teach effective physical self defense techniques to groups that might be struggling with the expression of their physical identity while strengthening and supporting that identity?
3. Finding Confidence While Finding Self: How can we support and grow community members' self-worth while they explore the questions of who they are vs potentially negative outside judgements and perceptions of who they are expected to be?
4. Self-Sustaining ESD Programs: How can we ensure that the program will have the staffing and other resources necessary to establish, service, and maintain a healthy environment for instructors and participants?
5. Community Outreach: How can we reach out to marginalized communities in more rural, potentially less supportive areas of the state?
6. Building Trust: How do we introduce a new program that is community-informed, culturally relevant, and which can build trust within the community quickly?

Proposed Solutions:
1. Trust-worthy Instructors: No one knows their community better than a community member. By selecting LGBTQAI Leaders to become instructors, program participants can trust that they are seen, heard, and understood.
2. Instructor Networks: By training LGBTQAI Community Leaders to teach Empowerment Self Defense and employing them to do so, as either part-time or full-time hires, we can ensure that Instructors are available to the community.
3. Confidential, Safe Spaces: By holding safe spaces for discovery, students of all ages can honestly and candidly delve into their strengths, vulnerabilities, and power.
4. Full-Time Social Justice: ASSERT ESD is dedicated to the creation and support of Social Justice and ESD careers. Our goal is to create a network of instructors and providers that can reach out to and serve LGBTQAI Community members throughout the state.
5. Simple, Easy-to-Learn Techniques: By teaching effective defensive techniques anchored in everyday movement, we can explore and practice physicality in ways that fit the needs of the individual and the group.
6. Scenario-based Training: Modeling is not enough. Through trauma-informed, scenario-based training, we can afford students the ability to actively explore life experiences through different perspectives and in a safe environment.

By partnering with The Table Nashville, we are able to identify potential instructors, certify them to teach, and hire them as full-time ESD Educators and Social Justice Warriors for their community.