May 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 38

SELF - DEFENSE
By cultivating an atmosphere
of safety, we can ensure
people of all backgrounds
and identities feel welcome
to participate and that parks
and recreation is a coveted
field in which people are
excited to work.
portant to ensure safety
As part of these efforts, it's imwithin
parks
and recreation, both for patrons
and the professionals who
work tirelessly with and for their
community. To that end, understanding
self-defense and learning
useful
techniques can help you
navigate these relationships with
confidence and ensure park and
recreation professionals, and the
people you serve, feel secure and
safe within these spaces. By cultivating
an atmosphere of safety,
we can ensure people of all backgrounds
and identities feel welcome
to participate and that parks
and recreation is a coveted field in
which people are excited to work.
According to a study, titled " U.S.
women's choices of strategies to
protect themselves from violence, "
71 percent of women avoid doing
things they want to do because of
concerns about being victimized
(tinyurl.com/35masdph). According
to Nicole Snell - CEO and
owner of Girls Fight Back (girls
fightback.com),
founder
ly dangerous can allow us to walk
through the world with more confidence
and less fear. "
of the
YouTube series " Outdoor Defense "
(youtube.com/@Nicole_Snell)
and lead instructor for self-defense
company IMPACT Personal Safety
- this doesn't need to be the
case. " I think the importance of
self-defense and preparedness
is
for confidence building and for empowerment,
and for the knowledge
that we are capable of managing
our safety in a wide range of environments
and in a wide range of
situations, " she says. " Having the
skills and the knowledge of what
options we have available if we are
faced with something that ranges
from uncomfortable to potentialSelf-Defense
Is a
State of Mind
The first step to self-defense, according
to Snell, is to be aware
of our surroundings and learn to
recognize when our intuition is
sounding the alarm. " Our intuition
is designed to protect us from danger,
so trusting it is a benefit to us.
That's one of the foundations of
safety, " she says.
Once we learn to recognize when
our intuition is signaling danger, we
must develop the confidence to trust
the feeling and act on it by speaking
up, despite any societal messages
that may label us as " dramatic " or
" paranoid " for doing so. Snell says
one key to embodying that confidence
is to know that we are worth
fighting for. " It's OK for us to use our
voice; it's OK for us to set boundaries;
it's OK for us to say 'no' and
not give any explanation beyond the
word; it's OK for us to tell someone
that they're making us uncomfortable.
We should have a reasonable
expectation
of
people
respecting
our boundaries, and we don't need
to apologize for expressing what we
need, being assertive and standing in
our power, " she says.
Carrying ourselves with confidence
is a great way to deter malicious
people who may be looking
for vulnerabilities. However, Snell
says, " Confidence is not a summit;
it's a journey. There are going to
be situations when you feel more
confident and some when you
might feel less confident. So just
The first step to self-defense, according
to Nicole Snell, CEO of Girls Fight Back,
is to be aware of our surroundings and
learn to recognize when our intuition is
sounding the alarm.
38 Parks & Recreation | MAY 2 0 2 3
| PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
https://tinyurl.com/35masdph http://www.girlsfightback.com http://www.girlsfightback.com
May 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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