Comments

Teaching girls that they CAN defend themselves

I am interested in becoming a certified trainer for Just Yell Fire. I gained my Master's degree in Library Science last May with an emphasis in children's and youth services, and hope to find a job soon as a public librarian. With the amount of contact I will have in that field with young and teenage girls, as well as contacts with schools and other libraries, I would like to find out how to become involved and help promote your program.

I have been training in aikido as a self-defense art since June, and will be testing for my first rank soon. The more I learned in aikido, the more it made me aware of how girls and women in America are socialized about violence. Movies, television, and popular media seem to promote the belief that girls and women cannot win or escape in a situation where we are under attack by a man. Recognizing this made me interested in finding out what programs were already available to promote girls' and women's self-defense. I discovered Just Yell Fire by Googling "women's self-defense". I was thrilled to find that someone has begun a movement to counter that socialization early in women's lives, beginning with teaching the girls who are most at risk that they CAN defend themselves and escape an attacker, even if their attacker is much larger. I myself am only 5'1", and the techniques that eliminate an attacker's advantage of greater height are also especially applicable to me.

I live in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and I would like any information available on training for certification for Just Yell Fire, either locally or in neighboring states if necessary. Many thanks to you, Dallas, and everyone else involved with Just Yell Fire for your caring and hard work.

Thank you for the DVD. I wanted to let you know that I really admire you for coming up with "Just Yell Fire." It is really neat to see a proactive approach to the issues of violence that women face. What an empowering world you are creating! Thank you for making a difference.

Gayle here from the Sexual Assault Survivors' Centre
Sarnia-Lambton.

Thank you very much for the DVD. You have no idea how
much this is going to be used. Our Public Education person
has 50 different school presentations booked so far, and
she's not done! This DVD will be perfect for our needs.

Thanks again - and all the young people she will reach thank you too.

Thank you so much for everything that you have done with your involvment in 'Just yell fire'. I have a 13 year old daughter with a bunch of very close friends. As soon as we get our d.v.d. we will be having a pizza night with them all and watching "JUST YELL FIRE". The world needs more people like you.

I have just heard about the DVD from members of a city-wide committee that deals with domestic violence in the Jewish community. As we all know, date rape, abduction and other types of violence cross cultural, racial and religious lines -- they highly recommended this film for use in our schools.

Thank you so much --

I have truly been inspired by this organization and hope to start a chapter of the program in my high school when school resumes.

I was just watching Monte Williams' show and I saw you guys there talking about the video that would help millions and millions girls out there. I've always wanted to help kids who have cancer. That show inspired me to make a difference in someone's life. You guys did a good job. GOOD JOB!!!!

I am the Director of Marketing at Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette. This film is amazing. Many thanks.

I saw your segment today on Montel, and it touched me. My husband and I work for a state Dept of Corrections and deal with some of these offenders on a daily basis. I am always left wondering how their victims are coping. I was so excited to see a project of this magnitude from the next generation. We have four young children of our own and want to get the DVD to have to show to them on a regular basis. More than anything I just want to thank you for having the courage to step up and help other young people protect themselves. Thank you and congratulations on being such fine young women.

I am a junior at Gettysburg College in PA. I don't know if you have been watching the news lately, but there has been a murder on our college campus last Thursday. One student (a male senior) strangled and murdered his (ex-)girlfriend of one year (a sophomore). It really shook our campus hard, along with myself, even though i did not know either one that was involved. After breaking down a little tonight, i realized, crying was not going to change the past; nor prevent incidents, assaults, nor murders like this from happening again in the future.
What will? Taking action!
I found your contact information after googling 'self defense for women classes' and wanted to get in contact with you right away. I was hoping you could hold self defense classes for female students, or any woman (faculty, staff or students) on our campus to help protect us if we were to ever get ourselves in this type of situation. It is very scary to know that an innocent 19 year old young woman was strangled, stabbed and murdered by someone that loved her for a year. Not even a stranger, or a crazy drug addict rapist on the street! Her boyfriend! Someone she trusted and loved! How scary is that? She was not able to get away, she was not able to defend herself. She died because of that.
But you... you have the power to give us woman that power. You have the ability to give us woman the ability to defend ourselves. To win. To live. And to help with our recovery of her death on our campus. I believe that immediately holding these self defense classes on our campus will prove that Emily Rachel Silverstein did not die in vain.
Please help me, help us. Give us the power, the ability to defend ourselves and live.