Melissa Morales is a self-defense instructor with Peace Over Violence, a local non-profit dedicated to empowering survivors of domestic violence.
- Non-profit teaches self-defense to domestic violence survivors
- Program helps to increase awareness and empower participants
- Students learn to defend themselves and identify red flags
As a mentor, she teaches her students to learn how to protect both their bodies, and their minds.
"At Peace Over Violence we work on an empowerment model. We work with survivors of both sexual assault and domestic violence. So we wanted to create a self defense program that reflected that," said Morales.
"So the first two aspects that we like to incorporate are awareness and assertiveness and what that means and how it’s a very important part of self defense."
Students learn techniques to fight off an attacker, but are also educated on how to identify red flags.
"We want to make sure that the teens that we work with understand what teen dating violence is. And it might be something that they’ve seen in their schools and communities and kind of normalized in a way," Morales said.
"We’re highlighting that these things are not OK and that these aren’t healthy relationships."
Alyssa Delatorre, a participant, says the program is building her own awareness on boundaries and self respect.
"Strength, to me, is about feeling empowered and being able to stand your ground and know your boundaries and make sure that no one exceeds those boundaries. You stay in those limits and you don’t let anyone go beyond those limits," Delatorre noted.
Morales' students feel a sense of confidence after class, building not just physical strength, but a safe community of open dialogue and positive encouragement.
"For me, taking on self defense and becoming an instructor was about being able to do more. And being able to have conversations with groups of women about what rape culture is, and what dating violence is," explained Morales.
"And incorporating that into our self-defense program. And talking about self defense not only as prevention, but as empowerment and being able to help those women and those people get their power back, especially after an assault or some sort of trauma."
Whether students have experienced violence or not, Morales says she hopes the program will show young girls that they are all worthy of peace, safety, and respect.