Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower International, commonly shortened to Kidpower, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit child safety organization teaching child protection and personal safety skills to adults and children to prevent bullying, abuse, abduction, and other violence. Kidpower was founded in 1989 in Santa Cruz, California, and has ten locations in the U.S. and 20 in other countries. Kidpower has provided services to millions of people worldwide of all ages, and abilities, including people with special needs. In addition to stranger safety (awareness and abduction prevention), confidence skills, boundary setting skills, positive peer communication (bullying prevention), and de-escalation skills to stop a fight before it gets physical, Kidpower also teaches physical self-defense to adults, teens, and children as young as six years old, using padded instructors. In September 2014, Kidpower launched an initiative to establish September as International Child Protection Month, with the goal to create a global annual event that supports adult leadership in protecting young people from harm, and empowering them with skills to take charge of their own well-being, a core element of Kidpower's programs. Kidpower's One Million Safer Kids campaign, launched in 2011, aims to broaden its reach to provide safety and confidence building lessons to one million more young people by July 2016. Kidpower workshops are most frequently taught in schools and for community or service groups, such as Police Department Service Clubs, Girl Scouts, and agencies that provide services to at-risk youth and adults, such as domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters, and migrant education agencies. Kidpower programs are known for being positive, practical, safe, and age-appropriate. Kidpower has coined a new term to describe the skills taught in its programs, "People Safety", defined as people being emotionally and physically safe, both with themselves and others. History Kidpower was founded by Irene van der Zande in 1989, spurred by an incident where she defended herself and a group of young children from a man threatening to kidnap one of the children. She stood between the man and the children, and he ran away after she yelled at him to gain the attention of others at the scene, asking them to join her in protecting the children. Kidpower has grown from a local California nonprofit to an International organization that trains and supports nonprofit centers, with more than 150 certified instructors across 16 countries, teaching people of all ages practical personal safety skills to prevent most forms of violence,