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Organizations host teen safety training at Roswell Area Park
By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com
ROSWELL, Ga. — Metro Atlanta nonprofit Revved Up Kids partnered with the Roswell Police Department to host a day of personal safety and self-defense workshops for children and teenage girls on March 11 at Roswell Area Park.
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The two-hour sessions were split by age, with the first for children 6 to 11 years old and the second sessions for teenage girls ages 11-18. About 15 teenage girls and their parents gathered in the auditorium for a conversation on personal safety and a lesson on basic self-defense moves.
The seminars were hosted by Alli Neal, founder of Revved Up Kids. She began the organization in 2009 to protect children from sexual abuse exploitation.
“We want to proactively equip them, but also want to prepare them if things go wrong,” Neal said.
The workshop is split into a few main sections. First, Neal presents various scenarios and asks the girls what they would do. She provides tips on how to safely navigate dark parking lots, parties and various social situations while pointing out common red flags for exploitation.
Then the girls practice self-defense moves on prop figures. After the activity, they reaffirm the lessons from the day. Parents can participate at certain points, but Neal said its important that the information comes from her.
“Even though a lot of the stuff we say may be similar to what their parents say to them, they hear it differently from us,” Neal said.
The workshop pushes parents to have “family conversations” about difficult topics. Neal said she sees that parents don’t know how to have conversations with their kids about sexual predators.
Paige Laine brought her daughter Shelby to the seminar after the teenager was pulled over by police on a quiet road at night. Laine said she’s glad it was a real police officer that pulled her over, but it helped her realize all she had not told her daughter about personal safety.
The founder said the solution to sexual predators is not to bar children and teens from common activities, like
