Elizabeth Good talks on the Elizabeth Good Basis workplace in Salt Lake Metropolis on June 3, 2022, about her life and partnership with the Malouf Basis forward of the twentieth anniversary of her kidnapping. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Elizabeth Good mentioned a brand new program referred to as Good Protection is designed particularly for ladies and women to learn to defend themselves towards sexual assault.
“Within the U.S., an individual is sexually assaulted each 68 seconds, and one in six American ladies have been a sufferer of or virtually accomplished rape, and that's terrifying,” Good mentioned on KSL NewsRadio’s “Dave & Dujanovic” present on Tuesday.
The very first thing Good needs individuals to study from her self-defense program is that it’s not their fault in the event that they develop into a sufferer of sexual assault.
“That's the No. 1 factor I need any and each survivor and sufferer to know. There may be nothing that makes what occurred to them OK. It isn't their fault,” Good mentioned.
Good mentioned she developed this program as a result of whereas in her case she didn't know her attacker, most different instances of kidnapping and sexual assault contain an individual the sufferer is near.
“If not me then who? I really feel so extremely blessed and fortunate as a result of what occurred to me got here by the hands of a stranger. They weren’t those that I knew, they weren’t those that I like, they weren’t individuals I had a relationship with,” Good mentioned.
As a result of sexual assaults can occur to anybody, the following lesson she mentioned everybody ought to perceive is that self-defense is empowering however can solely develop into helpful if practiced over lengthy intervals of time.
“Must you ever end up in that second of panic, of stress, of concern, your physique simply reacts and except that is educated into your muscle reminiscence, these instruments might not be out there to you except you have got frequently practiced them,” Good mentioned.
Good mentioned that whereas public areas similar to colleges or companies usually follow security drills for emergencies like fires or earthquakes, no one is educating what to do within the occasion of a kidnapping or sexual assault. Good Protection is a brand new useful resource to assist fill the void on this space of security preparation.
“The place these statistics and these numbers are so excessive, no one teaches you what it is best to do if somebody does attempt to sexually abuse you, and never many individuals are educating the distinction between enthusiastic consensual intercourse versus sexual violence,” Good mentioned.
Understanding the distinction between consensual, enthusiastic intercourse and rape together with a self-defense class was one thing Good mentioned may need helped her in her story. Whereas she didn’t speculate on whether or not it will have prevented the kidnapping and violence, she mentioned she is aware of that it will have helped her really feel empowered to struggle again.
“As we have been creating this program and as we have been piloting this program, one of many coolest experiences for me was with the ability to maintain pads for the opposite ladies and women to hit. Every of those ladies and women have been robust they usually may hit. What a distinction there was between their strikes at first of the category to the top of their class,” Good mentioned.
Good mentioned the final word aim is to supply a chance for somebody to get away from a foul state of affairs. She emphasised that it's not to destroy or kill the opposite individual however to permit the sufferer to get to security. Together with the bodily actions, Good additionally mentioned the significance of educating your children how to attract consideration to their state of affairs by continued vocalizing misery practices.
“It’s so essential to me that (youngsters) know learn how to make the most of the talents that they have already got, and positively our voices are a terrific place to start,” Good mentioned.
Good Protection programs are supplied on-line and in individual at completely different places in Colorado Springs, Salt Lake Metropolis, Riverton, St. George, Pocatello and Kansas Metropolis, with a brand new location opening up in Utah County in August.
These programs will formally develop into a part of the college curriculum for college kids at Southern Utah College beginning this fall. Registration for on-line or in-person self-defense lessons might be discovered at elizabethsmartfoundation.org.