Prepare offers private, custom classes with a variety of goals and needs to groups, community-based organizations, and individuals. These classes can be hosted at our Training Center or held at your location. Programs can be tailored to a group’s particular interest or special requirements. All groups are limited to 16 students.
All skills are practiced in interactive scenarios with instructors and everyone receives one-on-one coaching. Physical skills are practiced full contact, full force against padded instructors trained in recreating common harassment and assault scenarios. Participants learn how to shorten the “freeze” response to fear and danger, assess and respond quickly to a confrontation, manage the effects of adrenaline, and act with intention to protect their lives and safety.
Our comprehensive programs offer training in a range of personal safety skills, including:
- psychological, physiological, and mental readiness – adrenaline management, problem solving under stress;
- threat assessment and threat management – predicting violence and aggression, avoidance options, verbal strategies, and physical resistance techniques; and
- verbal and non-verbal communication skills to handle conflict, boundary violations, inappropriate behaviors, and unwelcome touch.
Fundamental Concepts of our Curriculum
- External awareness to the environment – Where am I, what is happening?
- Internal awareness to one’s feelings – How does this person/situation make me feel?
- Threat assessment – Is this situation annoying or dangerous?
- Accessing external resources – Can I find help nearby and/or quickly leave and get to safety?
- Adrenaline/stress – How can I manage physiological and emotional arousal and not “shut down”?
- Threat management – What is the best option to keep me safe? Can I move to safety, can I verbally set limits or self advocate? Is physical resistance an option?
- Body boundaries – How close is someone getting/are they breaching the norms of social behavior?
- Emotional boundaries – How is someone “pushing my buttons” or manipulating me?
- Communication skills – How can I use words and nonverbal communication to say what I mean clearly and powerfully?
- Bystander Intervention – How can I access the help of people in the area?
- Allied Behavior – Can I find a way to stand up for others?
For all privately organized programs outside of New York City, additional expenses may include transportation costs such as car rental or train, bus or air tickets for 2 or 3 instructors, transportation to and from the airport and back and forth to the class location, per diem of $45 per day per instructor and accommodations.
Learn more about Prepare – who we are and what we do.
Contact us to discuss class options and to arrange scheduling by phone at 212-255-0505 or email.
Class Descriptions
16 – 20 Hour IMPACT Basics Class
(for participants 9th grade and older, or older than 13 accompanied by an adult)
Adult Women and Teens
Adult Men and Teens
Mixed Gender Adult and Teens
Basics is a comprehensive program offering instruction and practice in a range of realistic encounters at various levels of danger or threat. Students learn to trust their instincts and increase their environmental awareness. Verbal strategies include those designed to help prevent potential encounters escalating to violence, and strategies to manage verbal conflict and boundary violations. We train individuals in options for physical resistance. These techniques include walking away, breathing, posture and other non-verbal communication, as well as strikes for when danger is imminent and can’t be avoided. Through repetition and a gradual increase in challenge and intensity (specific for each student), our graduates gain confidence in their abilities.
In a safe, supportive environment, our professional instructor teams create context and scenarios that allow students to practice in an adrenalized state. Students exercise both verbal and physical skills, receiving personal feedback from a coach and fully padded suited instructor. This unique physical training method offers both practice drills and dynamic, realistic scenarios. Participants also practice the transition from verbal strategies to physical technique. When the instructors are portraying physical aggression, the suits protect their most vulnerable target areas as students practice delivering full force, full contact strikes.
The class employs a combination of demonstrations, training exercises and role-plays — allowing students to practice and refine their skills, and to develop “muscle memory” and improve adrenaline management.
Schedule format
Option A: two consecutive weekends, 4-5 hours each day on Saturday and Sunday
Option B: four Saturdays or four Sundays in a row
Option C: three or four day weekend intensive (for example: Thursday- Sunday, Friday – Monday)
Option D: you choose a custom schedule!
The fee for the class is $6000 – 8000. Pricing depends on location of class and schedule format. A deposit of $1000 is required. This deposit is non-refundable 2 months before class begins. Room requirements:
- Must be private and ok to make a lot of noise
- A/C and/or heating as needed
- Bathrooms nearby
- Approx. 600 – 1000 square feet, no columns
- Gymnastic mats (thin – 1.5 inches, not thick) with Velcro on all 4 sides, or wrestling mats of approximately 300 square feet
- We come with all other necessary equipment for teaching the class.
Introductory Workshops for Adults and Older Teens (all women, all men, or all genders) 2 – 4 hours
Learn the basics of personal safety with strangers and with people you know. In this program, everyone will have the chance to practice the verbal and physical skills with a fully padded instructor and learn how to read people and situations while trusting their instincts. Although the physical safety skills are often the highlight of our program, our classes cover more than just how to stay safe or how to advocate for yourself in a confrontation. You will learn how to listen carefully, think clearly, problem-solve, and communicate while adrenalized. Cost ranges from $1200 – $2000, please call 212-255-0505 for more information.
9 Hour Prepare Young Teen Program for 7th and 8th graders OR 6th and 7th graders (single or mixed gender)
This program is ideal for young people who are becoming more independent and will not always be under adult supervision. Using one-on-one coaching and focused role-playing, the workshop introduces personal safety issues to a maturing young person. Scenarios include moving around on one’s own (public transportation), being home alone, group dating and social relationships/peer pressure, navigating public spaces like movie theatres and restaurants, ending inappropriate interactions with adults and older teens you know, general street safety, and accessing adult support.
Schedule format is three sessions of 3 hours each.
The fee for the class is $3750 – 4000. A deposit $500 is required. This deposit is non-refundable 2 months before class begins. Same room requirements as above.
10–20 Hour Prepare Older Teens/College-Bound Students (single or mixed gender)
Classes for older teens guides students through the next level of navigating friendships and romantic relationships in a larger social context. Teens will practice more physical resistance skills, social problem solving skills, and additional verbal strategies. The concepts are presented through the lens of critical thinking: decision making, risk taking, and making healthy choices.
Pricing and schedule options upon request. A deposit of $1000 is required. This deposit is non-refundable 2 months before class begins. Same room requirements as above.
6 hour Prepare Children’s Program for 2nd – 5th graders (mixed gender)
Please call to discuss programs specific for Kindergarten and 1st grade children.
Age-appropriate personal safety education classes work to strengthen children’s emotional and psychological integrity and focus on developing smart safety habits when dealing with strangers and people they know. Prepare’s training introduces children to awareness and avoidance of danger, how to communicate verbally and non-verbally, and how to strike and flee to safety when necessary. In addition, kids practice emotional and physical boundary setting. They rehearse options to respond to bullying behavior, stop unwelcome attention and inappropriate physical contact, and access adult help. All skills are practiced in interactive scenarios with instructors and students receive one-on-one coaching.
It is most ideal to group participants in clusters that are close to the same age, i.e. 2nd and 3rd graders together, 4th and 5th graders together.
Schedule format is two sessions of 3 hours each (for example, Saturday and Sunday).
The fee for the class is $2500 – 3000. A deposit of $400 is required. This deposit is non-refundable 2 months before class begins. Same room requirements as above, except that we do not need mats on the floor. Mats or carpet is preferred, but not required.
Parent, Caregiver and Educator 3 Hour Workshop
This program is geared towards educating adults so they can help keep kids safe. Created in collaboration with Carolyn Meyer-Wartels, LCSW-R, the Workshop is perfect for anyone who parents, teaches, coaches or otherwise engages with children (especially young kids). We’ll cover replacing myth with fact, how to improve your risk assessment and intuition skills, what you need to know and what you can model and teach your children to help them build protective factors and reduce vulnerabilities. Interactive verbal exercises for challenging conversations and problem solving scenarios make this a dynamic and invaluable program. The fee for this class is $1500.
Register for Classes
Register for a program at our Training Center, or call 212-255-0505 to discuss options for School, Workplace, or Private programs.