Welcome To ESD Global
Our Mission
is to combat the pervasive spectrum of interpersonal violence, through the proven efficacy, cost-effectiveness, and therapeutic benefits of Empowerment Self Defense (ESD) training that empowers individuals to interrupt violence, assert boundaries, and enhance mental and physical responses.
Our Vision
We envision a world with widespread access to Empowerment Self Defense training as a lead factor in the reduction of incidents of interpersonal violence. We aim to empower entire communities to establish their right to live full, free lives.
Core Values
Empowerment
We believe in people having power over their own lives and their own spaces, while claiming and exercising their rights.
Self
Through empowerment, we believe that everyone should see their value and occupy their space within a community. Our practices lead to increased self-esteem, self-worth, and self-acknowledgement.
Defense
Everyone has a right to freedom from harm.
Community
We build community and believe in the interconnectedness of all people. To help others is to help the self. The ‘Power of WE’ is based in Ubuntu, “I am because you are.”
Growth Mindset
We build resilience through a love of learning and dedication to continuing excellence. While constant growth aims at great accomplishment, we also act at the risk of failure understanding that failure is another opportunity to learn.
Who We Are
About Us
Training includes physical self-defense techniques and a comprehensive range of tactics, including verbal techniques, awareness skills, confidence-building practices, and more. The empowerment model focuses on honoring and expanding the choices of participants, particularly those who have survived trauma and discrimination, and evidence supports the efficacy of Empowerment Self Defense education in reducing gender-based violence and other acts of interpersonal violence.
Originally created in response to the overwhelming occurrence of Gender-Based Violence, we believe that ESD training is a key violence prevention strategy to interrupt, respond to, and heal from violence in all forms. Our empowerment-based, trauma-informed approach makes Empowerment Self Defense different from conventional self-defense in that it covers all matters of violence rather than only physical.
ESD Global is a global collective of Empowerment Self Defense instructors, activists, and educators providing training worldwide in an effort to scale the accessibility of ESD. Our training aims to create new generations of Instructors from diverse communities and empower them with the tools to teach Empowerment Self Defense methodologies that are uniquely catered to their community and the populations they serve.
Our Work
"ESD has taught me that there is nothing wrong about saying no. ESD has taught me that no matter who you are, where you come from, or what you believe, authentic empowerment always comes from within, but sometimes we need the support and encouragement from others to remind us how to connect with that power."
We are a global community.
We are ESD.
We are changing the world.
Our Spirit
A Global Community of Instructors in over 45 Countries
