A Fighting Chance

Photograph by Jim West/Impact Visuals

After several school-aged girls were raped in Detroit last fall, a local group called Alternatives for Girls joined forces with a Catholic parish to sponsor a self-defense class for young women.

One recent Saturday morning, 103 girls participated in a three-hour class. After munching on fruit and bagels, they broke up into small groups to learn different techniques for fleeing an attacker. Some girls also used a mannequin to practice techniques for warding off an attacker (shown here).

The event benefited from donations from a variety of organizations. Nineteen instructors from both the Institute of Martial Arts Studies and Girls Empowered donated their time to teach the class, and 33 volunteers from the National Association of Women Business Owners helped manage the event.

The self-defense class is just one of an array of programs run by Alternatives for Girls. It also offers a “street outreach” mobile van that volunteers use to help girls who use drugs, work as prostitutes, or otherwise participate in dangerous activities, and it provides short-term shelter to homeless teenagers. It also offers after-school programs for girls aged 5 to 17 aimed at keeping them from dropping out of school and encouraging them to attend college.

About a quarter of the girls who participated in the self-defense class also attend Alternatives for Girls’ regular after-school programs. Alicia Castaneda, 13, has been a regular participant since she was 5; five of her six sisters take part as well. After taking the self-defense class, she feels safer and more sure of herself. “Before I used to walk home by myself and I didn’t like it a lot,” she says. “But now I don’t mind it. It doesn’t seem as long anymore.”