Albany, NY (April 22, 2020) – The Rensselaerville Institute is pleased to announce it has awarded a $3,000.00 grant to the Albany County Sheriff’s Department. These funds will support the Rape Aggressive Defense Systems (R.A.D.) program.
RAD is a women's self-defense course, taught to local residents for free almost every single month of the year. The Albany County Sheriff's Office has been offering this program since 2013. This course gives women the tools and information of risk awareness, safety and learning how to fight back if they ever need to in a safe environment.
The goal of the funds is to train and certify new instructors and purchase new equipment that needs to be replaced. The response to the program is overwhelming and most times there is a waitlist. Certifying new trainers will allow the program to expand into the Senior community.
For more than 30 years, the Rensselaerville Institute has made it possible for more than 830 communities in 32 states to help themselves chart their own course, fix their own problems and develop their own assets – including their leaders. 100% of these communities achieved the community betterment targets they set out in their projects and more than 50% of them continued with additional and larger projects. This extremely cost-effective approach goes beyond investing in community improvement to investing in community capacity and leadership. The compressed six month time frame of the projects helps build energy and drive action while the mini-investments attract additional resources.
Human Sparkplugs - Are more powerful than great plans, a big committee or even a lot of money in achieving organizational and community change. Sparkplugs are present in all places—although many are inhibited by conventional process models of change.
For more information visit: www.rinstitute.org.