ABOUT US
We are a not-for-profit organisation based in NSW, committed to helping women and girls become Safe, Resilient & Empowered
Our Vision
That every Australian has a toolkit of emotional, mental & physical skills in order to feel safe, resilient and empowered in any situation.
Our Mission
Our Mission is to ensure every Australian has access to Empowerment & Self Defence (ESD) training. Our nation-wide initiative called "Empowered Communities" will provide instructor training to key community members all over Australia to help us reach this goal.their community.
Our Values
INTEGRITY – We model the values we teach with authenticity, compassion and mindfulness
AVAILABILITY – Everyone deserves to feel safe; regardless of income, age, gender, race, sexual orientation, ability or circumstance
BELIEF – We believe in the power and efficacy of Empowerment Self Defence. It is proven, it is practical and it works
SERVICE – We are of service to our local and greater community
Empowered Communities Initiative
To help us reach our vision we are working on a Nation-wide initiative called "Empowered Communities". The goal for this project is to reach as many communities throughout Australia as possible with Empowerment Self Defence instructor training to enable them to service their own communities and help reduce gender-based violence.
Help us create a safer tomorrow by becoming
Empowered Today.
Our Story
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The Initial Spark...
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In 2016 my husband, Mark, finally let go of working in the stressful IT industry (after many years of 'encouragement' from me), in order to find something he was truly passionate about. He allowed himself the following 6 months to just relax, heal & allow his next journey to reveal itself. During this time he read an article by " " about how Martial Arts teachers were failing their female students. This article talked about the differences in gender-based violence and how most self defence classes teach women to look in all the wrong places for potential risk. It also shared the statistic "1 in 5 Australian women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime"
(Australian Bureau of Statistics). This figure was so startling, overwhelming and abhorrent that it started him down a path
of research into the best options for female self defence.
Merging paths...​
At the same time I was also at a crossroads, having recently decided to move on from teaching (after 20 years in the school system). Personally I had always been very invested in the Mind-Body connection and it's place in healing & overall wellbeing. I was preparing to open my own business offering stress consultancy & a new healing modality I developed called ShinShinRaku. We quickly realised that our shared passion for personal growth & wellbeing and the combination of skills & knowledge we shared, seemed a perfect fit for
co-facilitation. This ultimately lead to the formation of Empowered Today Inc. in 2019. We both have experience in Martial Arts (Aikido) & thought we understood self defence well. After researching more, we realised that there was a huge body of evidence for Empowerment & Self Defence (ESD) training, being the best and most effective way to both reduce gender-based violence & help
people feel empowered in the process.
Up-skilling...
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Through further research we discovered that the US had a long history in ESD and we were fortunate enough to find an organisation (ESD Global) offering instructor training. We travelled to New York in 2019 to complete the training and began
co-facilitating workshops in our local community right away.
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Access for all...
Since our vision was to help reduce gender-based violence, we wanted as many people as possible to have access to our training. For this reason we decided to establish a not-for-profit organisation where our course fees would be kept deliberately low and scholarships would be available for people who may not be able to afford to attend otherwise. More recently we have been focusing on our new initiative "Empowered Communities" that is designed to provide instructor training to communities throughout Australia to help us move towards our goal that all Australians have access to ESD training.
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Lisa Evans
President of Empowered Today
Meet The Team
Lisa Evans
President - Founder -  Instructor
Networker Extraordinaire
Lisa has over 20 years of teaching experience and is one of only two fully certified ESD Global trainers in Australia. She is a 1st degree black belt in both Aikido and Goshindo and a qualified relaxation and stress management consultant. She is passionate about the transformation that happens when women are taught ESD+.
Mark Evans
Vice President - Founder -  Instructor
Tech Wiz
Mark has been doing martial arts for over 30 years, is a 6th degree black belt in Aikido and has been running dojos and teaching self defence for the last 17 years. He has over 20 years of group facilitation experience and his goal is to affect positive change in people’s lives by providing training that empowers those at risk of sexual violence.
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Is this martial arts?No. The physical techniques and scenarios we teach are a combination of tried and tested ‘street defence’ tactics developed over the last 40 years. There is a huge focus on preventing violence and aggression before it becomes physical through situational awareness, risk assessment, boundary setting and de-escalation as well as realistic survival strategies.
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What will I be expected to do during the class?Our classes are designed to be fun and engaging even though we deal with serious topics. All the games, exercises, drills and discussions are voluntary and you will not be asked to do anything you are not comfortable with. During the assertiveness / empowerment section there will be a combination of short lectures, interactive exercises, and group discussions that will help you to develop your verbal self-defence skills and boundary setting, your awareness and intuition, and your understanding of the underlying causes of violence against women. During the physical skills section, you will practice physical self-defence skills alone and with a partner. We encourage you to wear clothes that are easy to move in, but no special preparation is necessary. You do not need any prior experience or special skills to take our classes.
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Do I need to be super athletic to take a self defence class?No! The physical skills we teach are easy to learn and do not require a great deal of strength or skill. They can be used by anyone, from children to older people. If you have particular concerns (for example, a bad back or a chronic injury), consult with our staff about how to adapt the skills for your situation.
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Can self-defence prevent violence?Yes! Research has shown that empowerment-based self-defence training can reduce women’s risk of violence by at least 50%. See the ESD+ page for more information.
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What does ‘trauma-informed’ mean?A ‘Trauma-informed’ environment is one in which a feeling of safety is paramount. We create a safe place for you to do the training where we outline the days events and ensure that you feel comfortable participating in the events. All activities are voluntary. As a personal safety training we always attribute the responsibility for assault to perpetrators, not the injured party. We respect that every person has a different life story and there is never any judgement around the past or the choices made to get to this point in time. We create a supportive friendly environment where we work together to understand and learn the skills to deal with the spectre of violence.
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Isn't teaching self defence just victim blaming?Not at all! The perpetrator is ALWAYS to blame for the violence they commit and ESD+ classes explicitly attribute responsibility for assault to perpetrators. Empowerment Self Defence is simply one of the tools available to help combat violence against women and just because a woman is capable of defending herself, does not mean that she is responsible for doing so. There are already other tools being employed by other organisation such as male re-education and bystander intervention programs. However, systemic changes such as these often take generations to become part of mainstream society and in the meantime perpetrators will still be committing sexual assault. We are committed to teaching people about the nature of violence and giving them the tools to navigate those situations successfully. When we tell a driver to wear a seatbelt in case they are in an accident we are not victim blaming, we are simply trying to employ every means possible to keep them safe.
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I’m a survivor of sexual assault. Is taking a self-defence class a good idea for me?Yes. Research has shown that empowerment-based self-defence classes can be empowering and healing for sexual assault survivors. We aim to create a survivor-centred, trauma-informed classroom. However, we encourage you to be aware of where you are in your healing process, and to consult with a therapist or other advisor if you are not certain whether you are ready to take the class. None of the exercises in our courses are mandatory and you can choose from a range of options for anything you are uncomfortable with - including opting out.
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I’m a trans woman or a genderqueer woman. Can I participate?Yes! As long as you identify as a woman (however you define it), you are welcome in this class. We are trans-friendly, queer-friendly, Greek-friendly, geek-friendly… We’re just friendly!
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I’m a trans man, or a cisgender man. Can I participate?At this time, the women’s self-defence class is designed for people who identify as women. We are hoping to develop LGBTQIA+ specific classes in the future.
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I notice that one of your instructors is male. Why is a man teaching women’s self-defence?All our instructors are committed to ending violence against women. They are passionate about helping women develop the tools to both Empower and Defend themselves, and have dedicated themselves to helping to build the most effective program possible. We believe that sexual assault is not just a women’s issue, and we value the contributions, expertise and experience of everyone who opposes sexual violence.
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Do you have payment plans / financial assistance?Yes. We never want money to be the reason a person doesn’t get this potentially life-saving training. We always have free scholarship places available for every training we do. Please contact us if you would like to apply for a scholarship for one of our workshops.
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