IMPACT teaches a research-based, trauma-informed curriculum that was developed over 35 years ago to teach effective prevention and safety skills for the average person. IMPACT’s curriculum was created by researching police records and by interviewing survivors and perpetrators, as well as expertise from the fields of education, psychology, sociology, communications and physiology. Combining this data on assault with information on learning styles, the founders created the most effective type of training for different groups (children, men, women, wheelchair users, etc.)
In 1999, volunteers and staff at the then Santa Fe Rape Crisis Center organized the first IMPACT class, acknowledging the significant need in our community for effective prevention skills.
In 2008, IMPACT expanded programs from its classes that teach effective safety and defense skills for the average person. IMPACT created short, 1-1.5-hour classes to better serve schools with limited time. Seminar classes take on issues of violence prevention for a community, from discussions about the roots of violence and bystander intervention to how to use one’s voice in an assault situation and intuition development.
While New Mexico has many quality agencies that assist survivors of assault, few agencies have the mission or capacity to address violence and abuse issues preventatively. IMPACT is the only organization in New Mexico that focuses on concrete preventative skills and innovative experiential-based safety training.
