Our History
Community organizer Irene van der Zande was inspired to found Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower International in 1989 after she protected a group of young children, including her own two, from an attack. With co-founder Timothy Dunphy and other experts, she created positive and effective child protection and personal safety programs that have now served over 5 million people of all ages and abilities worldwide through workshops, partnerships, and educational resources.
Jan Isaacs Henry, Jan DeBoer and Debra Campeau established the Colorado Center in 1994. Each had other jobs that involved sensitivity to the topic of child abuse.
Jan Isaacs Henry, has trained and supervised the Colorado staff and continues to do Kidpower presentations throughout the state. She was a Licensed Professional Counselor in the Colorado Springs area from 1978 through 1997 specializing in the treatment of trauma. Jan received the Girl Scouts Woman of Distinction in 1994, a Hero Award for the Promotion of Non-Violence in 2001 from the Unitarian Church, the 2008 Lohman Award for “Excellence on Behalf of Children” from the El Paso County Bar Association, the Woman of Influence award from the Colorado Springs Business Journal in 2013, the Iuppa Award in 2019 from Safe Passage Children’s Advocacy Center for her work with Kidpower.
Since inception, the program has steadily grown in terms of programs offered, certified Jan Isaacs Henry, Kidpower of Colorado Co-founder and Executive Director staff, and volunteer involvement. In 1994, 164 individuals were served.
To date, more than 60,000 individuals have received safety training and Kidpower has collaborated with more than 200 schools, agencies and organizations. Additionally, hundreds of thousands more have benefited from our training for educators, social service agency staff, law enforcement officials and parents, and from our educational resources.
