Kidpower Colorado believes that healthy relationships are key to our emotional safety. Healthy relationships involve honesty, respect, and communication.
The ability to establish and maintain rewarding relationships is critical for optimal mental and physical health, and for success and joy in our life and work.
Knowing how to communicate effectively, negotiate conflict successfully, manage peer pressure, set healthy boundaries, and seek and offer help when needed are skills that all of us can learn.
Kidpower begins teaching social-emotional skills to children as young as 3 years old and focuses heavily on relationship safety in our Teenpower workshops.
Examples of skills learned
- Setting clear, respectful boundaries can strengthen communication with peers, family members, colleagues, and teammates
- Acting aware, calm, and confident can make difficult conversations go more smoothly
- Managing emotional triggers to stay in charge of our words and actions can stop us from harming those we love
- Applying safety principles about touch and attention in healthy relationships – including clearly expressing, respecting, and withdrawing consent – can deepen trust and strengthen connection with friends, partners, and other loved ones
- Advocating persistently to get help can get us the support we need when our caring friends, family, and colleagues do not know that we are scared, hurt, or suffering
- Protecting ourselves emotionally can help us think clearly and make wiser choices about how to respond when people we care about do or say things that feel hurtful or disrespectful
Like many other kinds of skills young people learn, these skills get stronger the more they are used.
