Success stories are a highly valuable teaching tool. They may come from the instructor or from participants, and can be stories from the past or stories that emerge during the course itself as participants begin using the skills between sessions.

A success story shared by the instructor serves as a learning tool for conveying a message or demonstrating that a particular skill works: someone like you was in a similar situation, used these skills, and they worked. Therefore, you can use them too.

If a participant shares a story from her past, the instructor should help frame it as a success story as well - especially if the participant experiences it as a story of failure. When the story illustrates the use of skills that have just been taught, it reinforces both the learning process and the group as a whole.

Success stories can be a powerful tool for changing narratives of victimisation and vulnerability. When women share success stories, other women hear them, and this encourages them to believe that they too can set boundaries, resist harassment, and stop an assault. In this way, storytelling becomes a form of resistance to the stereotypes that society attempts to impose on women. Women often report that reading success stories from other women encourages them to think in advance about, “What would I do if this happened to me?”, to plan their responses, and to feel better prepared.

It is important to share stories that are appropriate to the age, background, and characteristics of the participants.

As a network, it is important for us to collect success stories for several reasons. First, these stories strengthen our confidence in the effectiveness of the method and show us the many different ways in which Empowerment Self-Defence improves and influences the lives of course participants.

Secondly, they help support your teaching, particularly for newer instructors who have not yet had the opportunity to gather many stories from their own courses.

Please share your success stories from your teaching here!

Here you can find the collection of stories that are already in the library.

Please note that stories can be searched not only by ESD related tags, but also by age group and type of population.

When adding your stories, please make sure to select as many relevant tags as possible.