By Erin Wiltgen

chh@heraldsun.com; 419-6654

CHAPEL HILL -- Safety first: a mantra Bethany Corbin now lives to the letter.

After a personal run-in with domestic violence, Corbin, a sophomore international studies and economics major at UNC, threw herself into educating other young girls. Her program, Project Safe Girls, teaches girls ages 5 to 23 about healthy relationships, domestic violence, rape and self-defense both mentally and physically.

Though Project Safe Girls will begin as a pilot program through the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA's middle school after-school program, Corbin said the goal is to expand the project to other schools and eventually make safety prevention a course requirement.

"I want Project Safe Girls to be out there and out front," said Anny Jacoby, founder of The Realistic Female Self-Defense Company, of which Project Safe Girls is an official division. "This Project Safe Girls has to also take its own form. We're going to make it shine."

Jacoby has worked closely with Corbin to develop the program since Corbin approached the company. As sister organizations, both programs teach women essentially the same thing, they merely target a different audience. Corbin's project gears specifically to girls ages 5-23 who still attend school, whereas The Realistic Female Self-Defense Company caters to all ages whether school-going or not.

The bulk of the course lies in the awareness portion of safety. To begin with, instructors focus on the characteristics of an unhealthy situation, particularly relationships. Red flags include a significant other dictating who the other can spend time with and demanding that person answer the phone at a certain time.

Next comes lessons in de-escalation -- how to defuse a situation without violence. De-escalating techniques range from eye contact and a confident yet non-threatening demeanor to talking in low tones and maintaining a safe distance.

"Your de-escalation starts with the nonverbal," Jacoby said. "It's your demeanor. It's your presence. It's your body language. But the only way you get that air of confidence is by studying and understanding how he's thinking, how you need to be thinking, and then knowing how you can defend yourself verbally and non-verbally."

These lessons in the non-physical aspects of self-defense form the backbone of both Corbin's and Jacoby's programs.

"We promote violence prevention, raising awareness and the skills to reduce susceptibility to violence," Jacoby said. "The way you promote prevention is through education."

And though physical self-defense does enter into the woman's safety equation, Jacoby and her instructors still cater those lessons to females, teaching girls how men think, vulnerable spots other than the groin -- which men expect women to target -- and how to use female strengths as an advantage.

"Fighting back is not about staying in there and going ten rounds," Jacoby said. "We fight men with knowledge. Knowing is a powerful tool. But you have to know what your tools are."