Көмекке келген қолдар: Seattle қаласындағы зорлыққа қарсы тұру және өзін-өзі қорғау ұйымының тарихы

Home Alive is a Seattle based anti violence organization that offers self defense classes on a sliding scale payment system. Home Alive once operated as a non profit organization and now continues to operate as a volunteer collective. Home Alive sees its work as integrated into larger social justice movements, recognizing how violence is often perpetuated through oppression and abuse. Home Alive classes included basic physical self defense, boundary setting, and advanced multi week courses.

Following the rape and murder of local singer Mia Zapata in 1993, a number of artists and musicians within Seattle began to meet and discuss the problems of violence within the community, and the lack of available resources such as self defense classes, which were considered impractical and somewhat unaffordable. The birth of this organization was informal, with meetings originating as heated discussions in the living rooms of concerned women from the scene. However the group had trouble deciding how to organize and agreeing on the best methods of self defense training to teach, so they chose to bring in teachers to help direct the course of their learning. This group of women, now recognized as the founders of the organization, pooled resources such as arts and music benefits in order to raise funds and study self defense. Classes were provided to the community originally for free, but then later on a sliding scale basis. This change occurred because the founders were advised not to offer the classes for free because attendees would not value the class if they did not pay for it. However, no one was turned away due to lack of funds. The group continues this work, providing classes to individuals, as before; but expanding to also educate establishments such as schools and businesses. With primary support still coming from the arts community, Home Alive continues to ground its self defense education in a movement for social justice. Violence occurs in childhood sexual abuse, date rape, intimate partner violence, and sexual harassment. The founders tried out other self defense classes but they found them lacking due to prices, and they offered restrictive rules for women. These rules included how women should dress conservatively and to never walk alone, thus this was another decision to create Home Alive. Home Alive offers tools, not rules, to everyone seeking more safety and connection in their lives. They promote consensual behavior, and believe that we all have a responsibility to respect each other's boundaries and right to self determination. Home Alive taught not only physical self defense but as well verbal boundaries like saying "no" when feeling uncomfortable, escape route techniques and much others including going to a therapist, writing in a journal, talking to friends and exercising. For the organization self defense meant to do anything to make oneself feel strong and able to take care of oneself in order to feel safer. Home Alive moved to the Capitol Hill district in 2004. Deactivation occurred because of how difficult it was to maintain non profit structure for the organization, as well as finding space and dependable funding. Members also found it difficult to maintain consistent leadership for the group, causing it to fall into disorganization. These performances were put on by a variety of people including bands, such as The Posies, and founders of Home Alive, such as Christien Storm, who performed spoken word, Valerie Agnew, who performed with her band 7 Year Bitch, and Gretta Harley, who performed with her band Maxi Bad. The first show took place at Seattle venue, RKCNDY (also known as Rock Candy). While funds from the shows went towards providing self defense classes, it did not always go directly to Home Alive. In the case of shows put on in February and March 1996, the money was put into a bank account with the intent of inspiring other organizations to provide self defense classes, which would be supported using funds from the bank account. In 2008 the University of Washington put on a performance of the Vagina Monologues, and the proceeds from the show went the organization. Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of the Seattle punk band Bikini Kill and kick starter of the Riot grrrl feminist movement, also appears on the album. In 2001, Home Alive released a second compilation album titled Flying Side Kick. The album features 17 tracks from various artists including The Gossip, Amy Ray and the Butchies, The Need, the Pinkos, Sanford Arms and more. Proceeds from album sales went to Home Alive.

Rock, Rage & Self Defense: An Oral History on Seattle's Home Alive, a documentary on the collective, was released in 2013. It was a documentary by Rozz Therrien and Leah Michaels, two then undergraduates at the University of Washington. Therrien graduated with a degree in American Ethnic Studies and Michaels graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History. Originally just seeking information for class, they came together to create an oral history about the group Home Alive and did not find a lot of information on the Internet. Both Therrien and Michaels did not have any technical background in filmmaking and self taught each other technical skills. They fundraised $10,000 to make the film in sound editing and to pay off legal fees through the Kickstarter campaign, grants and donations. In 2014 Therrien and Michaels are on tour screening their documentary across the country, and have recently shown support for the feminist movement YesAllWomen on their website in light of the 2014 Isla Vista killings. The creators hosted screenings of the documentary to various cities across the United States, and completed their last screening of their first tour on May 27, 2014. This raised awareness across the country about self defense and the history of Home Alive.