Women Empowered program offers free self-defense classes for all ages

EVERETT — More than 30 women, from mother-daughter duos to seniors, streamed into PandaRoll JiuJitsu on Oct. 4.

For many attendees, including myself, that Saturday afternoon was our first self-defense class.

Hosted by the Lynnwood Police Department, the Women Empowered program is a biweekly two-hour class that focuses on different techniques each session. The class is free, and participants can attend at their convenience by signing up online .

“The Women Empowered program is based off the 20 most common physical threat scenarios against women,” said class instructor and Lynnwood Officer Maryam McDonald. “We’ve created 20 techniques that cover each one of those most common physical threat scenarios, and we’ve divided it into 15 different lessons.”

‘A whole broad, scalable spectrum of