The goal of quality sport is to create positive experiences in supportive environments. Ultimately, if sport participation and physical activity isn’t fun, progressive, positive, or welcoming, children, youth, and adults alike will turn to other activities that may be much less healthy. Quality sport is developmentally appropriate, safe and inclusive, and well run. Another way of saying this is that quality sport consists of good programs, led by good people, in good places.
Sport for Life’s new webpage shares their Safe Sport Strategy, how they are defining safe sport, and their connections to the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport – a policy Sport for Life has proudly adopted as a program signatory of Abuse-Free Sport. Their Strategy may assist your organization in developing an appropriate strategy and policies around Safe Sport.
The Ottawa Safe Sport Toolkit is a free online toolkit developed to provide organizations with user-friendly resources that identify and mitigate risks and that engage participants, coaches, officials, administrators, and volunteers in the safe sport journey. The Toolkit comes with a complete Implementation Guide (zip folder download) to support organizations as they continue their journey to create safe and thriving sport environments. Included in the Toolkit are numerous templates that are easily customized to the community level sport environment. The Safe Sport Essentials guide is also available for those organizations who are just beginning their safe sport journey.
The toolkit is organized into four major components:
- Policies – How to protect community sport organizations and their members
- Training Requirements – How to ensure everyone understands their role
- Engagement & Communication – How to ensure the safe sport culture exists and anchor the policies and training in behaviours
- Resources – Complimentary information and resources to promote awareness
Click here to access the entire Ottawa Safe Sport Toolkit.
Safe, inclusive sport environments help make sport rewarding and enriching for all. The Safe Sport Training module developed by the Coaching Association of Canada will help anyone involved in sport identify and prevent situations of maltreatment. The Safe Sport Toolbox contains many resources and materials to facilitate a culture of safe sport.
The free Support Through Sport series offers training and resources to empower coaches to recognize and take action to address gender-based violence and teen dating violence. The four eLearning modules within the Support Through Sport series each focus on different topics regarding gender-based violence and teen dating violence. Understanding Teen Dating Violence is the foundational module, with three additional eLearning modules now available: Bystander Empowerment, Modelling Healthy Relationships and Gender-based Violence in Sport.
The Coaches Association of Ontario (CAO) and Hydro One have launched Safe Sport 101, a new virtual resource hub for coaches focused on safety in sport. Featuring downloadable resources, templates, quizzes and access to trainings, Safe Sport 101 is a one-stop-shop where coaches can find the tools they need to create a safe, postive and fun sport environment through COVID-19, and beyond. On May 18, CAO & Hydro One launched the Safe Sport 101 Playbook – a free 8-part e-learning series for coaches that focuses on what they can do to create safe and fun sport experiences for everyone. At less than 15 minutes per module, the Playbook was designed with a coach’s busy schedule in mind.
The Responsible Coaching Movement (RCM) is a multi-phase system-wide movement, coordinated by the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. The RCM is the result of extensive ongoing consultation with the Canadian Sport Community. These consultations will guide the different phases of the RCM that will address the role coaches play with issues relating to the health and safety of athletes, both on and off the field of play.
On April 6, 2022, the Coaching Association of Canada launched a free eLearning module, Understanding the Rule of Two. The Rule of Two is a leading practice for sport organizations to implement to help foster a safe environment for all. It is one of three pillars of the Responsible Coaching Movement, along with background screening and ethics training.
The CAC has launched the next phase of Responsible Coaching with the Safe, Smart and Secure campaign. Each pillar of the RCM (Rule of Two, Background Screening, Ethics Training) provides crucial elements, resources and processes to follow for sport to be Safe, Smart and Secure for all. The campaign encourages sport organizations to take the RCM pledge as a first step in helping to foster a safe and positive sport environment for all.
The CAC has developed new resources to help sport organizations communicate and implement safe sport policies to their members, including a short informational video to easily explain the RCM, a new interactive RCM Champions map and streamlined pledge process, a revised screening policy and process, and infographics and posters for the three RCM pillars.
Safe and Welcoming Sport Environments
The Alberta government has created a Safe Sport page that offers contact information for resources for Albertans who may may need assistance. Included on the page are the logo and links to the Canadian Sport HELPline. Sexual Harassment in Sport and Recreation fact sheet and Bullying Prevention in Sport and Recreation fact sheet.
Swimming Canada Safe Sport Overview
The Swimming Canada safe sport program is an excellent model for other sport organizations. It is focused on three key areas: education, prevention and response, all of which will be supported by strong governance, policies and procedures. The goal is to ensure that all members and registrants of Swimming Canada, at all levels, have the resources to provide and access a fun, healthy, inclusive and safe environment. This program is made possible by the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Government of Canada and the membership of Swimming Canada.
For details in each of the key areas, click on the links on the right side of the Safe Sport page.
The Sport for Life website has videos, resources and links to educate and inform anyone involved in creating positive, quality sport experiences for athletes, young and old, for communities and clubs at all levels across Canada. Both online training and workshops are also available at the Sport for Life Campus.
The Canadian Disability Participation Project, a SSHRC-funded alliance of university, public, private and government sector partners working together to enhance community participation among Canadians with physical disabilities, synthesized existing literature and sought input from stakeholders in the disability sport sector to generate an evidence-informed framework of optimal parasport participation. For more information about the Quality Parasport Participation Framework and resources, click here.
Quality sport doesn’t just happen, but occurs through intentional preparation. Sport New Zealand believes that quality sport, opportunities and experiences are vital to enrich and inspire the lives of young people by creating a lifelong love of sport. To this end, they have developed a great graphic of Young People’s Quality Indicators. They also created an Integrity Guidance Portal to help you can embed child and member safety into your organisation’s cultures. The Portal provides simple, easy-to-use policy and procedure guidelines, e-learning modules and examples of what good child and member safety practices looks like.