USA Swimming Safe Sport Newsletter

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a foundation that allows for direct on-going communication with each of you. Information contained within will cover the most current Safe Sport related information. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, please e-mail us at athleteprotection@usaswimming.org.

Safe Sport Updates

Please help us in recognizing Ralph Nowacki, San Diego Imperial Safe Sport Chair! Ralph became involved in USA Swimming when his children made childhood and teenage careers out of being in the water. The Safe Sport initiative is important to Ralph because it makes a clear and strong statement to the swim community that any abuse towards USA Swimming members will not be tolerated. Ralph has enjoyed being the Safe Sport Chair because he gets to see the program’s processes in action. He has also realized that the potential of the program itself taps into the natural tendency that people have to protect and care for others. Ralph took it upon himself to develop a Safe Sport Blog for San Diego Imperial. This is a great way to highlight the importance of Safe Sport. Thanks Ralph for your leadership and commitment to the Safe Sport initiative.

We would also like to highlight the Indiana Swimming Safe Sport page! This is another fabulous example of how the Safe Sport initiative can be shared with members. Please take some time to look through this page.

All of our LSC Safe Sport Chairs are doing great work! Let us know what you are doing in your LSC to spread the Safe Sport word and we’ll highlight it in the next Safe Sport Newsletter.

Safe Sport Bag Tag! We are pleased to announce creation and distribution of the Safe Sport Bag Tag. The bag tag was given to each athlete at the 2013 AT&T Winter National Championships and the 2013 Speedo Winter Junior National Championships. We received good feedback that the athletes are familiar with Safe Sport and put the tags on their bags right away. If you would like to make a bag tag order please contact Susan Woessner at swoessner@usaswimming.org or Liz Hoendervoogt at ehoendervoogt@usaswimming.org. We will send up to 500 bag tags to any one LSC free of charge and can provide the art to any LSC who would like to duplicate more.  We will make another order in advance of the summer championship meets and have more available for the LSCs then as well.  

Training and Education

In November, Safe Sport Coordinator, Liz Hoendervoogt, traveled to Houston to facilitate the Safe Sport Athlete Training for approximately 60 athletes ages 12-15 at the Texas All Star Camp. The athletes were extremely receptive to and engaged in the training. Safe Sport staff are available to come to LSC athlete camps or clinics to facilitate the Athlete Training. Please contact Liz at ehoendervoogt@usaswimming.org if you are interested.

We continue to offer free webinars as Safe Sport educational opportunities!  The next webinar will be December 18th and will address “Risk Areas and How to Respond to Boundary Violations”. Please click here to register.

As a reminder, if you are interested in bringing a speaker to your HOD or Swimposium to speak on Safe Sport issues, please contact athleteprotection@usaswimming.org

Remind Your Clubs

Deadline Approaching for the Mandatory Athlete Protection Training for Non-Athlete Members. Non-athlete members will need to renew their athlete protection training course by Dec. 31, 2013 in order to remain a current member of USA Swimming. You can access the training here for either renewals or the first time taking the training.  Please remind your coaches, officials, and other non-athlete members!

Follow us on Twitter!  USA Swimming Safe Sport is on Twitter at @SwimSafeSport. Follow us for Safe Sport related information, program highlights and other educational nuggets.
 

Safe Sport Literature

There are many national organizations that offer fantastic resources regarding childhood sexual abuse.

Darkness to Light is a grassroots national non-profit organization that seeks to protect children from sexual abuse by placing responsibility squarely on adult shoulders. They educate adults to prevent, recognize and react responsible to child sexual abuse. Please click here for their PDF on 7 Steps to preventing, recognizing and reacting responsibly to child sexual abuse.

Stop It Now! is another national organization that prevents the sexual abuse of children by mobilizing adults, families and communities to take actions that protect children before they are harmed. Please click here for information on behaviors to watch for when adults are with children and what you can do if you see warning signs.

Stop It Now! has also put together tips on how to talk with children and young people about adults who show signs of sexual interest in children. It is important to take the time to learn to recognize and speak up before a child is harmed. This would be a great resource to pass along to clubs as well as to parents and you can access it here.