Prevention

SmartTeams™ Talks: Safe4Athlete's Katherine Starr Says Four Steps To Preventing Sexual Abuse Of Athletes

In a powerful and frank SmartTeams Talk, a two-time Olympic swimmer and sexual abuse victim talks about the steps required to prevent abuse of athletes by coaches.
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National Youth Sports Safety Month
National Youth Sports Safety Month

Katherine Starr: Safe4Athletes' Founder Fighting To Keep Kids Safe From Sexual Abuse, Harassment, and Bullying

Submitted by National Youth Sports Safety Month on Tue, 04/29/2014 - 16:24. | comments

In recognition of April as National Youth Sports Safety Month, MomsTeam asked our friends in the medical, health, fitness, nutrition and athletic training communities to write blogs answering two questions: first, how or why did they get into their field, and second, how have they made a difference in the life of a youth athlete in the past year.

Today, as the month draws to a close, we hear from Katherine Starr, a former two-time Olympic swimmer and founder of Safe4Athletes, an advocacy and educational non-profit fighting to keep athletes safe from sexual abuse, harassment and bullying.

A former two-time Olympic swimmer talks about why she founded Safe4Athletes, an advocacy and educational non-profit fighting to keep athletes safe from sexual abuse, harassment and bullying.
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Though the wheels on Capitol Hill don't turn as fast as Missy Franklin's arms in the water, the months are ticking down to a full-blown congressional investigation of allegations of sexual abuse by coaches in swimming and other amateur sports which fall under the umbrella of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).
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Katherine Starr
Katherine Starr

The Truth About Sexual Abuse Of Athletes By Coaches: It's All About Power

Submitted by Katherine Starr on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 14:15. | comments

Since the Sandusky case, many have jumped on the bandwagon to address child sexual abuse in sports. We show videos of adolescent aged girls and boys being targeted and abused. Without a doubt, we react emotionally and with revulsion to something so horrific as the taking the innocence of a young child.Girl swimming butterfly

Yet, that isn't the whole truth when discussing coach-athlete sexual abuse. If you look at the list of banned swim coaches on the USA Swimming website, there isn't one coached banned for sexual abuse who was accused of having a relationship with a swimmer under the age of 13.

Since the Jerry Sandusky case, many have jumped on the bandwagon to address child sexual abuse in sports. The problem is that we are still not seeing the issue as the abuse of power that it is, says the founder of Safe4Athletes, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting sexual abuse of athletes.
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Brooke de Lench
Brooke de Lench

Reducing Sexual Abuse in Youth Sports Requires A Team Effort

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Fri, 06/07/2013 - 19:12. | comments

NOTE: This article is from an earlier  blog, yet remains important.

Earlier this spring  I had the honor of being invited to speak at the "Safe to Compete: Protecting Child Athletes from Sexual Abuse" summit in Washington, DC, sponsored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation.  

The summit brought together over fifty of the nation's largest youth-serving and youth-sports organizations, as well as child development, youth sports and prevention experts, to discuss strategies for protecting children from sexual abuse while playing sports.

The need to redouble efforts to prevent sexual abuse of athletes by their coaches was driven home to Brooke de Lench over the past couple of weeks, which has seen a sharp spike in reports in the media about youth sports coaches accused and convicted of, and sentenced to probation or jail for sex crimes against young athletes.
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U.S.O.C. Launches Safe Sport Program

The U.S. Olympic Committee has announced the launch of Safe Sport, a welfare training program aimed at improving the safety of athletes. The program is the latest step taken by the USOC to implement the recommendations of its Working Group for Safe Training Environments.
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Preventing Sexual Abuse By Youth Coaches: Criminal Background Checks Not Enough

Protecting youth athletes from becoming victims of sexual predators involves much more than criminal background checks of coaches before they are hired, says a longtime interscholastic sports administrator.
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Child Sexual Abuse: The Dark Underbelly Of Youth Sports Culture

The Penn State scandal didn’t occur in youth sports.  Yet, it is one of the rare occasions that sex abuse by coaches, which is a major problem in youth sports, got the type of national publicity that allowed the problem to penetrate the public consciousness.  The big question is whether we as a sports society are up to the task of doing to more to prevent future abuse.

 

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Should Annual Background Checks Be Required For All Adults in Youth Sports?

All adults involved in youth sports over the age of seventeen, including volunteers and paid employees, should pass an annual background check, with no "grandfathering"  or exceptions.
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