Coaching Association of Canada

Safe Sport Training for Sport Canada-funded organizations

As of April 1, 2020, Sport Canada requires its funded organizations to have training in safe sport available to all who fall within their immediate authority. The Safe Sport Training eLearning module from the CAC is available at no cost to your members and meets the minimum standards for mandated safe sport training for Sport Canada-funded organizations. It comes with additional tools and resources to help you embed Safe Sport principles throughout your organization.

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Responsible Coaching Movement

The Responsible Coaching Movement  (RCM) stems from extensive ongoing consultation with the Canadian sport community that showed us some of the systemic issues in sport, the role various parties play, and strategies for addressing these issues.

RCM Implementation Checklists

With a vision of creating change by 2020, we encourage you to put your pledge into action. To that end, we’ve developed action plans and timelines for each sector of the Canadian sport system. Your organization will need to decide on a realistic process based on your current situation.

Responsible Coaching Resources

This implementation toolkit includes resources, templates, and useful links. We update it regularly with new information and tools.

Rule of Two 

Background Screening 

Respect and Ethics Training 

NOTE: If you have a concern about a child and want to talk to someone, contact the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. If you suspect abuse, report it to your local child welfare and/or police.

 

How to get involved in Safe Sport

The RCM is a collaborative effort open to all NCCP partners and sanctioned sport organizations. As a first step, we encourage sport organizations to make a pledge to support the RCM and commit to achieving the objectives of Phase 1 (Supporting best practice in Canada’s sport system): 

Addressing the gaps identified through consultation with stakeholders, including:

  • Lack of uniform policies
  • Lack of club capacity
  • Limited communication strategy
  • Lack of a tracking mechanism for coaches
  • Lack of a coordinated approach by sport organizations to address responsible coaching practices 

These gaps have all contributed to permitting instances of unethical behaviour in sport.1

Sport stakeholders throughout Canada have also discussed new opportunities for closing these gaps, identified best practices, and considered the benefits of a cooperative, sustained approach to responsible coaching.2

The goal is to make sport safer for children and the vulnerable sector. Although advances in athlete protection in the past twenty years have decreased instances of athlete maltreatment in amateur sport, incidents of athlete abuse, harassment by coaches, and risks to athlete safety have continued to occur.3

We recommend that you discuss the Responsible Coaching Movement and pledge with your Board of Directors and senior staff to make everyone aware of it and get everyone’s commitment to taking the Three Steps to Responsible Coaching.

Rule of Two Background Screening Ethics Training
Ensures open and observable interactions to protect participant and coach alike.
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Ensures coaches meet important requirements to coach participants of all ages.
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Prepares coaches to respond ethically and with confidence in challenging situations.
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Sources

1Athlete protection and maltreatment in sport – Discussion paper (Commissioned by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, March 2015).
2 Coaches of Canada and the Coaching Association of Canada collaborated to host twelve workshops between December 2013 and April 2014 and consulted with over 160 coaches and sport administrators across Canada.
3Athlete protection and maltreatment in sport – Discussion paper (Commissioned by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, March 2015).

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