May 22 – The issues of safeguarding have been given a significantly upgraded status within the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) which, said the confederation’s Jasmine Ching, is taking big steps to tackle what is a “general lack of systemic awareness and education (at all levels) on child/youth safeguarding” across all Asian sport.
Writing as one of the contributors to the latest edition of the SIGA/Insideworldfootball, Ching said: “The AFC Executive Committee recognised the need for higher levels of safeguarding and with our own Safeguarding specialist we are now working with Member Associations to develop a detailed framework of policies, staff identification and training. The progress of each MA will be recognised with bronze,silver and gold awards. The necessity of safeguarding is also a regular topic for our induction of General Secretaries and also our AFC Social Responsibility Committee.”
Also writing in this edition, Ju’Riese Colon, CEO of US Centre for SafeSport said: “Sports teach lifelong skills like leadership, conflict resolution, and teamwork. Unfortunately, many youth don’t have the resources to participate, and those who do have the resources can sometimes deal with issues that impact their emotional and physical safety. Whether it’s bullying by teammates, overly aggressive coaches, or interacting with those who want to hurt them—it can have negative impacts that last a lifetime.”
Katherine Anderson, Youth Protection Compliance Officer, Major League Basketball, referenced the work being done on the SIGA Task Force that is currently developing the SIGA Universal Standards on Youth Development and Child Protection.
“Our work on these standards is helping to create a wide breadth of best practices that can be easily applied to a variety of levels of youth and amateur sports, from recreational to international competition,” she said.
“I believe these standards will help all youth groups evaluate their own current policies, or create new guidelines and standards, that are greatly needed in today’s youth sports culture.”
The ‘4 Questions for 4 Leaders’ initiative calls on leaders from the sport, business and political worlds to share their views on topical developments related to sport integrity and the fight against corruption in sport.
This edition is the 20th in a set of thirty boosting measures and developed under SIGA’s new global campaign #SIGASTRIVES.
See the full 4 Questions for 4 Leaders at http://www.insideworldfootball.com/4-questions-4-leaders/week-2-4-questions-4-leaders/
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