Kidpower Teams Up with Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) To Stop Child Abuse in Youth Sports

Kidpower and partner, Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), now offer multiple free resources on how to protect young people from sexual abuse and bullying in youth sports, as part of our One Million Safer Kids campaign.

“We are grateful to Kidpower for offering its extensive expertise in child protection to help PCA take a pro-active educational approach in the wake of recent high-profile allegations of child abuse in youth sports. Kidpower partnered with us to present child abuse prevention webinars addressing coaches, parents, and youth sports leaders and provided consultation on the development of our child abuse and bullying prevention resources and recommended policies.”

— Jim Thompson, PCA founder and CEO

View and use the two-part webinar series, “Child Abuse Prevention in Youth Sports.” free as part of youth sports organization staff and parent education and orientation programs.

The Webinars feature Irene van der Zande, Kidpower’s founder and executive director, Jim Thompson, PCA’s CEO and founder; and Mike Town, a PCA workshop leader and retired trial judge. Note: not appropriate for children. After you view one or both of these free webinars, please share them to reach as many caring adults involved in youth sports as possible.

“PCA and the people we serve have benefited greatly from Kidpower’s extensive experience and carefully developed resources,” says Thompson. “We look forward to continuing our teamwork with Kidpower in utilizing the organization’s excellent resources to help protect kids in youth sports from abuse, bullying, and other violence.”

Webinar I: Fighting Child Abuse in Youth Sports – Focus on Coaches and Youth Leaders (Feb. 2, 2012). View the webinar above or download the Child Abuse Prevention for Coaches and Youth Leaders Presentation (PDF). Viewers will learn about:

• Why should coaches and youth sports address this problem if they aren’t the ones abusing anyone?
• What to tell kids to help protect them from abuse
• 6 steps to take if a child mentions being abuse or another child being abuse
• Taking a stand as a team to prevent bullying, abuse and other violence
• 6 ways to avoid being falsely accused of abuse
• How to use Kidpower’s personal boundary rules for touch, teasing and games with your team(s)
• How to use PCA’s Child Abuse Prevention Policies and Procedures template

Webinar II: Fighting Child Abuse in Youth Sports – Focus on Parents (Feb. 9, 2012). View the webinar above or download the Child Abuse Prevention for Parents Presentation (PDF). Viewers will learn about:

• What can parents do to watch out for and recognzie possible signs of abuse?
• Understanding the benefits and limits of background checks to keep unsafe people out of youth sports
• 4 strategies for parents to help keep kids safe from abuse when participating in youth sports
• Skills parents can teach kids to help protect them from abuse while they are participating in youth sports
• Kidpower’s positive practice method™ for praticing safety skills in a way that’s fun — not scary
• Q&A: What should I do if a child says something that makes me worried about possible abuse?
• How to encourage your child’s sports organization to adopt safety policies and procedures (PCA & Kidpower’s new template)
• What respectful leadership looks like and how to encourage your child’s coach in creating a safe environment

Kidpower is partnering with PCA as part of our One Million Safer Kids campaign to educate and support a vital group of caring adults, who are committed to building character through youth sports, in the prevention of child abuse and bullying. We hope that the coaches, youth leaders, and parents we can reach through our partnership with PCA will have a strong ripple effect to helping make kids safer.

Kidpower also consulted with PCA to develop these templates and resource pages about preventing child abuse in youth sports and will be helping to create new training videos for coaches and youth sports leaders.

For YSO’s: Child-Abuse Prevention Policies and Procedures Template

For Parents: Preventing Child Abuse in Youth Sports: Parent’s Resources

Additional Resources from Kidpower:

• Penn State Sanctions Set New Path for Success
• What Penn State Football Could Have Learned From Kidpower
• Worthy of Trust: What Organizations Need to Do to Protect Children From Harm 
• Four Strategies for Protecting Kids From Sexual Predators
• Jerry Sandusky: Betrayer of Children’s Love and Trust- 5 Ways to Protect Kids

The Kidpower Book for Caring Adults: Personal Safety, Self-Protection, Confidence, and Advocacy for Young People, which has a foreword by Gavin de Becker, best-selling author of The Gift of Fear and Protecting the Gift. This book includes chapters on how to protect children and teens from bullying and sexual abuse as well as how to teach stranger awareness and abduction prevention skills.

Kidpower provides training, consultation, curriculum development, and publications to address bullying, abuse, abduction, and other violence by empowering adults with knowledge and young people with skills.

For more information about Kidpower’s resources for teaching these People Safety Skills and concepts, please visit our online Library and our RelationSafe™ Bookstore.