THOMAS JOHNSON AREA YOUTH ("TJAY") SOCCER CLUB

KIDSAFE PROGRAM

What is the KIDSAFE Program?

US Youth Soccer has adopted the KIDSAFE Program to promote the health, safety and protection of players in the game of soccer.  TJAY Soccer have adopted this policy as a matter of governance within the United States Soccer Federation. Even though adoption of the policy is a matter of governance, the practices set forth within the KIDSAFE Program just make good sense.

KIDSAFE promotes the position that reasonable efforts will be taken by Members of the TJAY Soccer Club to exclude from program responsibilities any person with a legally documented history of child molestation or other record that would bring an unnecessary risk to the health and safety of the program participants.

TJAY Soccer has adopted a program which requires all coaches and administrators to agree to be subject to a legally sensitive background check before the program’s operations. Persons wishing to apply for a position of coach or administrator within the TJAY Soccer Club must complete a undergo a background check every five (5) years.  When background checks yield problems areas additional information is collected and a decision made on retention of the individual. Any person applying for employment/volunteer position within TJAY Soccer that is found with a legally documented history of child molestation is immediately released.

KIDSAFE Education

Although background checks are effective to identify repeated offenders, they are not “fail safe.” Background checks identify those that have been charged and convicted. To address this, the KIDSAFE Program instills education to create a culture of safety from the bottom up. We all have roles in promoting the concepts of KIDSAFE. 

Our Goal is to create a culture of safety from the bottom up.

KIDSAFE Basics are segmented into three categories; Coaches, parents and players.

Coaches Education – understanding the basic KIDSAFE role of the coach

Education of the risk is based on the following personality traits:

• The fixated, seductive pedophile – may be fixated on age, type. Creates relationships with child and parents. Manipulative.

• Coaches should never be alone with a player. Always have another adult or player with you.

• Don’t allow yourself to become a “baby sitter.” Parents have the responsibility to be timely with their player.

• Proper conduct with players is essential. Setting a good example provides both soccer and life learning experiences for both parents and players.

• Establish a “buddy system” for players in unfamiliar environments. This applies to training, home/away match sites and tournaments. Players should not be left “on their own” in unfamiliar surroundings.

• Coaches should always keep clear boundaries between adults and players 
 

Parents Education – understanding the basic KIDSAFE role of the parent

• Have an open dialogue with your children – let them know you respect & believe them.

• Don’t use your coach/team as a babysitter; be accountable to ensure your player is taken to and picked up for training and games without relying on the coach.

• Help your coach be safe. Be there, but don’t interfere.

• Be aware of surroundings and people around your children.

• Talk to your child about the responsibility to behave and then look in the mirror and talk to yourself about the responsibility to behave.

• Don’t compromise your child’s safety.

• Keep clear boundaries between adults and players. 
 

Player Education – understanding the basic KIDSAFE role of the player

• Trust your instincts – if it doesn’t feel right, leave.

• Use the “buddy system” in unfamiliar environments.

• It’s okay to tell your parents of uncomfortable situations with adults, regardless of who the adult is – Darkness to Light concept.

• Hold your parents responsible and accountable to ensure you’re picked up from practice and other events on time!

• Respect the game & everyone involved in it.

• It is okay to say “no.”

• Keep clear boundaries between adults and players.

• Molester – the “nightmare.” May watch and wait. May look for unsupervised children. Not connected with the team. Parents must challenge strangers looking at their children

• Sexual Exploiter – preys on older players. May make sexual behavior part of team culture.

Our Goal is to create a culture of safety from the bottom up.

The following constitute the policies of the Thomas Johnson Area Youth (“TJAY”) Soccer Club with regard to awareness and prevention of abuse within our organization.

• TJAY Soccer Club is committed to provide a safe environment and to prevent child abuse and sexual misconduct.

• TJAY Soccer Club will make every reasonable effort to ensure that every person involved in coaching/training a sport activity in our organization will abide by the SafeKids guidelines.
• TJAY Soccer Club will make every reasonable effort to exclude any adult with a legally documented history of  child abuse/molestation or any other conviction or record that would bring unnecessary risk to the health and safety of the participants of this organization.
• TJAY Soccer Club will perform a criminal background check on every person applying for a position at our organization.
• TJAY Soccer Club will take appropriate action on all allegations of child abuse and/or sexual misconduct. All allegations will be reported immediately to the authorities for investigation and will cooperate fully with any such investigation.

The following represent the preventive measures of our organization with regard to abuse:

• Physical, mental, and verbal abuse of any of the participants, coaches, managers, employees, volunteers involved in our sponsored activities is not permitted.
• Inappropriate touching of any kind is forbidden.
• We agree to provide more than one adult working at or overseeing every activity. If a child needs special attention (one -on-one training or an individual meeting), it will be handled with the assistance or presence of another adult.
• Coaches/trainers should not socialize with the participants outside of the sponsored activities of the organization.
• Coaches/trainers should never ride alone with a child or participant in the car. Procedures will be established for coaches to follow in the event a participant is stranded at an activity.Parents are encouraged to attend sponsored activities