Team Up partners embrace Safe Sport Day

Teaming Up for safer sport

Team Up partners in the Pacific have joined a cohort of Oceania-based sports organisations in taking the Safe Sport Day pledge in record numbers this month.

Since Safe Sport Day, celebrated on 8 August, close to 25 per cent of the pledges made globally came from Pacific-based organisations.

Taking the pledge represents making a commitment to safeguarding in line with international standards and best practice, and the work and achievements of organisations that are forging progress in this space are celebrated on Safe Sport Day each year.

Team Up, on behalf of the Australian Government, sits on the International Safeguards for Children in Sport working group, which has developed a set of international standards for safeguarding children in sport in the form of eight safeguards. These safeguards represent collective good practice and provide a foundational framework to help organisations make sport safer for all children.

One of the Team Up partners who took the pledge on Safe Sport Day in 2021 was the Inclusive Gymbad - PNG program’s lead partner, Badminton Oceania, who last year participated in a five-month safeguarding in sport online learning pilot project facilitated by ChildFund.

“We found the ChildFund safeguarding course extremely informative and useful in helping us build practical knowledge, especially for our work in the Pacific,” explains Nadia Bleaken, development manager at Badminton Oceania.

“The training helped us review our current Child Protection Policy and update it to a Child and Vulnerable Adult Safeguarding Policy. Key changes include better understanding of terminology and, through case studies covered in robust group discussion, we gained a better understanding of realities on the ground in our Pacific environments, and therefore could ensure our policy was relevant.  

“Our challenge going forward is to ensure this policy is implemented through ongoing education and training for all of our key personnel, and to support our member countries to develop and implement their own policies.  We took the Safe Sport Day pledge as part of our commitment to ensuring badminton is delivered safely across our region.”