The Ottawa Sport Council is thrilled to launch the Ottawa Safe Sport Toolkit to our community sport sector. The Ottawa Safe Sport Toolkit is a free online toolkit developed to foster safe, welcoming, and inclusive sport environments for participants of all ages and abilities. Based on industry best practices, the Ottawa Safe Sport Toolkit was developed collaboratively with 12 Ottawa based member sport organizations through a pilot program under the leadership of the Ottawa Sport Council and with funding generously provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
The goal of the Ottawa Safe Sport Toolkit is to provide organizations with user-friendly resources that identify and mitigate risks and that engage participants, coaches, officials, administrators, and volunteers in the safe sport journey.
How does the Ottawa Safe Sport Toolkit work?
The toolkit is organized into four major components:
- Policies – How to protect community sport organizations and their members
- Training Requirements – How to ensure everyone understands their role
- Engagement & Communication – How to ensure the safe sport culture exists and anchor the policies and training in behaviours
- Resources – Complimentary information and resources to promote awareness
The Ottawa Safe Sport Toolkit comes with a complete Implementation Guide to support organizations as they continue their journey to create safe and thriving sport environments. The Safe Sport Essentials guide is also available for those organizations who are just beginning their safe sport journey.
Click here to view the Ottawa Safe Sport Toolkit
The toolkit is designed to ensure safe sport resources reach the community level. In 2019, the Federal Government and the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) announced resources to help combat misconduct in the sporting world, but the work does not end there. The Ottawa Safe Sport Toolkit is a fundamental building block that offers resources customized to the community level sport environment. The toolkit will continue to be updated as new information and resources become available to maintain relevance.
Over the next few months, the Ottawa Sport Council will be offering additional support for those organizations implementing the Safe Sport Toolkit. Details to be announced soon!