Pledge to Responsible Coaching

Strathmore Soccer Association has taken the pledge and is now a proud Champion of the Responsible Coaching Movement. By making this pledge, our sport organization is committing to implement supportive policies and processes that adhere to the Responsible Coaching Movement to ensure the safety and protection of our athletes and coaches, and provide our coaches with the tools and training necessary to model ethical behaviour.
The Responsible Coaching Movement (RCM) is a multi-phase system-wide movement, coordinated by the Coaching Association of Canada and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport that has the potential to affect all sport organizations and coaches. The first Phase of the RCM focuses on three key areas:

• Rule of Two
  • The Rule of Two serves to protect minor athletes in potentially vulnerable situations by ensuring that more than one adult is present. Vulnerable situations can include closed doors meetings, travel, and training environments.
  • Canada Soccer's guidelines for the Rule of Two
  • Rule of Two in a Virtual Setting
  • Rule of Two 
• Background Screening
  • The background screening process involves using a number of different tools to ensure coaches meet the necessary security requirements to coach athletes. These tools include comprehensive job postings, criminal record checks, interviews, and reference checks. Check out the Responsible Coaching Movement - Background Screening Matrix
    
    
• Respect and Ethics Training
  • Increasing coaches’ ethical conduct and behaviour toward athletes requires that coaches be trained to understand what it means to act ethically. This training would include the Make Ethical Decisions module within the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP), as well as training in abuse and harassment prevention, such as Respect in Sport, before and during their coaching career.

Over the next year years, with the support of the Coaching Association of Canada, Strathmore Soccer Association will be actively reviewing its current policies and procedures to ensure they align with the recommendations and guidelines of the RCM.

We will identify realistic ways and means to entrench the Responsible Coaching Movement across our sport and enhance the safety of our athletes and ethical conduct of our coaches.

• All Coaches, Board members, staff, volunteers, players and parents are encouraged to:
  • Take the Safe Sport Training course being offered for FREE
  • Check out the website Commit to Kids: Helping Organizations Prevent Child Sexual Abuse (commit2kids.ca)
• Strathmore Soccer Coaching Teams commit to having all Coaches over 16 years old complete the Making Ethical Decisions Course as of December 1, 2021
  • All Coaches must follow the Rule of Two as described above