Grassroots football clubs and associations have a new free and interactive platform to comply with the 11 Victorian Child Safe Standards, following Vicsport’s launch of the Child Safe Online Education Program.
Supported by Sport and Recreation Victoria (SRV) and Lander & Rogers, the education program is powered by etrainu’s Learning Management System.
Users are able to delve into the content one module at a time while working through practical, sport-based strategies and scenarios to help with their understanding. Breakdowns of compliance indicators, policies and procedures are also included – the ability to save as you go means that you can work through the program at your own pace.
“In early 2022, ahead of the new 11 Victorian Child Safe Standards replacing the original seven Standards and three Principles, my predecessor Fiona Jones identified that the Victorian sports community would benefit from an alternate form of learning,” Vicsport Participation and Inclusion Manager Michaela Cook said via press release.
“We applied for funding through SRV and then commenced conversations with etrainu regarding the design of an online education program. We looked at the development of a module framework and discussed the key elements needed to assist the end user in understanding the compliance for each Standard, whether they be a sport administrator, volunteer, coach or official.”
Each module has users taken through a Standard to gain an understanding of its purpose and how to best comply. Interactive sport-based scenarios provide a chance for users to test their knowledge before they conclude with a quiz that earns them a Certificate of Completion.
While the Standards are numbered 1-11, modules do not have to be completed in order and is flexible to do them all when convenient.
“Throughout the design process, we ran draft versions past SRV, CCYP and Lander & Rogers to ensure the modules not only correctly reflected the Standards but legislation as well. We constantly referred to CCYP’s “A Guide for creating a Child Safe Organisation” document and for Module 1, which looks at establishing culturally safe environments for Aboriginal children and young people, we engaged Rob Hyatt at Koorie Heritage Trust,” Cook added via press release.
“By January 2023, we were in a position to soft-launch the program so we invited some key stakeholders to trial the program and provide their feedback before officially launching on 20 February.”
The program launch featured Minister for Community Sport, Ros Spence as well as a panel discussion. Simon Merritt (Senior Associate, Lander & Rogers) and Emily Sanders (Director Regulation, Commission for Children and Young People) discussed their involvement in making the modules and how they see them assisting the sports industry. Jennifer McIntyre (CEO, Calisthenics Victoria) and Ginny Robinson (Affiliate Services Manager, Netball Victoria) were also in attendance to outline the modules from a sporting lens and share the work done by their organisations in embedding child safety.
“These modules are aimed at grassroot sporting clubs and we are keen for State Sporting Associations to pass the link down to as many clubs as possible,” Michaela added in a statement.
“However, it can also be utilised by sporting leagues, associations, state or regional sporting organisations and even national sporting organisations based in Victoria.
“They are an excellent resource and something we expect will help our industry for many years. But we will still continue to work in the child safe space, “sportifying” new resources from CCYP for our industry as well as running events such as the Child Safe Community of Practices which assist child safe leaders to support their clubs on their own child safe journey.”
Learn more about Vicsport’s Child Safe Online Education Program here and then get started with the modules by creating an account here.
