Why is Safe Sport important?

Abuse, harassment and other inappropriate interpersonal behaviours in the community affect enjoyment and participation in sport at all levels. If left unaddressed, it will:

• Compromising the safety and well-being of affected persons can have a lifelong impact or worse, cause life-threatening situations. This is especially grave when those concerned are minors, the vulnerable or persons with disabilities in our community
• Creating a culture of permissibility, whether real or perceived, results in the manifestation of negative habits and norms within the sport over time which may culminate into disciplinary issues or criminal behaviour
• Allow fractures to develop within the community when incidents are not managed well, or at all, by the organisations responsible. This often results in disclosures through other channels which open the issues up to the court of public opinion in which factions may emerge
• Result in disillusionment by concerned parties of the systems in place to protect them and hold persons responsible which may lead to departure from those communities or sports altogether
• Damage the trust, goodwill and confidence people have in the integrity of sport