SORRENTO Cricket Club is focussing on child safety in the lead up to National Child Protection Week (3-9 September) and is raising awareness of how sports clubs can help.
Child safety officer Ella McConnell said the club’s leadership team had implemented the Victorian Child Safe Standards and improved safeguarding practices and culture over the past 12 months.
“At Sorrento Cricket Club we are committed to promoting child safety awareness and protecting our children and young people on the peninsula from harm and abuse,” she said.
“With National Child Protection Week approaching, it is the perfect time to raise awareness and promote our newest child safety initiative, called Sharks Kids.”
McConnell, who is also child safety officer for the Mornington Peninsula Junior Football League, said the Sharks Kids program was designed to build trusting relationships between adults and children at the club. It was also a strategy to encourage juniors to speak up and report any concerns they had about their safety.
“The program will be recognised by a thumbs up emoji logo, which is designed to be multi-dimensional,” she said.
“This logo serves as a non-physical greeting, non-verbal indicator of wellbeing and identifier of safe people at the club.
“Only those adults who have completed the appropriate child safety training and screening are eligible to wear the Sharks Kids apparel with the thumbs up emoji.
“This apparel lets our children and junior visitors know that anyone wearing it is a safe person; someone they can go to should they have any worries or concerns.”
McConnell said that under the Sharks Kids program all junior players would participate in body safe, ESafety and reporting-a-concern training.
“We will be establishing a junior player advisory group with a cross-section of junior players and led by two Sharks Kids ambassadors,” she said.
“The purpose is to provide a forum for junior players to discuss ideas and initiatives that will help the club to better fulfil its mission and achieve its vision.
“I am very passionate about safeguarding our children and young people, and raising awareness that everyone in the community has a role to play.”
The advisory group will provide leadership and development opportunities for junior players and introduce participants to aspects of committees, volunteer management and club administration.
McConnell said other benefits of an advisory group were to enhance the experience of junior players, so they felt empowered, with research showing that when children felt empowered and were involved in decision making, they became more independent, resilient, and confident to speak up if they felt unsafe.
“They may also feel more confident with the adults within the club, making the environment more trusting and supportive,” she said.
For more information call the junior coordinator at Sorrento Cricket Club, Noel White, on 0439 104 123.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 5 September 2023
