My xc abuse prevention and athlete well being training

1. MyXC Abuse Prevention
and Athlete Well-Being
Training
For SkiSparks Volunteers

2. Thank you!
Thank you for saying “Yes” to volunteering with MyXC! Our volunteers are the key
ingredient for inspiring kids to learn to ski and have fun.
We want every SkiSparks club to be a safe place for children and their families to
learn to ski together, build community and enjoy being outside in winter. When
adults work together to create positive, welcoming environments where
misconduct is less likely to happen the effects are amazing! The positive power of
sport can strengthen youth academically, psychologically and physically.

3. The SafeSport Act
In 2018, Congress enacted a new Federal law, the “Protecting Young Victims from
Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017” which specifically
requires amateur sports organizations to train all adult volunteers who come into
contact with children regarding the prevention and reporting of child abuse. It is
more commonly referred to as the SafeSport Act.
The following training is mandatory for all SkiSparks volunteers. At the end of the
training you are required to take the quiz, which will serve as your certificate of
completion and understanding of this information.

4. You are essential to keeping kids safe!
Sport is a place where kids can become victims of sexual abuse and misconduct. Youth programs can
attract individuals who sexually abuse children, looking for opportunities to build trust and groom victims.
MyXC prohibits all forms of misconduct, even if the behavior is not considered illegal. MyXC staff and
volunteers are required to report suspected abuse within 24 hours to law enforcement. We will go through
this process later in the training.
SkiSparks volunteers are vital to the safety of youth. It is a volunteer’s responsibility to:
● Watch out for others.
● Protect children from potential and actual abuse.
● Report any suspected abuse to club leader and SkiSparks Coordinator.

5. Defining misconduct and abuse
Please carefully read through the next few slides so you understand the boundaries set by the SafeSport
Act. When you understand these definitions, you are able to spot misconduct and abuse, hopefully before
it escalates, and keep our communities safe.
Misconduct is not a legal term in most states. It’s usually not referring to specific criminal behavior or
even a civil violation. Misconduct is the safest description to use for this training, because it does not
necessarily mean that someone did something illegal, but the behavior is still harmful and must be
reported. Abuse is a legal term that varies by state. All abuse is also misconduct.

6. Misconduct
Misconduct is behavior that results in harm, the potential for harm, or the imminent
threat of harm. There are six primary types of misconduct in sports:
1. Sexual (including grooming behavior)
2. Physical
3. Emotional
4. Bullying
5. Harassment
6. Hazing

7. Grooming
Grooming is a term used to describe a process and pattern of behavior a person engages in with the goal of sexually
abusing a child. Understanding grooming and common grooming behaviors can help adults prevent abuse before it occurs.
Offenders look for vulnerable children and seek to fill a void. Grooming can happen in person and through technology.
Offenders use grooming to build trust with a child and the adults around a child. Trust is built in an effort to gain access to
the child. The typical pattern of grooming consists of:
1. The groomer appears to be someone who cares about children.
2. The groomer builds trust of the victim and adults around the child.
3. The relationship looks different between the adult and child than the relationship the adult shares with other kids
4. Parents are excluded purposefully after trust has been built.
If you suspect an adult is grooming a child in your club, you must notify your club leader and the SkiSparks Coordinator,
Chrissy Snider (chrissy@mysl.org). The adult exhibiting these behaviors will be suspended while an investigation occurs.

8. Sexual Misconduct
Any sexual interaction, whether non-touching or touching, that is forced or perpetrated in an exploitative,
harassing, aggressive, or threatening manner is sexual misconduct.
Sexual conduct is any sexual interaction between a participant (youth) and an adult (18+) or junior coach.

9. Physical Contact with Youth
Appropriate physical contact consists of the following elements
● The physical contact takes place in public.
● There is no potential for or actual, physical, or sexual intimacies during the
physical contact.
● The physical contact is for the benefit of the participant (youth) and not to
meet an emotional or other need of an adult.

10. Physical Misconduct
Physical misconduct includes:
● Intentional physical contact or threat of such that causes or has the potential to cause injury or bodily harm to the
participant.
● Any act or conduct described as physical abuse under state or federal law, such as assault, child neglect and child
abuse.
Physical misconduct looks like:
● Punching, beating, biting, striking, choking or slapping
● Intentionally hitting with objects or sporting equipment
● Providing alcohol to a participant who is under the legal drinking age
● Providing non-prescription or illegal drugs to any participant
● Encouraging or permitting an athlete to continue skiing after injury or sickness prematurely or without clearance from
a medical professional
● Isolating an athlete in a confined space
● Forcing an athlete to assume a painful stance or position for no athletic purpose
● Recommending against or denying adequate hydration, nutrition, medical attention or sleep

11. Emotional Misconduct
Driving and challenging youth is part of a positive sport environment. A positive environment can improve athletic
performance because athletes feel free to compete and try new skills without fear or distress.
Emotional misconduct involves putting athletes down and using derogatory or punitive language. It is a pattern of
intentional, non-contact behavior that causes or has the potential to cause psychological or emotional harm to a participant.
Emotional misconduct looks like:
● Verbal:
○ A pattern of verbal behaviors that attack a participant personally
○ Repeatedly and excessively yelling at a particular participant or participants in a manner that serves no
productive training or motivational purpose.
● Physical:
○ A pattern of physically aggressive behaviors, such as throwing sport equipment at, or in the presence of,
participants;
○ Punching walls, windows or other objects .
● Deny Attention and Support:
○ A pattern of ignoring a participant for extended periods of time
○ routinely or arbitrarily excluding a participant from practice.

12. Bullying and Harassment
A goal SkiSparks is to create a positive sport environment that make bullying and harassment less likely to occur.
Volunteers must intervene quickly when misconduct occurs and foster and environment where athletes can come forward
and report bullying or harassment.
To create a welcoming, positive environment:
● Lead with kindness
● Include others, especially those different.
● Encourage kids to speak up when they witness bullying
Bullying and harassment can be stopped in its tracks when kids stick up for each other. MyXC strictly prohibits bullying and
harassment. Any participants, coach or volunteer who experiences, observes or has knowledge of bullying or harassment
in the program has a responsibility to report the situation as soon as possible to the club leader and SkiSparks Coordinator.
When adults work together to empower kids to lead with kindness, include others, and speak
up when they witness bullying all kids are safer.

13. Bullying
Targets for bullying and harassment tend to be anyone considered different from the majority. They are
different because of:
● race
● physical appearance
● sexual orientation
● stand-out athlete
Bullying is defined as aggressive behavior that has three components:
● Intentional
● repeated over time
● involves an imbalance of power or strength.

14. What does bullying look like?
● Physical bullying
○ Any type of unwanted physical force
● Verbal bullying
○ Using words, statements or insults in a negative way
● Nonverbal or relational bullying
○ Harming others through the manipulation and damage of peer relationships.
○ Socially excluding someone and asking others to do the same.
● Cyberbullying
○ Using electronic communication, social media or similar to harass, frighten, intimidate, or humiliate someone.
● Hazing
○ Typically an initiation activity that is a precondition for being socially accepted or joining a team
○ Hazing includes any behavior which is physically harmful, humiliating, intimidating, or offensive.
● Sexualized bullying
● Damage to property
Anyone who sees an act of bullying, and who then encourages it, is engaging in bullying.

15. Harassment
Harassment is a pattern of physical or nonphysical behaviors that:
● Are intended to cause fear, humiliation, or annoyance
● Offend or degrade
● Create a hostile environment
● Reflect discriminatory bias in an attempt to establish dominance superiority or power over an individual participant or
group based on gender, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, sexual orientation, gender expression, or mental or physical
disability

16. Creating Safe Environments
A key policy to protect children is a strict no 1:1 contact rule, except in the case of an emergency. No non-related adult
should ever be alone with a child that is not their own during SkiSparks programming. The no 1:1 contact policy has
been put in place not only to protect the children in our programming but also our volunteers.
In the case when individual instruction is needed (such as an instance when a child is late and needs to find their group or a
child falls behind the group), the adult must stay in a public setting. An example of a public setting is the trail system or the
main meeting room of a chalet. Non related adults should not accompany participants into the bathroom.
A coach or volunteer is not to be alone in a car with a non-related child, except in an emergency situation. Coaches and
volunteers may transport a non-related child to a MyXC event if the no 1:1 contact policy is followed.
In an emergency situation, the coach or volunteer must contact the club leader to inform him or her of this contact and the
reason for it.

17. Out-of-program contact with participants
Club leaders and equipment managers are the only volunteers with family contact information. Adult volunteers and minor
participants should not connect on social media outside of official MyXC and specific club social media accounts.
If coaches need to contact a family about a question or concern, please contact your club leader for the family’s contact
information. Always cc the club leader on all electronic communication you have with a family.
In the event that junior coaches, who are younger than 18, are part of the coaching team, another adult must always be
copied on the communication. The other adult can be the club leader, another coach/volunteer, the SkiSparks Coordinator
or the junior coach’s parent.

18. Reporting Responsibilities
All volunteers have a legal and ethical duty to report suspected misconduct or abuse of youth within 24 hours.
The MyXC Minor Abuse Policies and Procedures helps to make SkiSparks the positive experience every child in our
program deserves. You can find a copy of the MyXC Abuse Policies and Procedures on our website.
No type of misconduct will be tolerated. We are committed to providing all youth with a safe environment. Suspected
misconduct and abuse can be observed, told or overheard.
If a youth participant confides in a volunteer about misconduct or abuse, the volunteer should be careful to only listen to the
child and not make him/her feeling questioned or interrogated. It is important to gently ask the name of the abuser, if this
information is not offered, telling the child you need this information to help them be safe and they won’t be in trouble for
sharing it. It is advisable to immediately document the incident so it is as accurate as possible.

19. Reporting Procedure
All coaches, volunteers, parents and program participants are directed to report any incident of misconduct, abuse or
suspected misconduct/abuse that they witness or have reports of to their club leader and SkiSparks Coordinator (Chrissy
Snider: chrissy@mysl.org) within 24 hours.
This information is considered strictly confidential and should not be shared with anyone besides the club leader and
SkiSparks Coordinator. The SkiSparks Coordinator will promptly document the incident and notify the proper law
enforcement agencies in the case of abuse. In the case of misconduct, the offender will be removed from the program.
When reporting to the SkiSparks coordinator please provide the following information:
● Child’s name
● Description of abuse and name of abuser
● Name of person reporting abuse (in case follow-up information is needed)
The name of the person reporting abuse will be kept strictly confidential, except when requested
by authorities investigating the report. Adults who make good faith reports will be protected
from retaliation.

20. Questions and More Information
If you have questions about the reporting process, please consult one of the following:
● MyXC SkiSparks Coordinator, Chrissy Snider
○ chrissy@mysl.org
○ 651-399-7165
● U.S. Center for SafeSport
○ 24 hour victim services helpline 866-200-0796
○ Safesporthelpline.org
More information about abuse is available from the U.S. Center for SafeSport at uscenterforsafesport.org. On this website,
additional training resources and toolkits for parents and children are available for free. These toolkits help parents
understand SafeSport best practices and how to respond to signs of abuse.

21. Obtaining certificate of completion
Congratulations! You have reached the end of the training. All SkiSparks
volunteers must take the quiz.