Leadership and Cultural Development in and Through Sport in Canada: Toward a Positive Blueprint for Sport in Canada

Jennifer Walinga as awarded funding through a SSHRC grant to prepare a playbook on guiding principles that support Safe Sport practice of safe, good, true, varsity sport.

The aim of the study is the prevention of Safe Sport violations by developing an organizational blueprint for safe, good, true, varsity sport. Such a blueprint may include supervisory, coach, and governance guides, training materials, and resources for varsity sport participants and leaders. Findings inform a playbook of coach training, techniques, and guiding principles that align with Safe Sport practice; an organizational blueprint that demonstrates how to balance power in athletics departments, clarify governance roles and responsibilities, conduct regular cultural audits, ensure all coaches are trained and credentialed, and install a trusted point person for student athlete concerns; educational materials for all sport participants about the nature, source, and impact of maltreatment as well as productive strategies for responding to abusive behaviours and claims; and, in the event of a Safe Sport investigation, a guide for leading a restitution and reconciliation process for victims.