Safe Clubs: A transfer project for the prevention of sexualised violence in sport

For many children and adolescents, sport is an attractive environment that promotes the development of sporting skills and abilities and provides space for socialisation experiences (Rulofs, 2016). These include, for example, friendships as well as experiencing closeness and attachment. However, in addition to these attractive characteristics of sport, this context also comprises a success-orientated and pain-tolerant culture, a high dominance of males and dependency relationships between coaches and athletes (Brackenridge, 2001). The scientific literature shows that these factors are linked to the emergence of sexualised violence (Parent & Fortier, 2018).

The “Safe Sport” research project revealed that sexualised violence is widespread in sport. This project exposed that 37% of the male and female squad athletes surveyed had already experienced some form of sexualised violence. In addition to the finding that the perpetrators of violence are predominantly other athletes, coaches and others from the club environment, it became clear that athletes most frequently experience sexualised violence in sport clubs (Ohlert, Rau, Rulofs & Allroggen, 2017). The studies conducted in this project also showed that sport clubs need support in the prevention of sexualised violence (Rulofs, 2016). “Safe Clubs”, the subsequent project to “Safe Sport”, addresses this need and aims to establish recommendations and measures for the prevention of sexualised violence, which were developed in “Safe Sport”, in sport clubs. This aim is framed by the overarching aim of promoting the protection of children and young people through the prevention of sexualised violence in organised sports.

“Safe Clubs” is funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) over a period of 3 years (duration: 1/2022 to 12/2024) as part of the funding pool for transferring research results regarding protecting children and young people from sexualised violence in educational contexts. The Psychologisches Institut der Deutschen Sporthochschule Köln (Psychological Institute of the German Sport University Cologne ) and its scientific partners, the Institut für Soziologie und Gender-forschung der Deutschen Sporthochschule Köln (Institute for Sociology and Gender Research at the German Sport University Cologne) as well as the Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie des Universitätsklinikums Ulm (Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Ulm University Hospital) are coordinating the “Safe Clubs« joint project. Further support is being offered by the practice partners Athleten Deutschland e.V., the Deutsche Sportjugend in the DOSB, the Landessportbünde (State Sport Federations) of Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Thuringia and the Sportjugend Hessen (Youth Sport Association) in the Landessportbund Hessen e.V. (State Sport Federation of Hesse).

One aim of “Safe Clubs” is to contribute to the development of a culture of awareness in order to protect children against sexualised violence in sport clubs. In this project, sports clubs are viewed as learning organisations whose learning process, according to Wolff (2015), requires consideration of the following fields of action: Analysis, prevention and intervention. In line with these fields of action, five different subprojects involve different levels of actors (sports clubs, people in sports clubs, i.e. athletes, carers, board members, parents and child protection professionals in sports associations). Subproject 1 concerns analysis, i.e., it serves the development of materials for carrying out a risk analysis as part of developing protection concepts. However, before the development of such materials lies an extensive analysis of the specialist literature and an interview study with professionals regarding the connection between risk analysis, organisational development and child protection. The materials will be tested in cooperation with various sport clubs. Further steps of this subproject call for applying and evaluating the materials in sport clubs.

The closely linked subprojects 2 and 3 cover the area of prevention. Here, workshops are developed, implemented and subsequently evaluated in which content on the prevention of sexualised violence in sport is provided. Thus, subproject 2 aims to strengthen the empowerment of young athletes. Subproject 3 concerns workshops aimed at imparting knowledge to adults in the club environment (e.g., coaches, caretakers and parents) to promote an empowering climate. Subproject 4 serves the field of intervention, focussing on contact persons for child protection in sport organisations. This subproject systematically collects existing knowledge on dealing with cases of sexualised violence in sport and turns it into recommendations for action in a participatory process with the practise partners. In addition, this subproject will develop an online tool that provides information on how to intervene in cases of suspected child endangerment in sport clubs. Subproject 5 processes all project results into transfer modules and disseminates them via corresponding platforms.

Further information on “Safe Clubs” and previous projects of the working group led by Dr Jeannine Ohlert (German Sport University Cologne, Institute of Psychology), Prof. Dr Bettina Rulofs (German Sport University Cologne, Institute of Sociology and Gender Research) and Prof. Dr Marc Allroggen (University Hospital Ulm, Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy) can be found at www.dshs-koeln.de/safe-clubs