Prevention

SmartTeams™ Talk: Keeping Our Youth Athletes Safe From Psychological & Sexual Abuse

In a wide-ranging and informative presentation to parents in Grand Prairie, Texas as part of MomsTEAM's SmartTeams program, Sophia Grant, M.D., F.A.A.P, of Cook Children's Medical Center in Ft. Worth, Texas explains the benefits and drawbacks of youth sports, and talks about how coaches and parents can help keep youth athletes safe from psychological injury and sexual abuse.

Elaine Raakman (Justplay Founder): Abusive Youth Sports Coaches Should Not Be Cultural Norm

Being the mother of an athlete is a challenging yet rewarding role. So momsTEAM has designated May as Sports Moms Month and is celebrating by asking some of our favorite sports moms to share their wisdom by responding to a series of questions.

So far this month we have heard from a fascinating range of sports moms, from a mom of an Olympic athlete to moms who were themselves Olympic athletes, from a mom of two former minor league baseball players to a Minnesota hockey mom and author.

Today, we hear from Canadian youth sports reform advocate and sports mom, Elaine Raakman:

The Canadian founder and developer of Justplay, a program which monitors the behavior of coaches, spectators and players and generates reports which youth sport administrators can use to make data-driven staffing and policy decisions, says if she could change one thing about the culture of youth sport, it would be the acceptance of abuse by adults in general and coaches in particular as the cultural norm.
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