Ringette Canada has pledged to the Responsible Coaching Movement

Ottawa, ON – June 7, 2017 – Ringette Canada is pleased to announce it has pledged to the Responsible Coaching Movement (RCM). By making this pledge, Ringette Canada has committed implementing supportive policies and processes that adhere to the RCM to ensure the safety and protection of its athletes and coaches, and provide coaches with the tools and training necessary to model ethical behaviour.

The RCM is a multi-phase system-wide movement, coordinated by the Coaching Association of Canada and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport that has the potential to affect all sport organizations and coaches. The first phase focuses on the following three key areas:
Rule of Two – the Rule of Two serves to protect minor athletes in potentially vulnerable situations by ensuring that more than one adult is present.  Vulnerable situations can include closed doors meetings, travel, and training environments.

Background Screening – the background screening process involves using a number of different tools to ensure coaches meet the necessary security requirements to coach athletes. These tools include comprehensive job postings, criminal record checks, interviews, and reference checks.

Respect and Ethics Training – increasing coaches’ ethical conduct and behaviour toward athletes requires that coaches be trained to understand what it means to act ethically.  This training would include the Make Ethical Decisions module within the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP), as well as training in abuse and harassment prevention, such as Respect in Sport, before and during their coaching career.

Over the next three years, with the support of the Coaching Association of Canada, Ringette Canada will be actively reviewing its current policies and procedures to ensure they align with the recommendations and guidelines of the RCM. Working closely with its Provincial Ringette Associations, Ringette Canada will identify realistic ways and means to entrench the Responsible Coaching Movement across the sport and enhance the safety of its athletes and ethical conduct of its coaches.

Ringette Canada would also like to encourage PSOs, clubs and associations to pledge to this movement, which can be done through this link: http://www.coach.ca/responsible-coaching-movement-s17179.

As part of the Responsible Coaching Movement, Ringette Canada has set up an account with the Respect in Sport group and ringette coaches can now complete training through the Ringette Canada portal here: https://ringette-canada.respectgroupinc.com/. Coaches will receive NCCP professional development points towards their maintenance of certification when they complete this training, which is an added bonus to doing this as part of the Responsible Coaching Movement commitment.

About the Responsible Coaching Movement
The Responsible Coaching Movement (RCM) is a multi-phase system-wide movement, coordinated by the Coaching Association of Canada and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport that has the potential to affect all sport organizations and coaches. The RCM is a call to action for organizations to implement realistic change based on their individual state of readiness. The RCM is the result of extensive ongoing consultation with the Canadian Sport Community. These consultations will guide the different phases of the RCM that will address the role coaches play with issues relating to the health and safety of athletes, both on and off the field of play. For more information, please visit: http://www.coach.ca/responsible-coaching-movement-s17179.

About Ringette
Ringette is a Canadian sport that was invented in 1963 in North Bay, Ontario by the late Sam Jacks. There are currently over 30,000 players on nearly 2,000 teams across Canada, with over 1,500 officials and nearly 8000 coaches. Internationally, it is played in more than a half a dozen other countries around the world. Ringette has been designated a Heritage Sport by Sport Canada and as part of the Sport for Life movement, ringette is well advanced at adapting Sport Canada’s Long Term Athlete Development model. As a proud member of True Sport, Ringette Canada is committed to sport that is values-based and principle-driven. For more information, please refer to the Ringette Canada Web site at www.ringette.ca.

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