Sports Camp Safeguarding and Staff Conduct

Safeguarding means protecting people from harm

Sport can create trust. That trust must not be used to pressure, frighten, exploit, or abuse someone.

Your rules must cover owners, staff, volunteers, visiting coaches, photographers, partners, parents, and participants.

A famous coach follows the same rules as everyone else.

Make interactions open and clear

The Coaching Association of Canada's Rule of Two is a leading practice using two responsible adults for open, observable, and justifiable interactions. It is not a universal law or a substitute for activity-specific staffing requirements.¹

Build your own reviewed plan for coaching, transport, online meetings, changing areas, and other settings. Plan emergency exceptions rather than improvising them in secret.

Do not create hidden one-to-one situations. Choose spaces and ways of working that protect both privacy and accountability.

For toilet or personal-care support, use an agreed plan. Preserve dignity. Do not make private care visible to the public in the name of supervision.

Set clear boundaries

Use camp-approved communication channels. For minors, include the required parent, guardian, or other responsible adult in communication under your policy and applicable rules. Avoid private disappearing messages.

Do not ask participants to keep secrets from trusted adults.

Do not use gifts, special privileges, or private invitations to build a hidden relationship.

Do not comment on a person's body in a sexual way or make sexual jokes. Set firm rules on romantic and sexual conduct where there is a coaching or care relationship. Adult participation does not remove power imbalances or workplace rules.

Be careful with touch

Explain a coaching adjustment before making it. Ask for agreement when touch is needed. Offer a no-touch way to teach when possible.

A person may say no. Do not shame them or suggest they cannot learn without accepting touch.

Necessary emergency care follows trained procedures and the law. It is different from a routine coaching correction.

Make reporting easy

Name a safeguarding lead and a backup. Provide another route when the concern is about the owner or lead.

Give participants and families simple instructions: who to tell, how to reach them, and what happens next.

An internal report is not a substitute for a required report to police or child-protection services. Know the direct local route and each person's duty. Ontario provides official child-protection reporting guidance; the U.S. Child Welfare Information Gateway links to state reporting routes.²³

Call emergency services when someone is in immediate danger.

Respond calmly to a disclosure

Listen. Thank the person for telling you. Do not promise secrecy.

Explain that you may need to tell people whose job is to help keep them safe.

Do not conduct your own detailed investigation. Do not repeatedly question the person, ask leading questions, or arrange a confrontation with the accused.

Record what was said as accurately as possible, using the person's own words where you can. Record the time, your actions, and who was notified. Keep the record secure.

Follow the reporting process without waiting for the camp's business interests to be protected.

Do not automatically contact a parent or caregiver who may be involved in the suspected harm. Follow the reporting authority's guidance so that contact does not put the child at greater risk.

Prevent retaliation

A person must not lose fair treatment because they raised a concern in good faith.

Keep information limited to those who need it. Get advice on safe temporary staffing steps, record preservation, and fair process.

Do not advertise “zero incidents” as proof of safety. A useful system makes concerns visible and deals with them properly.

Your task: Create the conduct rules, reporting routes, and emergency contacts. Test what happens when a complaint concerns the person in charge.