This media release is courtesy of Hockey Australia. 

Hockey Australia (HA) is proud to implement a comprehensive framework for safeguarding young athletes.

The new Safe Hockey Hub forms a centralised access point for all information and resources required to support hockey’s aim to stamp out abuse.

After releasing its first iteration of child safe policies in 2019, HA partnered with its Member Associations and Sport Australia to develop a more comprehensive whole of sport solution.

Safeguarding specialist Samantha Dellamarta (Dellamarta Consulting / SIGPA) was engaged to assist in strengthening hockey’s approach to safeguarding, which led to the creation of Safe Hockey.

The past 18 months have been spent producing a comprehensive framework of policies, resources and education targeting all levels of hockey across Australia.

The Safe Hockey Hub includes:

Policies & Procedures
Aligned with Hockey Australia’s recently released National Integrity Framework, these policies are presented in the following chapters:
•    Safe Leadership
•    Safe People
•    Safe Behaviours
•    Safe Environments
•    Safe Responses

Community Guidelines
Designed in consultation with young athletes, representatives from community clubs, associations and Member Association staff, the guidelines offer a suite of easy access resources tailored to specific cohorts across the hockey community.

These include young and adult athletes, families, umpires, officials, coaches, managers and clubs & associations.

“As a sport we are committed to making the safety and wellbeing of our participants our top priority,” said HA Acting CEO Michael Johnston.

“Hockey Australia and our Member Associations have started our Safe Hockey journey, and we are excited to be supporting our clubs and associations in providing the safest environments for children and young people.”

“In the coming months we will continue to provide education, build on the resources in the Hub, respond to feedback from our stakeholders and commence the implementation across the hockey community.”

“There is still a long road ahead of us to make meaningful change. This work takes time and investment but we are committed to doing what is required for safer hockey and safer kids.”