National Youth Sports Organizations to Use Positive Coaching Alliance Videos and Resources to Prevent Sex Abuse in Youth Sports, Featuring Green Bay Packers CEO Mark Murphy

National Soccer Coaches Association of America, US Lacrosse and USA Water Polo become first national organizations to adopt new resources created in partnership with Packers; Kidpower International, a non-profit dedicated to teaching child-protection skills; and background-check provider KidSafePlus®

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) -- a national non-profit developing "Better Athletes, Better People" by providing all youth and high school athletes a positive, character-building youth sports experience – has released free resources to help youth and high school sports coaches, parents and organizational leaders prevent sex abuse. The resources at www.positivecoach.org/our-tools/child-abuse-prevention include brief videos of practical tips, introduced by PCA National Advisory Board Member and Green Bay Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy.

"Abuse prevention is critical to providing children a positive, character-building youth sports experience," Murphy said. "That's why the Packers and I support this effort by PCA and its partners. The more we can spread these abuse-prevention resources, the safer our kids will be."

The resources include:

• Two instructional videos of less than 10 minutes' length, titled Protecting Youth Athletes from Sexual Abuse: Key Actions for Parents and Coaches and Protecting Youth Athletes from Sexual Abuse: Key Actions for Leaders. Each video contains Murphy's introduction, role-plays of parent-coach interactions around suspected predatory behavior, and practical advice from PCA Founder Jim Thompson and Kidpower International Founder and Executive Director Irene van der Zande. The videos play from the websites of PCA and Kidpower (www.kidpower.org) and may be downloaded from PCA's site to computers for future playback to groups even without internet access.

• A trailer video featuring Murphy, Thompson and van der Zande, which can be used to pique interest in the longer videos

• PDFs of tips that complement the videos, which can be distributed to every parent and coach and a template policy for schools and youth sports organizations titled Youth Sexual Abuse Prevention Policy and Procedures.

Among the first national organizations to adopt the abuse-prevention resources is National Soccer Coaches Association of America. "NSCAA encourages every organizational leader, parent and coach to view the child-abuse prevention videos and other resources offered by our partner, Positive Coaching Alliance," said Joe Cummings, NSCAA's CEO. "We will share the videos from within our own website; display them at our large gatherings of leaders, parents and coaches; and promote them through as many of our communications as possible. These are indispensable resources for anyone involved in youth sports, to ensure that we can protect the well-being of the youth we serve."

US Lacrosse also is rolling out the resources to its constituents. "Consistent with our organizational commitment to the safety and welfare of all athletes, US Lacrosse fully endorses the efforts of our partner Positive Coaching Alliance to promote greater awareness of child-abuse prevention through these educational resources," said Bruce Griffin, Director of Health and Sport Safety at US Lacrosse. "We encourage all youth lacrosse leaders to review these resources and to communicate their value with other members of the lacrosse community. US Lacrosse stands firm in its pledge that there can be no tolerance of physical or sexual abuse of children in the sport of lacrosse, and we're pleased to further that effort by partnering with Positive Coaching Alliance in this educational campaign."

Another national organization adopting the resources is USA Water Polo (USAWP). "In addition to our involvement with the United States Olympic Committee's SafeSport initiative, we urge the water polo community to use these resources from PCA and its partners," said Chris Ramsey, USAWP's CEO. "The leaders, coaches and parents of our member clubs will soon be able to access the videos and other materials through our website and other USA Water Polo communications."

Creation of these resources stems from a two-year-old partnership between PCA and Kidpower International. "We wanted to highlight the actions that youth sports leaders, coaches and parents can take that can really make a difference in protecting kids from predators," Thompson said. "Kidpower is the pre-eminent provider of tips, tools, advice and advocacy that keep kids safe. Irene van der Zande and her colleagues demonstrate tremendous courage and leadership in helping families face one of the most troubling issues of our time."

Added van der Zande: "Unfortunately, youth sports provide fertile ground for child predators. But PCA is working to protect kids, and we are proud to help in that effort. We look forward to many more organizations adopting our resources."

The resources are made possible, in part, by funding from KidSafePlus^®, a service that provides coach and volunteer background checks as part of the SportsSignup family of online sports management solutions. "We are committed to making youth sports safer and protecting all involved.  Kids can get the most from their experience and sports organizations can simply manage the background check process," said Jodi Murphy, SportsSignup's Director of Marketing. "It was natural for us to expand our partnership with PCA to include support of these abuse-prevention resources."       

About Positive Coaching Alliance
Since its founding within the Stanford University Athletic Department in 1998, Positive Coaching Alliance has helped develop "Better Athletes, Better People" primarily through live group workshops, online courses and books by PCA Founder Jim Thompson for youth and high school sports coaches, parents, student-athletes and school/organizational leaders. In partnership with nearly 2,000 schools and youth sports organizations nationwide, PCA has conducted more than 12,000 live group workshops and impacted more than 5 million youth. PCA has the support of elite coaches and athletes on a National Advisory Board, including National Spokesperson and 11-time NBA Champion Coach Phil Jackson.

SOURCE Positive Coaching Alliance