Anne Tiivas to serve as panelist on key World ParaVolley webinar "Safeguarding: It's Everyone's Responsibility."

By Bill Kauffman, SSI Communications Committee

Anne Tiivas OBE, chairperson for Safe Sport International, will be one of four panelists on an impactful webinar presented by our partner World ParaVolley titled “Safeguarding – It’s Everyone’s Responsibility”. The webinar, which is free to friends and partners of Safe Sport International, is scheduled for Sept. 20 at 12 p.m. Universal Time UTC.

The panel will discuss the meaning of safeguarding in sport and what it involves. Further, the webinar will dive into how each of us can help ensure that violence, abuse and harassment is not tolerated in sport. It is the collective responsibility of all involved in sport to prioritizing safeguarding, which is of paramount importance for our athletes and indeed all participants’ mental and physical well-being.

Tiivas will be joined by panelists Sarah Powers-Barnard (founder and director of Powers Volleyball Club in the United States), Phil Doorgachurn (CEO of YMCA Safeguarding in Australia) and Yetsa Tuakli-Wosornu, MD, MPH (assistant clinical professor at Yale School of Public Health). The panel will be moderated by World ParaVolley Sport Director, Lori Okimura.

The webinar panelists will share the journey of an athlete survivor as well as impart knowledge from globally recognized experts in the field of safeguarding in sport. The panelists will discuss safe sport best practices for the safety of athletes, coaches, administrators and volunteers. Whether we are athletes, coaches, technical officials or board members, we must recognize, respond, and report those persons who may be violating safeguarding policies and jeopardizing the physical, mental, emotional safety and well-being of others. Attendees are encouraged to complete a newly released SSI module entitled "Safeguarding Responsibilities Within Sport" which is available on the SSI Education, Training & Consultancy platform here: https://learning.safesportinternational.com/our-courses/

This WPV webinar is the third in its series focusing on mental health and performance.

To register for this FREE webinar, visit?https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZLZjwW0FTOqSgeAHBznV-w

Anne Tiivas OBE, Chair, Safesport International

Anne Tiivas OBE is the Chair of Safe Sport International, a leading charity focused on safeguarding athletes of all ages based in the U.K. and known worldwide for its research work and consultancy. She is the former Director of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) Child Protection in Sport Unit where she worked for nearly 18 years until September 2019.??She was centrally involved in shaping and monitoring National Safeguarding Standards for Children in Sport in the UK since 2001 and as a founding member and Chair of the International Safeguards for Children in Sport Advisory Group, she is developing the initiative to create the Safeguards in collaboration with UNICEF, Brunel University and other sports bodies since 2012.??In 2016, the Child Protection in Sport Unit was awarded the UNICEF International Safeguarding Children in Sport award at the Beyond Sport Summit.?

She is a member of FIFA’s Expert group on Child Safeguarding and advises a number of international groups on child protection and safeguarding in sport, including Panathlon International (member of the Scientific and Cultural Committee) and the International Olympic Committee where she most recently co-authored the “IOC Consensus Statement: Harassment and Abuse (non-accidental violence) in Sport.”???Anne has written widely on the topic of abuse of children in sport and is co-author of a chapter in the 2017 Oxford Textbook of Children’s Sport and Exercise Medicine - Protecting child athletes from medical mismanagement and other forms of (non-accidental) violence in sport.??Anne is frequently called on to help with policy development overseas and has been part of several European Union projects on safeguarding in youth sport and elite youth sport.

Phil Doorgachurn

Phil Doorgachurn believes that all children and young people have the right to feel safe and be safe.?

Phil is the?CEO of YMCA Safeguarding in Australia and the former Director of Safeguarding in Sport at LimeCulture. As an undergraduate, Phil published his research ‘Narratives of Abuse in Sport’.?For this cutting-edge research, Phil was awarded the British Olympic Foundation Award. He has a statutory background within the police managing youth diversion schemes for children affected by gangs and also holds an education qualification where he taught disadvantaged young people for a number of years.

His expertise includes consulting for the Children’s Protection Society in Australia and well as Senior Consultant for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the U.K.?Phil worked within the training and consultancy unit at the NSPCC for several years supporting individuals and organizations to transform their safeguarding provision, processes and case management. More recently, Phil has been the strategic lead for safeguarding at Arsenal FC, British Tennis and Premier League Charitable Fund.

Phil also has extensive international experience delivering training and consultancy across the globe including delivering keynote speeches at sports conferences. Phil supported the Australian Sports Commission and U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee in developing their athlete welfare and child safeguarding processes and structures. Phil was also a member of the UK National Safeguarding Panel in Sport and now sits on the Australian Government Advisory Committee for child safeguarding.?

Sarah Powers-Barnhard

Sarah Powers-Barnhard is a former member of the U.S. National Volleyball Team with a long history of elite level competition as both an athlete and now the Founder and Director of the Powers Volleyball Club in Jacksonville, Florida.??She is the 2022 recipient of the Thomas P. Doyle Whistleblower Award presented by CHILD U.S.A., “the leading national nonprofit think tank fighting for the civil rights of children” and an organization whose mission is “to employ in-depth legal analysis and cutting-edge social science research to protect children, prevent future abuse and neglect, and bring justice to survivors.”

As an elite athlete, Sarah reached a high-performance level of competition as a teenager, competing with a nationally ranked U.S. club based in Chicago, Illinois.??Her club famously generated decades of top-level players who went on to college, the national team and even professional status.??At a young age, Sarah and her teammates traveled all around the U.S. and to competitions in Canada, Germany, Japan, and China.??She bravely came forward against her former youth club coach for sexual abuse and is now a leading advocate, speaker, and ally for survivors of abuse.

Sarah continued her elite training at Western Michigan University, a highly competitive Division I university in America’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) where she earned a full athletic scholarship.??Sarah competed in national championship tournaments, and in 1985 became an All-American, earning a spot on the U.S. National Team roster for competitions in China and Japan, both powerhouses of volleyball.??When Sarah graduated from Western Michigan, she held school records for kills (1,387), digs (964) and points scored (1,725.5), and her total of 173 career service aces still stands as the school’s record.??Sarah went on to continue her national team career and played professionally for 3 seasons with Major League Volleyball Association’s Chicago Breeze, while competing simultaneously in beach volleyball tournaments for nearly 25 years. In 1994, she was named to the All-Decade Team, and in 1997 was inducted to the Western Michigan University Athletic Hall of Fame, followed soon by induction to the Mid American Conference Hall of Fame as the first volleyball player ever.

Sarah has spoken widely about her survivor story, sharing her experience in the hopes of protecting other athletes from the same abuses.??She was a featured panelist at the American Volleyball Coaches Association Annual Convention where on occasion she shares her insights and expertise to help other coaches recognize the signs of grooming, abuse, and manipulation of athletes.??Her work to help educate athletes, parents, and coaches, led to the eventual recognition of her 30-year attempt to ban her alleged abuser from USA Volleyball, the national governing body.??With the help of her advocacy and guidance for survivors on where to find key resources for support, Sarah played a major role in providing a safe space for additional abuse victims of her former coach to come forward nearly 30-years after her own ordeal, resulting in a disciplinary action and a lifetime ban from the national governing body as well as other organizations including the Amateur Athletic Union, where he had ascended to a leadership position he held for many years.?

Sarah’s work continues through the Powers Volleyball Club where she shares her love of volleyball with the future generations of athletes, coaches, and parents.??And through her work with victims’ advocacy and survivor groups, speaking frequently in support of legislation to extend statute of limitation laws, fighting for victim’s privacy laws, and to help educate those working in sports on how they can embrace the concept of safeguarding in athletics and in life.???

Dr. Yetsa A. Tuakli-Wosornu

Yetsa A. Tuakli-Wosornu, MD, MPH is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Yale School of Public Health, and a board-certified Physiatrist (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physician). As a clinician, Dr. Tuakli serves patients with common orthopedic conditions such as osteoarthritis, non-surgically. Her goal is to use evidence-based musculoskeletal medicine and translational research to relieve pain, prevent injuries, and optimize performance for patients with or without disabilities.?

As a public health scientist, Dr. Tuakli-Worsornu founded and directs the Sports Equity Lab (SELY), an interdisciplinary research group focused on reducing inequities in sport (e.g., peer aggression, race- and gender-based discrimination, harassment, abuse, neglect) while at the same time amplifying sport’s role as a positive change agent in society. She believes the transformative power of sport and exercise on biopsychosocial outcomes in diverse settings for individuals, communities, and societies cannot be overstated. In sport, Dr. Tuakli-Wosornu has worked as a safeguarding scientist and advocate in various capacities with the International Paralympic Committee, the International Olympic Committee, and other organizations.?

To build the evidence base for safety and inclusion in sport, SELY combines academia and translational research with community-based programs, using diverse multimedia channels for content dissemination. It is known that athletes with physical and/or intellectual disabilities, particularly those from less-resourced settings, may experience higher degrees of vulnerability to intentional harm and exploitation than their non-disabled peers. As a result, this and other ‘non-traditional’ athlete groups are centered and kept at the forefront of SELY’s work as solutions are derived for dismantling systems of oppression and privilege in sport. Importantly, these solutions are urgently needed if we want to maintain sport’s power to transform individual lives and serve humanity.

Among her work in her areas of expertise, Dr. Tuakli-Worsornu is the Chair of the International Society for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) Task Force on Physical Activity for Persons with Disabilities and an advisor for the International Olympic Committee’s Working Group for the Prevention of Harassment and Abuse in Sport as its representative to the International Paralympic Committee and advises on the IOC’s Safeguarding Course.??She served as the Welfare Officer at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games.

Dr. Tuakli-Wosornu’s clinical, scientific, and administrative work stems from her experiences as a professional track and field athlete (women’s long jump, Ghana), public health scientist, and physician, and allows these interests to dovetail into simultaneous expression.

About Safe Sport International (SSI)

SSI is the leading agency worldwide to connect education, action, and research to develop active safeguarding measures to protect all involved in sport and strengthen the Athlete Voice against all forms of abuse and harassment.

The organisation uses its capacity for evidence-based research to provide an education platform that can be easily integrated in your organisation’s training process to protect athletes and those involved in sport of all ages.

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