USA Swimming has announced a partnership with the company Praesidium, who is widely involved in protecting vulnerable groups from abuse (including children and the elderly). They have a prodigious list of clients, available on their website, which seems to support their claim as a leader in the field of child protection. Among some of their larger clients are several YMCA’s (including Dallas and Detroit Metro Area Y’s), and a further Google search shows that both the Archdioceses of Cleveland and Portland have used their training programs.
The company offers comprehensive, top-to-bottom services, that include assistance with investigation of alleged abuses and litigation support in the event that an abuser is found. It’s not immediately obvious which of the services USA Swimming will take advantage of (though the training is certainly on that list), but if they are providing full support, that would be a huge step in the right direction for USA Swimming in managing a program that their employees may not be entirely familiar with, or may have lost credibility with.
Praesidium does have a program based on Catholic principles (similar to the Church’s own Virtus program), and work with religious organizations of all faiths, but seems to offer secular programs as well. I would assume that USA Swimming will be employing the latter of these education systems.
The Full Press Release is below, unedited.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Swimming has partnered with Praesidium, the leading provider in the field of child protection, to produce and distribute comprehensive athlete protection education programming for the National Governing Body’s 300,000 members. The education program, which is required of the organization’s 30,000 non-athlete members, will be made available at no charge to athletes and their parents.
“Through our work on this very important issue, we have learned that education remains among the most effective tools in athlete protection. Our program with Praesidium will absolutely be the cornerstone of our efforts,” said Susan Woessner, USA Swimming’s Athlete Protection Officer. “Empowering all members with the ability to recognize unsafe situations, identify potential risks and report questionable behavior will only strengthen our efforts to provide the safest possible environments for our 300,000 athletes, coaches and volunteers.”
Together with USA Swimming’s Athlete Protection Committee, Praesidium will develop customized educational programming for adult non-athlete members, athlete members of specific ages and parents of athlete members. This customization will ensure messaging is both effective and appropriate for each member group.
“USA Swimming has demonstrated an organization-wide commitment to setting the standard for athlete protection,” said Britt Darwin-Looney, J.D., Praesidium’s Director of Youth Development Services. The educational tools Praesidium is developing will be an effective way to keep abuse prevention at the forefront for everyone involved in the sport. Praesidium looks forward to a successful partnership with this great organization.”
At its annual meeting in September 2010, USA Swimming adopted Athlete Protection legislation requiring that all non-athlete members, including coaches and officials, complete the educational program as a condition of membership. The legislation was part of a session which also saw the approval of expanded background checking requirements, mandatory pre-employment screening rules and a mandatory reporting rule for all members. For more, visit www.usaswimming.org/protect.
In addition to the online offerings, Praesidium will provide ongoing consultation to USA Swimming on the continued evaluation and evolution of its Athlete Protection efforts.
I find this simply absurd after a coach at one of USA Swimming’s Center for Excellence, coaching the most elite athletes in the sport, slithers away after sexual allegations like nothing evey happened. It is preposterous that one day USA Swimming says, “Nothing ever happened” and the next Hutchinson is gone.
While efforts such as this are important and needed, if USA Swimming will not own up to the misbehavior of coaches, even the stars, all credbility is lost.
USA Swimming might have lost all of their credibility, but Praesidium has an immense amount of credibility. At the very least, if USA Swimming wants to sneak around behind the scenes, they’re going to have one more set of very watchful eyes to avoid. As big of a client as USA Swimming is, Praesidium is a venture that cannot afford to risk their reputation for even an entity of that size.
Definite positive step.
I think the Hutchison situation is sort of ridiculous too…but at the same time, I don’t categorize it with the situations involving the Andy Kings, etc. of the world. What goes on with the National Team and at the professional level is hard to equate to… Read more »