The rate of youth sports “incidents” (including negative behaviors, injuries, and various forms of abuse) has continued to rise, garnering national attention. Recent national and state initiatives to improve coach vetting and training have resulted in mandates for specific action in an increasing number of youth sports organizations. While several segments of the youth sports market have made dramatic improvements in vetting and preparing youth coaches, in general programs offered by recreation departments have made less progress. Participants in this session will have an opportunity to learn how the landscape has changed, how legislation (including the Safe Sport Act) affects them, and what actions they can take now to address the growing risk they face in offering youth sports programs. Participants will be given a framework to help them assess their risk and identify potential actions to improve their programs. Time will be allocated to a group discussion of the risks, challenges, and best practices involved in youth coaching. A real time survey of participants will be used to help drive this discussion, and will enable participants to see how they “stack up” in these areas vs. other agencies in their state. 

CEU's are available for this session. Links and instructions will be sent out one day and one hour prior to Webinar time. 

John LaMalva is the founder of Alpha Youth Sports (AYS), which provides services to youth sports organizations that use parent and other volunteer coaches. AYS provides a coach recruiting and administration platform to youth organizations in more than 30 states. Prior to founding AYS in 2011, John led systems integration, production management, and consulting teams as an SVP at Fidelity Investments and as a Partner at Accenture. https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnlamalva/ 

CoachSpan is a freemium coach administration platform that automates all of the "youth coach processes", including coach signups, forms/data collection, coach training, coaching materials, and more. Youth Organizations across the country with 10 or more coaches have eliminated 50+ hours of manual, low level administrative tasks each season using CoachSpan, while filling coaching positions a lot sooner and making it much easier for coaches to sign up and complete their requirements. For more information, visit https://coachspan.com/.