USA Swimming is committed to providing a healthy and positive environment free from abuse for all its members. South Texas Swimming has shown its commitment to go above and beyond mandated Safe Sport practices by requiring Safe Sport Recognition approval for any club who hosts a swim meet in its Local Swimming Committee (LSC). Read more from the Safe Sport Chair, Mary Evelyn Bowling, and the General Chair, Chris Kjeldsen, on how this has affected a positive culture within South Texas Swimming.  

How has the Safe Sport Recognition Program helped create positive culture in your LSC? 
The SSRP has helped create a positive culture in our LSC by bringing athletes, officials, coaches and parents together to ensure our athletes feel comfortable in training and competitions within our LSC.  

The creation of our Safe Sport committee has been a critical development in this. Our committee contains two athletes, two officials and three coaches from across the LSC. We are working together to encourage clubs to complete the recognition process. Committee members are “assigned” to particular clubs for which they may have a connection. This has helped the “less willing” clubs understand the importance of the program. Additionally, the coaches that are on the committee are not all from clubs that are recognized yet.  

Our athletes, with the leadership of our youngest coach member, will be developing a social media campaign designed to engage and educate the at large athletes in the LSC. I believe having the athletes as leaders is the key to creating the culture we desire.  

Why did your LSC decide to require SSRP approval to host swim meets? 
Our LSC decided to require SSRP to obtain a meet sanction simply because it’s that important to us. There were clubs that wanted to bid on championship meets that had not even logged into their portal. That seemed inconsistent with the values the board holds. The motion was presented and passed unanimously.  

What is some advice you can give other LSCs who want to make this requirement? 
The advice we would share to LSCs that want to make this change is to make it, publicize it in multiple locations, more than once, over time. Have resources (human) available to help clubs get going. Also make sure that wording is clear: i.e.: SSRP must be achieved prior to applying for sanction. The motion is on our website. 

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Great job to South Texas Swimming for leading the way for other LSCs! 

To learn more on USA Swimming’s Safe Sport Recognition Program, please visit https://www.usaswimming.org/safe-sport/safe-sport-recognition-program.