2024 Child Safety Declaration

Child safety and wellbeing is a key priority of the Ashwood Football Club and we hereby declare our commitment to creating an environment that is safe and welcoming for all children and young people to participate in Australian Football.

To achieve this, our Club is committed to implementing the Victorian Child Safe Standards through our Commitment Statement on Child Safety, the Club’s Child Safety & Wellbeing Policy, Code of Conduct, Complaints and Reporting Procedure policies. These policies and procedures when applied in practice at our Club will help meet the requirements of the Victorian Child Safe Standards and will:

• Establish a culturally safe environment in which diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected
  
• Embed child safety and wellbeing in organisational leadership, governance and culture
  
• Empower children and young people so they know their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously
  
• Inform and engage families in respect to child safety and wellbeing
  
• Ensure that equity and diversity is upheld through our policies and practices
  
• Engage volunteers and officials to ensure that they are suitable to work with children and young people
  
• Respond to complaints and concerns promptly, thoroughly and with a child-focused approach
  
• Educate staff, game day personnel and volunteers to provide them with knowledge and skills on how to create a safe and welcoming environment for children and young people at our Club
  
• Understand and mitigate the risks to children and young people in physical and online environments
  
• Review and improve our child-safe policies, procedures and practices regularly
  
• Role model behaviour and actions documented in policies, procedures and practices guiding how our Club is safe for Children and Young People
  

Our Club has zero tolerance for any form of child abuse or harm and will act quickly and in the best interest of the child or young person should an allegation of harm or abuse occur.

To meet the above expectations, our Club will:

Commit to:

• Discuss and sign this declaration as a committee to formally endorse our commitment
  
• Appoint a child safeguarding officer and promote their details to families/members/volunteers
  
• Promote this declaration and our commitment to creating a safe and welcoming environment for all children and young people through our network (Club notice board, social media pages, email and newsletter correspondence)
  

Implement:

• Regular discussion occurs at Club meetings to action on the Child Safe Standards
  

Learn and embed a culture of child safety in our Club through:

• Discussion with children, young people and their families – everyone can “have a say”
  
• Education through safeguarding resources – including ClubHelp website and free training modules through VicSport
  
• Regular review of safeguarding policies and procedures with our Club committee