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Safe Sport for Girls & Beyond – Moving The Goalposts wins Beyond Sport for Safeguarding Children in Sport Award
International Inspiration is delighted to announce that Moving The Goalposts (MTG) has won the inaugural UNICEF Safeguarding Children in Sport Award 2015 at the prestigious Beyond Sport Awards 2015.
The prize was received by MTG Executive Director, Rachel Muthoga during the awards ceremony on 20 October 2015 as part of the Beyond Sport Summit 2015 from 19 – 21 October in London, UK.
MTG was one of 350 contenders from 60 countries in 10 award categories. Other projects that were shortlisted for the Beyond Sport Safeguarding Children in Sport Award were the Caribbean Sport and Development Agency (Trinidad & Tobago) and Coaches Across Continents (USA).
The Beyond Sport Awards promote, support and reward the best projects across the globe that are using sport for positive social change and the newly launched UNICEF Safeguarding Children in Sport Award is celebrating organisations that have taken steps to make sport safer for children.
MTG was selected for the prestigious award in recognition of their youth-led approach to safeguarding, which was applauded by the Beyond Sport Judging Panel as making the delivery of sport safer for all.
The innovative work of MTG includes their safeguarding policy design and procedures have been led and designed by the young girls and women they work with based on their needs and experiences; rather than initiating this process externally with staff.
MTG have also recognized that the young girls and women in their programmes often disclose safeguarding concerns with their peers before approaching an adult. In response to this, all young peer leaders who run MTG programmes receive appropriate intervention training on how to work sensitively with participants around safeguarding and work closely with counsellors and senior members of staff to refer cases for follow on action and support.
MTG beneficiaries and staff have developed a safeguarding code of conduct to mitigate some of the risks young girls and women face when they play football. Football coaching sessions conclude when it is still light in order for the girls to be seen as they return home and a buddy approach has been implemented by MTG so girls travel in a minimum group of three to football sessions or arrange a mutual meet-up point to walk together to mitigate the harassment of girls on their way to and from football practice.
These simple yet effective steps has enabled MTG to strengthen their safeguarding approach across the organsiation and embed this approach in the communities they work in, where girls and young women feel safer and feel confident who to turn to when they feel unsafe.
Rachel Muthoga, MTG director, was in London to receive the prize was overjoyed and said "child protection and safeguarding is really close to the heart of what MTG does as an organisation. Our team work tirelessly to advocate for the rights of children and to ensure young women and girls have access to safe and inclusive sport so it was a great honour to be recognised for our work in that field".
International Inspiration has been a proud partner of MTG since 2011 and we look forward to working with them on the next stage of their safeguarding journey.
To learn more about the fantastic work of MTG, please view this great video https://vimeo.com/127483450
