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Strasbourg, 6 May 2022 EPAS(2022)24 Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport Start to Talk To prevent and remedy violence, harassment and abuse of children in sport BACKGROUND INFORMATION In sport, as in life, a disturbing reality exists where children are at risk of violence and abuse. Whilst even a single case of abuse is too many, this phenomenon occurs far too often in sport. Examples have been seen in all countries, in all disciplines, and from grassroots to elite sport. Abuse in sport can have a major lifelong impact on the physical and mental health of the child and may lead to a decrease in physical activity, a vital component of health. Sport is the most popular spare time activity of children and young people and must be a safe space. In response to these needs, the “Start to Talk” project aims to step up action and co-operation towards a safe, positive and empowering sport environment for all children. THE START TO TALK PROJECT Start to Talk is a Council of Europe call for action to public authorities, sport organisations and other stakeholders to take the necessary measures to prevent and remedy child violence, harassment and abuse. Start to Talk encourages and supports the development of child safeguarding policies, awareness-raising activities, training and the exchange of good practices. Start to Talk is about adults breaking the silence and giving children a voice. Start to Talk promotes the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (The Lanzarote Convention) and the Council of Europe revised European Sports Charter. Start to Talk was launched by the Council of Europe in 2018 as a follow-up to the two successful Pro Safe Sport projects co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and run by the Council of Europe’s Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS). 1  EPAS(2022)24 START TO TALK – GET ACTIVE! Start to Talk invites governments, sport organisations, as well as other interested stakeholders to join this effort towards a safer sport environment for children. Start to Talk provides specialised advice and practical tools that can be used by our stakeholders to identify needs, plan and implement activities to promote a safe and empowering sport environment: • Identifying needs Start to Talk assists national authorities, sports organisations and other stakeholders to assess their situation on safe sport by: o using a self-assessment online tool1 designed for sport organisations to assess their own organisational capacity to provide a safe and healthy sport environment for young athletes and/or; o discussing the stakeholder’s specific situation and needs with experts from the Start to Talk Secretariat and/or; o organising a seminar with experts to assess the needs and design a plan to combat abuse and harassment in sport. • Developing a strategy/planning activities o A roadmap is a fully customised tool which is designed by the national authorities and other stakeholders to lay out a long-term and sustainable strategy to implement Start to Talk actions. Roadmaps are developed with the support of the Start to Talk Secretariat together with international and local experts in child safeguarding in sport. Start to Talk promotes child and youth participation in the development of safeguarding policies and other decision-making processes affecting them; o The Start to Talk Secretariat assists its stakeholders to plan Start to Talk activities through the Start to Talk tools that include expert advice, a collection of good practices, training materials, the Start to Talk action page and video clip, etc. • Implementing the Start to Talk activities at national level The Start to Talk Secretariat assists its stakeholders to implement Start to Talk activities aimed at the implementation of safeguarding policies and other measures to create a safer environment for children and young athletes. Examples of Start to Talk activities include: o National policy frameworks for safeguarding and protecting children in sport; o National campaigns to raise awareness through events and other initiatives (TV clips, videos, webpages, brochures, social media, communication during sport events, etc.); o Guidelines for ethics and codes of conduct in sport; o Setting up of Child Safeguarding Officers; o Case management systems and access to advice and support for child and young athletes and their parents; o Educational programmes (coaches, managers and policy makers); o Sharing of good practices in the field of child safeguarding. 1 The self-assessment tool developed within the Pro Safe Sport project and available on https://pjp- eu.coe.int/en/web/pss/self-assessment will be redesigned and updated soon. HOW TO GET INVOLVED IN START TO TALK Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Identify needs Plan activities Implement activities Policy framework Roadmap for the Case management implementation of systems Start to Talk Child Safeguarding activities Officers Interest in Assessment Educational STT programmes Awareness-raising events Self-assessment Seminar Consultation Online tool Awareness-raising events Start to Talk tools (video clip, Social media campaign campaigns material, toolkit, Education and homepage etc. ) 3 training WHERE DO I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE START TO TALK SERVICES? Further information on the Start to Talk tools can be found in the Start to Talk/EPAS website. Using the CoE logo and existing materials incurs no cost for our partners, but our stakeholders are expected to identify the necessary funds to implement the actions that they wish to undertake. The materials developed by the Council of Europe present the following key advantages: • they take into account relevant standards and research; • they have been developed by leading European experts in co-operation with governments, the sport movement and persons with lived experience of abuse in sport; • they are designed to be easily adapted to the national context. In addition to translating the texts into the national language/s, partners are encouraged to add country-relevant information such as legislation, existing policies and services, helplines and websites. They can also add their logos to the material subject to previous approval by the EPAS Secretariat. FACTS AND FIGURES ON START TO TALK o The video has already been dubbed into 22 languages (Azerbaijan, Bulgarian, Croatian, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Georgian, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish). o Training kit: Available in English, French, Greek and Portuguese. o 9 countries have launched a national campaign (Spain 5 April 2018, The Netherlands 6 November 2018, Portugal 22 November 2018, Norway 29 November 2018, Finland 29 April 2019, France 18 November 2019, Croatia 13 December 2019, Georgia, 10 December 2020, Greece 14 January 2021). o The Council of Europe Ministers’ Deputies from 4 member states issued a joint statement, supported by 37 other Council of Europe member states, inviting all countries to join the Start to Talk project on the occasion of the 2018 End Child Sex Abuse Day. o The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe supported the further development of the Start to Talk campaign through its Reply CM/AS (2021) Rec 2175 to the Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 2175 (2020), on 20 January 2021. o The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has commended the Start to Talk project in its Recommendation 2221 (2022), 26 January 2022. o The Start to Talk action page is available in 13 languages (Bulgarian, Croatian, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Georgian, Greek, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish) o More than 12 Silence breakers (including Roberto Carlos, Gloria Viseras etc) and game changers (including Council of Europe member states, IOC, FIFA and UEFA) are online on the action page. o 14 countries have identified a Start to Talk contact point. o 3 countries have made Voluntary Contributions to the Start to Talk project. 4 SECRETARIAT GENERAL DIRECTORATE GENERAL II: DEMOCRACY Directorate of Anti-Discrimination ENLARGED PARTIAL AGREEMENT ON SPORT (EPAS) Our ref: DAD-sport-3/SK/MT/cl Strasbourg, 6 May 2022 For the attention of Ministers responsible for sport Subject: Support for the Council of Europe “Start to Talk” initiative Dear Minister, The Council of Europe’s “Start to Talk” initiative to prevent child abuse in sport, launched by the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) in April 2018, has been very successful in supporting governments, sport organisations and other stakeholders in preventing and remedying child abuse in sport. According to an independent evaluation report, the initiative has enabled governments to raise awareness and build synergies at national level, using the launch of a national “Start to Talk campaign” and creation of “Start to Talk” materials to take further actions in the field of child protection, such as the introduction of victim helplines and reporting protocols. “Start to Talk” also offers advice on developing roadmaps for the implementation of comprehensive child safeguarding policies and capacity-building activities. However, more needs to be done to create safer sport environments. The Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have recently commended the “Start to Talk” project’s efforts in tackling this scourge through the Council of Europe’s intergovernmental networks. A range of member states have expressed their interest in this initiative. Unfortunately, however, we will be unable to satisfy current levels of demand without a corresponding increase in our financial resources. In order for EPAS to respond to the needs, we would welcome voluntary contributions to this important initiative, which has the potential to bring about significant progress in the protection of children and in the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (the Lanzarote Convention) and the Council of Europe’s revised European Sports Charter. Should you wish to support the “Start to Talk” initiative, your services are invited to contact EPAS at [email protected]. We thank in advance for your attention to this initiative. Yours sincerely, Alexandre Husting Jeroen Schokkenbroek Chair of the EPAS Governing Board Director of Anti-discrimination 1 quai Jacoutot - F-67075 Strasbourg - Tel. : +33(0)3 88 41 34 29 - www.coe.int/epas