We take safety seriously. AYSO’s Safe Haven program has been put in place to protect AYSO players and the volunteers who serve them. Safe Haven is the first program of its kind in youth sports, most notably in soccer.
Under the rules of the Safe Haven program, AYSO requires that each volunteer complete and eSign a volunteer application each and every year, including agreeing to background checks and to abide by the philosophies and policies of AYSO.
Our volunteers are also asked to complete Safe Haven courses and job-specific training in order to become certified. AYSO in-person and online training focuses on the best ways to work with children and important safety protocols. Additionally, every AYSO Region is required to designate a volunteer to act as the Child and Volunteer Protection Advocate (CVPA). A CVPA helps implement Safe Haven policies at the local level.
SafeSport Act Mandatory Training (Effective January 1, 2022)
The 2017 SafeSport Act has expanded Mandated Reporters to include adults authorized to interact with children. Due to this expansion, that includes AYSO and it requires training on child abuse and mandated reporting.
Effective, January 1, 2022, U.S. Soccer will no longer allow equivalent training* and has mandated SafeSport training.
What does this mean for AYSO?
AYSO will comply with the federal SafeSport training requirement and we will integrate with the U.S. Soccer Education and Learning Center as well as their Player Health and Safety Courses.
The training is the full course in the first year, which is 90 minutes, and repeated every three years, followed by annual updates in the in-between years, which are 30 minutes.
How will it work?
You will be able to access the SafeSport training by following these instructions:
- Login to your Sports Connect account where you registered as a volunteer.
- Click on the volunteer tab on the left-hand side of the screen
- Click on SafeSport box
- Click on Renew and Update
- A screen will pop up where you will click on the “click HERE” link or copy and paste the URL into your browser to begin training
Note: Youth Volunteers (anyone under the age of majority in your state) are not required to take this training.