The following constitute the policies of Upper Makefield Youth Baseball & Softball League with regard to awareness and prevention of abuse within our organization:
- Upper Makefield Youth Baseball is committed to provide a safe environment and to prevent child abuse and sexual misconduct.
- Upper Makefield Youth Baseball will make every reasonable effort to ensure that every person involved in coaching/training a sport activity in our organization will abide by the SafeKids guidelines.
- Upper Makefield Youth Baseball will make every reasonable effort to exclude any adult with a legally documented history of child abuse/molestation or any other conviction or record that would bring unnecessary risk to the health and safety of the participants of this organization.
- Upper Makefield Youth Baseball will perform a criminal background check on every person applying for a position at our organization.
- Upper Makefield Youth Baseball will take appropriate action on all allegations of child abuse and/or sexual misconduct. All allegations will be reported immediately to the authorities for investigation and will cooperate fully with any such investigation.
The following represent the preventive measures of our organization with regard to abuse:
- Physical, mental, and verbal abuse of any of the participants, coaches, managers, employees, volunteers involved in our sponsored activities is not permitted.
- Inappropriate touching of any kind is forbidden.
- We agree to provide more than one adult working at or overseeing every activity. If a child needs special attention (one -on-one training or an individual meeting), it will be handled with the assistance or presence of another adult.
- Coaches/trainers should not socialize with the participants outside of the sponsored activities of the organization.
- Coaches/trainers should never ride alone with a child or participant in the car. Procedures will be established for coaches to follow in the event a participant is stranded at an activity.
- Parents are encouraged to attend sponsored activities
All coaches must pass background checks on an annual basis before they begin any practice/play.
In addition, we ask that all participants become familiar with the “Heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports” program, and are required to sign an acknowledgement receipt. Information can be obtained at: http://www.cdc.gov/HeadsUp/index.html.
At minimum, we ask that parents and coaches review the following documents:
1. Fact sheet for coaches on concussion
2. Fact sheet for athletes on concussion
3. Fact sheet for parents on concussion
4. Clipboard with concussion facts for coaches
Upper Makefield Youth Baseball has a Return-to-Play policy that requires any player who has sustained a head injury or who is suspected of having sustained a head injury to:
• Visit a licensed health care professional for evaluation and clearance, AND
• Sign (for youth players, have parent/legal guardian sign) a head injury information/awareness sheet before returning to practice or game play.