Frequently Asked Questions

Respect in Sport is an online training program for coaches, activity leaders and parents. It is designed as a tool to assist in identifying and dealing with bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination in sport.

Sask Sport believes that we should be proactive in making sport in our province as safe as possible and welcoming for all participants. Respect in Sport helps us promote those values through this simple and convenient online tool. It is being implemented to provide a better sport environment for all participants.

Sask Sport is leading this initiative with the support of the Government of Saskatchewan.

Identifying and dealing with bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination in sport is very important and we believe ALL coaches and sport leaders must understand the fundamentals. In knowing that all of our coaches have had this essential training we will also be better prepared to mitigate liability both personal and organizational.

Respect in Sport is delivered as an online program including audio/visual presentations, quizzes and printable handouts.

By design, this program is only available online. Credit for completing the program is provided exclusively to the individual registered and signed in while the program is being completed.

The objectives of this program are to assist leaders who interact with youth at any level to become more confident in identifying and dealing with bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination inside and outside of the sport community.

Further to this, the Respect in Sport program provides information about the physical and emotional development of youth, strategies for positive communications, dealing with concussion and other types of injuries and much more.

As a more knowledgeable coach, it may also mitigate your liability and that of the youth serving organization you are a part of.

In the event you are faced with a situation involving bullying, abuse, harassment, discrimination or any other form of maltreatment and are unsure how to proceed, the Sask Sport Resource Line can assist. The Sask Sport Resource Line provides bilingual response to calls, texts or emails by expert staff who will guide you to the necessary resources pertaining to:

• child and youth maltreatment
• bullying
• hazing
• national/provincial child and youth protection laws, and
• organization-specific risk management and dispute resolution models.

This is a confidential and anonymous resource. Individuals who access the Sask Sport Resource Line are not required to disclose their identities. The following Sask Sport Resource Lines are available 365 days per year, between the hours of 9 am and 9 pm:

The toll-free number: 1-888-329-4009
TEXT: 1-306-717-9636
help@resourceline.ca

All that is required to complete the Respect in Sport program is a computer, an Internet connection and speakers or headphones. This program will operate on any PC, Mac or Mobile device using the most common Internet browsers.

You may also use the Activity Leaders App which will allow you to complete the program offline, however you must initialize the App while you are online, and then connect again once you have completed the program to receive recognition for completion.

Respect in Sport is available from any community computer – your work, library, a friend, band office, school, etc. Your information will be confidential as you log on with your own password to access the program each time.

Through extensive research and development, the program was designed, first and foremost, to be user friendly. It is extremely simple to use and has been implemented and tested by many sport organizations with little or no reported difficulties. There is also an online “Help” feature and a technical support link at support.respectgroupinc.com.

No; by design, paper has been eliminated. Respect in Sport also gives you ongoing access to the course once you’ve completed it, as an online resource. There are some documents you can print if you want them but that is your choice.

Yes! The Parent Program is available for download in the App Store for Apple iOS and on Google Play for Android. You can also simply use the browser on your mobile device to complete the program.

If you would like to use the App, sign-in to this program on the device you wish to use and then select Program Access. A message displaying information on downloading and initializing the app will be displayed.

You can complete the program at your leisure and come and go as you please. You can even do it from different computers if you wish!

At the end of each section, two buttons will be displayed: Close and Continue. Selecting one of these two buttons will ensure our system always knows what section you completed last so you may begin again from that point.

We call this “Importing a Certificate”, and it is easy to do, but importing will only work with similar program types.

• You may import certificate numbers between different versions of the Respect in Sport Activity Leader program, such as Respect in Sport for Hockey Canada and Respect in Soccer. You may also import certificate numbers between different versions of the Respect in Sport Parent Program, and between different versions of the Respect in the Workplace program.
• Due to significant differences that exist between newer versions of Respect in School and the Respect in Sport Activity Leader program, these certifications are no longer interchangeable.

To import your certificate, click on Import a Certificate from the Login page and follow the instructions as prompted.

Respect in Sport was designed to complement the existing NCCP programs.

Respect in Sport for Activity Leaders program is quite different and far more specific in dealing with the key issues of bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination.

You will be certified in Respect in Sport separately and your sport organization will track that separately. However, it will assist you in maintaining your certified status and you will be able to use this training towards Professional Development points.

Yes. Based on the current NCCP PD policy/model it appears 3 points would be granted (3 hours x 1 point per hour).

Respect in Sport really is one of the most important courses you’ll take as a person who is responsible for teaching and training athletes. With this training, you should feel more confident in dealing with issues relating to bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination and hopefully feel much more prepared to act when faced with these types of situations. The information covered in this course will help to protect you and the athletes in your care, allowing you to feel more comfortable in your leadership role.

It’s a total of approximately three hours of content, split into seven modules.

Each PSO will have the flexibility to determine their deadline date to best coincide with the start of their season(s) of sport. Please contact your PSO for the timeline to complete the Respect in Sport course.

The Respect in Sport for Coaches and Activity Leaders training is free for members belonging to organizations affiliated with Sask Sport. Sask Sport believes so strongly in this program and the values it promotes, that we have covered cost for all coaches and other sport leaders in our province.

Currently in Saskatchewan, coaches are required to complete the program once, however in some instances a coach may be required by their PSO or Sask Sport to recertify. Some National Sport Organizations may require their coaches to recertify every three or five years; this is something Sask Sport is considering implementing in the future, potentially following the release of the updated and revised Respect in Sport Activity Leaders training content.

Following certification, you will have online access to the program materials and resources.

• It will help you better understand the responsibilities, reward and respect that come with being a coach.
• It will make you more confident in identifying and dealing with bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination.
• It will help create a safer and more respectful environment for you, other coaches and the athletes in your care.
• As a more knowledgeable coach, it will also better mitigate your own personal liability that is an inherent part of working with children and youth, which are considered a vulnerable population.

If you are already certified, but an organization you are volunteering with cannot access your certification details (i.e., they are requesting your certificate number), you will need to make sure that sport has been added to your profile.

If the additional organization(s) exist in the listing of associations displayed in the profile area, simply select those organizations and hit the save button on the bottom of the page.

If the organization is not listed, access the Respect in Sport program URL provided by the new organization and select Import a Certificate.

Respect in Sport Activity Leader certificates are also interchangeable with certificates for Respect in School.

If you are involved with Gymnastics Canada or Hockey Saskatchewan, you will access those specific versions of Respect in Sport. Sask Sport will still absorb the costs of the program and if you coach additional sports, you may “Import Your Certificate” into the Sask Sport version of the program. Visit the HELP section of the program, to learn about Importing Your Certificate.

If you decide not to take the course, you will not be eligible to coach.

Values are values. Whether you are coaching youth or adults the issues of bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination are the same.

Anyone who is in a leadership position with youth or adults and involved in sport need to have this knowledge in order to ensure a safer and more respectful environment and to become more confident in identifying and dealing with bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination.

Respect Group has now launched the Respect in Sport Parent Program. Parents often take on a number of key roles in sport and away from the field, they help mould their child’s sporting experience. If sport organizations believe their sport would benefit from the Parent Program, they can access it at their own cost of approximately $12. Sask Sport’s provincial license does not include the Parent program.

Become acquainted with the Respect in Sport materials and information to help with understanding, promotion and the implementation. The Respect in Sport Policy Template & Implementation Checklist are found . Another important step is to get support and buy in by generating awareness aimed at coaches, member clubs, leagues and teams.

Once implemented, it will be important to govern the program to ensure all active coaches in your sport have taken the course by the deadline that is listed in your organization’s Respect in Sport Policy.

By implementing the program PSOs are making a commitment to the safety of their athletes. Respect in Sport provides coaches with the tools to deal with legal and moral responsibilities, making them less vulnerable and more confident when dealing with sensitive issues. Increasing the number of Respect in Sport-certified coaches will help your organization manage its associated risk when working with children and youth.

The benefits include:

• liability reduction
• help to create a sport specific database
• coach retention
• consistent training for coaches across all sports

Respect in Sport can help provide a safer, more welcoming sport environment where respect is paramount. It will make enjoyment levels go up and hopefully keep our participants involved in sport.

It will be the PSOs responsibility to promote and oversee compliance with the requirement for active coaches to have completed the Respect in Sport certification. The first step will be for PSOs to adopt a provincial policy that outlines the purpose, scope, conditions, etc. specific to your sport. It will be important to gain the cooperation and support of your clubs, leagues and teams to assist in educating, communicating and enforcing your policy. To assist in compliance and monitoring, it would be beneficial to revise registration forms to enable coaches to include their Respect in Sport certificate number.

The database will track all registrants on a per sport basis. Each sport will have administrative access to their sport’s certification database and be able to verify user certification. The database is simple to manage and training will be available on how to use it.