Safe Haven – Holistic Child Protection at SV Werder
For children and young people, SV Werder Bremen has been much more than a club for over a century. The “Werder family” is the emotional and sporting home of young athletes. The protection of these children is therefore particularly important to the Green-Whites. Together with Kindernothilfe Deutschland, SV Werder Bremen is currently developing a new and holistic child protection system.
“Ensuring the protection of children is a task of which we are absolutely aware,” explains Werder’s President and Managing Director Dr. Hubertus Hess-Grunewald. “Whether on away trips of our youth teams, in the dressing room after handball training, in the Kids Club or with the kids at home games: SV Werder should be a safe haven for children and young people – and should this not be the case, there must be a functioning child protection system in which educated, competent and competent employees know the help structures,” continued Dr. Hess-Grunewald.
The green-white child protection concept will be implemented together with Kindernothilfe Deutschland e.V., which has implemented a functioning concept at VfL Bochum, among others, along with cooperation partner “In safe hands e.V.” and with the cooperation of the Landessportbund Bremen e.V. and the Bremer Fußball-Verband e.V.. Several workshops and training sessions will take place until the end of 2022.
ANCHORING CHILD PROTECTION EVERYWHERE IN CLUBS AND COMPANIES
The first intensive training course has already taken place. At SV Werder Bremen, three special features in particular have to be taken into account: The specifics of the sports require special measures, the specifics of Werder with its structure of a corporation and a club make a special system necessary, and the specifics of the location with several halls and an extensive network of buildings and training grounds in the Pauliner Marsch require special attention.
In order to anchor the child protection system everywhere in club sport and the teams of the corporation, everyone is working on the development: Representatives from the WERDER Performance Centre and Boarding School, from the WERDER Football School, from women’s and girls’ football are involved in the process, as are youth officer Conny Dehne, the six sports departments of handball, athletics, chess, table tennis, gymnastics and gymnastics, and the grassroots sports section of football. Representatives from Werder’s CSR department are involved in the football pitch programme, the kids league, day-care centre and school cooperation and inclusion.
“Child protection affects many areas of Werder Bremen. It is very important to us that everyone participates in the development of the concept so that in the future we can work according to a common and transparent system that everyone can implement in their areas of responsibility,” explains Michael Arends, team leader for social commitment at SV Werder, who manages the project together with Anja Fabrizius (CSR).
