As the Tennis Europe Junior School introduces the topic of 'safeguarding' to its range of informative videos, Tennis Europe CEO Thomas Hammerl provides an overview of the subject.
Tennis Europe has released a new video on the topic of ‘Safeguarding’ today, can you tell us a little bit more about it?
TH: We run a Tour with more than 480 junior events and our main customers are players between 10 and 16 years of age, so for us it is especially important to ensure their safety. We are committed to safeguarding all children and adults throughout our Tennis Europe tournaments, events, projects, and programmes.
For someone that has no understanding of safeguarding, can you please explain what it means?
TH: Safeguarding refers to the actions we take to ensure all children and adults are kept safe from harm when involved in Tennis Europe tournaments and events.
What forms of support does the European Federation provide?
TH: Everyone should feel safe, respected, and valued in all tennis activities, whether they’re playing, visiting or working at an event. If you don’t feel safe or witness something that should be reported, then you can call a specific Tennis Europe telephone number and or send an E-Mail to safeguarding@tenniseurope.org. Furthermore, the fact sheets of our junior events all include a number for local child protection services, and we also count on the support of the International Tennis Federation for certain cases.
So, this topic is also important for all parents and coaches, correct?
TH: Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and the welfare of every child and adult is of paramount importance. Though this clip was produced for young players attending our Junior School, we urge all adults to watch it and to learn about the procedures in place and their responsibilities when accompanying young players.
What is your plan to promote this topic?
TH: We are blessed to have had huge success with our “Junior School” program in the past few years. Through this we deliver information on some of the most important subjects, like anti-doping, tennis integrity, mental health, and now also safeguarding, to the best juniors from all over the world. Members of our team are personally present at some of the biggest junior tournaments in Europe and we focus a lot on our social media channels to transport the videos and messages. We are very thankful for the fantastic cooperation with the ITF, the ATP, and the WTA who all sanction the program and make it the only educational program to be sanctioned by the tennis governing body and the professional tours.
You can find the new Junior School 'Safeguarding' clip below, or visit the Junior School page for all other content.