3 minute read
Big steps for smaller organisations
We often look to high participation sports to lead the way, but sometimes it’s the smaller organisations who are agents for change.
Combat Institute of Australia (CombatAUS) and Artistic Swimming Australia are two such organisations – together they are at the forefront of member protection and safe sport.
The decision to adopt the National Integrity Framework (NIF) was a fairly easy one, according to Alex Vallentine, the CEO of CombatAUS, the association that manages Australia’s elite high performance programs for combat sports including boxing, judo, and taekwondo, with an affiliate association with wrestling and fencing.
“We are committed to ensuring the integrity of our high performance activity and to providing a safe and supportive environment for our athletes, staff and coaches,” Vallentine says.
“Adopting the National Integrity Framework will assist us in mitigating integrity threats to our people and our activities.”
Vallentine credits Sport Integrity Australia with helping CombatAUS to modify the NIF to ensure it caters for all the sports within their membership.
“Thank you to the team at Sport Integrity Australia for working through the adoption process with us. Our unique structure required the policies to be tailored to suit our operations and we are greatly appreciative of Sport Integrity Australia's support, particularly the Sport Engagement team.”
Richard Vaughan, the new High Performance Pathways Director of Artistic Swimming Australia (ASA), feels a national approach to sport integrity will be compulsory at some point, so signing on now was a logical step for ASA.
“ASA [formerly known as synchronised swimming] wants to have the highest level of governance, and athlete/ member protection is our highest priority within the sport,” Vaughan says. “It is helpful to know there is an agency dedicated to checking compliance around these areas, and this acts as a reassurance for small national sporting organisations who are not resourced to have as in-depth coverage.”
Vaughan commends Sport Integrity Australia on the ease of the process and communication with ASA and encourages organisations to join the NIF, safe in the knowledge that Sport Integrity Australia will help work through any issues that may arise.
“It has been great to have one point of contact at Sport Integrity Australia, and work throughout.”
