Prevention

Prevention Programs

The National Coalition Against Violent Athletes is dedicated to a concept of sports as an educational activity that promotes positive life skills in children so that they become respectful, productive adults. Our program, INTERCEPT, involves administrators, coaches, community leaders and behavioral professionals in a comprehensive effort to end violence by athletes and reassess the role of sport in our society. This program looks to promote sports as a vehicle for developing values such as fairness, accountability, leadership and tolerance. Mindful of the program's mission to promote proactive strategies to provide for the common good by fostering personal accountability to cultivate universal leadership, this program will become a powerful agency in combating athletes and violence while producing moral exemplars of society.

"This organization is based solely on the belief that athletes are human and should be held to the same standards as the rest of society." This elementary quote by Kathy Redmond sparked national media attention and debate when she formally introduced The National Coalition Against Violent Athletes in Manhattan.

Currently, there is NO program in the country that provides continual education and guidance in helping victims, educators and athletes battle the epidemic of athletes and violence. This program would offer victims and athletes the ability to educate and empower themselves against a violence which is un-addressed, unstoppable, and increasing. These statistics from various studies confirm the problem of athletes and violence as an epidemic.

The NCAA and numerous other sports bodies have been concerned that sports is being sacrificed by a "win at all costs" atmosphere. This program will correct this harmful atmosphere at the grass roots level. Researchers have concluded that violence, mainly sexual assault and domestic violence, is not "simply the result of an individual's psychological disposition or biological makeup, but rather, it is a behavior which is socially encouraged." This program deducts that the basis for this conclusion is deeply rooted in our locker rooms, coaching staffs, and administration.

About two-thirds of all American youth between the ages of 6 and 18 are involved in some kind of athletic program. Noting the inherent problem of this epidemic, many youth sports organizations are calling for dynamic proactive programs to promote sportsmanship. In recent years, organized, competitive sports taken place of after school and summer activities. These organized sports are being guided by adult coaches who tend to emulate college and professional techniques and attitudes, therefore fostering unhealthy perspectives of sport which is less playful and more serious. Playing in front of adults then becomes stressful due to an adult emphasis on winning and performance. This intrusive atmosphere is one of the reasons that kids participation in sports steadily decreases after the age of 10, and therefore becomes restricted to only the elite athletes who have assumed the detrimental adult principles of sports. Working as a team, coaches, teachers, psychologists, researchers, and various experts in violence can: