U.S. Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer), the national governing body for the sport of soccer in the United States. U.S. Soccer has developed the Safe Soccer Framework as a foundation from which all participants in the soccer community, be they athletes, coaches, referees, administrators or volunteers, play an active role in creating an environment free from emotional, physical or sexual abuse. The Safe Soccer Framework is a comprehensive program of policies and process, screening, education and training, reporting, monitoring and enforcement designed to help participants detect and report abuse, respond to it, and prevent future occurrences.

If you suspect child abuse, report it to law enforcement within 24 hours

Virginia Youth Soccer Association is dedicated to maintaining zero tolerance for Prohibited Conduct. As such, it is vital that everyone actively participates in the protection of Youth. VYSA encourages everyone to report SafeSport Code violations and stresses that Covered Personnel are mandatory reporters per applicable state and federal law.

Under the SafeSport Act, the reporting obligation is triggered when a mandatory reporter becomes aware of "facts that give reason to suspect" a child has suffered an incident of child abuse. Child abuse includes physical or mental injury, sexual abuse or exploitation, or negligent treatment of a child. Sexual Abuse is defined to include the employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of a child to engage in, or assist another person to engage in, sexually explicit conduct or the rape, molestation, prostitution, or other form of sexual exploitation of children or incest with children. Mental Injury means harm to a child’s psychological or intellectual functioning which may be exhibited by severe anxiety, depression, withdrawal or outward aggressive behavior, or a combination of those behaviors, which may be demonstrated by a change in behavior, emotional response or cognition.

The SafeSport Act also includes qualified immunity for good faith reports. U.S. Soccer urges all mandatory reporters to refrain from judging or evaluating the credibility of such allegations­ leave that to law enforcement.

Failure to promptly report suspected child abuse to law enforcement authorities may constitute a violation of applicable state and federal law and, in any event, will be deemed a violation of U.S. Soccer's SafeSport Framework.

Overview:
SafeSport training is REQUIRED for all coaches, staff, volunteers and admins of official Virginia Youth Soccer Association Member Clubs.

The SafeSport training is good for one (1) year. After that year is up, a Refresher Course will become available. Please see the instructions below for SafeSport training.

SafeSport Training Instructions:
For new coaches/admins you will need to work with your club to get the SafeSport instructions in order to register and create an account to access the SafeSport training under the US Soccer affiliation. 




For those who have taken the main training module, you will need to sign back into your account to access the Refresher Course at Safesporttrained.org. 

For any issues within the SafeSport website or issues with your account, please contact SafeSport directly.  Their contact information can be found at their website. 

The U.S. Center for SafeSport has released five training modules focused on Youth Athletes.  The modules are age-based and free for participants:

• Preschool
• Grades K-2
• Grades 3-5
• Middle School
• High School
  

Each training module is 10-20 minutes in length.  A parent/guardian must first create a SafeSport account in order to give consent for their child to access the training and select the module for their child's age.

View Training Modules