Rome (Italy). The Conference “Education and culture of safeguarding in sports. Towards the establishment of models of protection and prevention” born from the synergy between Salesian Youth Poly-sport and Salesian Pontifical University takes place in Rome on 13 April 2024.
The event is organized under the patronage of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), the Sport and Health S.p.a., and the Italian Paralympic Committee. The sponsorship of the Department for Sport at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers will also be made official shortly.
Present will be the Rector of the Salesian University, Fr. Andrea Bozzolo, Salesian of Don Bosco, and Sister Maria del Rosario Garcia Ribas, Vicar General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, as well as several Representatives of Sports Institutions, including the Deputy Vice President of the CONI Dr. Silvia Salis; the member of the Board of Directors of Sport and Health S.p.a., the Honorable Maria Spena; and Dr Rossana Ciuffetti, Director of the Area Sport Impact and Health S.p.a.
The idea of creating this moment of confrontation, says the President of PGS Avv. Ciro Bisogno, “arises from the need to emphasize that segment of the Reform of Sport that is a fundamental step to build a true culture of Sport in this Country.
Issues such as the protection of minors and the combating and prevention of harassment, gender-based violence, and any other conditions of discrimination, cannot leave indifferent a Sports Promotion Body that has at heart the fate of young people and is committed to making its daily contribution in the social contexts of the Country.
We strongly feel the duty to commit ourselves to building a better sports association and for this reason, together and under the scientific supervision of the Safeguarding Officer of the Salesian Youth Sports Centers, and stable professor at the Salesian Pontifical University, Prof. Andrea Farina – whom we thank for his commitment in recent months – we have tried to build a moment of study and reflection.”
The primary objective of the Conference – says Prof. Andrea Farina, who will moderate the interventions – “is first of all to dedicate a moment of confrontation of a national nature on the issue related to the policies of Safeguarding in the sports field. The Salesian University also has among its objectives to spread an ‘educational culture’ of a preventive type. There is also the intention to focus attention on the various issues in order to foster a culture of prevention in sport and, also, to understand which models of protection of an organizational type are best suited to the realities of the associative type in this field.”
“I am happy,” continues Prof. Andrea Farina, “that they have immediately accepted the invitation for expert rapporteurs, whom I thank publicly, because they know the subject well and will be able to explain in a clear and concise way the novelties of the reform together with the questions still open. Special thanks to the Guarantor Authority for Children and Adolescence Dr. Garlatti who will be present at the Conference for a greeting and for what she wants to express about the theme”.
