70+
local organisations asked Council for child safety support
7
volunteers from 6 Latrobe clubs attended
4.9/5
average rating for how engaging the session was
4.4/5
average confidence with the topic after the session
'All clubs should do this': practical child safe training for Latrobe sporting clubs
When more than 70 local organisations told Latrobe City Council they wanted help with child safety, more than a third of them were sporting clubs. In July 2026, GippSport and Council brought club volunteers together in Traralgon for a practical, sport-specific session on keeping kids safe.
Why sport needed its own session
Victoria’s Child Safe Standards have applied to sporting clubs that provide services to children since 2017, and the current 11 Standards came into effect on 1 July 2022. They apply to every club working with under-18s, whatever its size, and cover everyone involved: committee members, coaches, officials and volunteers. For volunteer-run clubs, knowing where to start can be the hardest part.
Council’s recent grant applications included a question about child safety, and the response was clear. Those numbers only reflect clubs that applied for grants and ticked the box, so the real need is likely much bigger.
Council engaged an independent provider to run general child safe training for community groups, and asked GippSport to deliver a session built for sport. Community sport brings its own challenges. Alongside physical and sexual abuse, clubs deal with issues like team culture, peer-to-peer bullying and the way coaches and parents behave. Coaches spend hours each week with young players, and the way they coach shapes how safe and welcome kids feel. Positive coaching became a key focus of the session.
Inside the room
GippSport Club Support Officer for Latrobe and Baw Baw, Trevor Priest, designed the two-hour session to be hands-on. Rather than working through policy line by line, the group worked through realistic situations club volunteers might face.
Each scenario unfolded in stages. It might start with a committee member giving a junior player a generous gift, or a club official following a teenage player on social media. Then the details built until the group could pinpoint where the behaviour crossed a line. One scenario was deliberately harmless, a coach passing on a second-hand racquet, to help volunteers tell everyday kindness apart from genuine warning signs.
The session also covered the signs a child may be experiencing harm at home or elsewhere, how to respond if a child discloses abuse, and who to report concerns to. It looked at how club culture, coaching and sideline behaviour all affect how safe kids feel, drawing on GippSport’s Let Us Play campaign. A reminder to parents: on the car ride home, the only thing you need to say is “I loved watching you play.”
Tools clubs can use straight away
Every attendee left with practical resources, including:
Safer Clubs in 2 Hours:
a set of quick wins a committee can knock over in a single afternoon. These include adding child safety as a standing agenda item at committee meetings, adding the club's code of conduct to the registration process, checking volunteers' Working with Children Checks in bulk through Service Victoria, and reminding coaches to communicate through parents rather than directly with junior players.
The Club Promise:
a child-friendly document that tells kids how their coaches and volunteers should behave, because children and young people should be part of the conversation about their own safety.
Clubs were also encouraged to make sure every child knows at least three adults at the club they can talk to, from different areas of the club.
What participants said
Volunteers came from golf, basketball, cricket, football and netball clubs across Moe, Morwell, Traralgon and Yallourn North. The session was held on a weeknight, free of charge, with a meal provided. The small group made room for open, honest discussion on a sensitive topic, and several people stayed back afterwards to talk through situations at their own clubs.
All seven attendees completed a post-session survey. They rated their confidence with the topic at an average of 4.4 out of five, and their understanding of the support GippSport offers clubs at 4.3. They also rated the session 4.9 out of five for how engaging the presenter was, 4.7 for the presenter’s knowledge, and 4.6 for their overall experience.
Run more sessions like this."
Working in partnership with councils
This session worked because Council and GippSport each played to their strengths. Council used its grant data to identify the need and promoted the session through its networks. GippSport brought sport-specific expertise and its existing relationships with local clubs.
For councils looking to support child safety in their communities, a partnership like this is a practical way to reach sporting clubs with training designed for how they actually operate.
"The Child Safe training session delivered by Trevor for our local sporting groups was well-designed and well delivered. The content was right on point for what club officials need to know. Trevor offered practical examples as well as supports to help get clubs to where they need to be, and the tone and pitch of the training was just right, given the sensitivities of the topic. One participant in particular was a little unsure as to why she was there at the beginning of the night, but as she left she said to me 'all clubs should do this!'. I would highly recommend this training to other sporting organisations."
Where to from here
GippSport is keen to bring this session to more clubs, leagues and council areas across Gippsland. We can work with you to find a time and format that suits your volunteers, whether that’s a standalone evening or a session built into an existing league or committee meeting.
Clubs don’t need to wait for a workshop to get started. GippSport offers one-on-one support to help clubs review their policies, work through the Child Safe Standards and support their committees to build a safer club.
Keep building a child safe club
Want this session for your club, league or council area?
Contact GippSport team at info@gippsport.com.au.
Prefer to learn online?
Vicsport’s free Child Safe Online Education Program guides volunteers through each of the 11 Standards at their own pace.
Need templates?
Vicsport’s Child Safe Sport page has free policy templates, codes of conduct, review checklists and recruitment guides.