Up2Us Sports and Edgework Consulting have been working together for more than 5 years to leverage the power of sports to help kids heal. We are proud to announce our new Sport and Trauma website where you can access resources and register for events. To date, we’ve trained more than 10,000 coaches to understand the impact that exposure to adverse childhood experiences and other kinds of toxic stress can have on young people. We’ve provided these coaches with a road map to create safe spaces for kids affected by trauma. Through our training, coaches learn strategies that encourage kids to be physically active, become more comfortable in their bodies, develop competence, and make meaningful connections with caring adults and supportive teammates. We have trained coaches to manage challenging behavior that may arise as a result of a young person’s exposure to trauma—behavior that can keep kids from accessing positive activities. We’ve given more than 1 million kids a trauma-sensitive coach.
But coaches are only one piece of the puzzle. In order to truly create healing environments in sports, we must also address the structure of a sports training session, the design of the league or program in which a team operates, and provide the young people with the tools to participate in their own healing.
In 2017, we’ll post a series of reports and tools that provide the foundation of a body of work on sport and trauma. We’ll offer trainings and events through which you can learn how to create a trauma-informed sports experience or become a trauma-sensitive coach. And we’ll share stories of other pioneers in the field who are bringing to life everyday the unique healing elements of sport.
