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HALT4Kids

Halting Harassment and Abuse in Sports using Learning Technologies for Kids

From HALT to HALT4Kids

HALT4Kids could be regarded as the successor of project HALT (http://halt.phed.auth.gr/) which completed at the end of 2021.

HALT project is focused on raising awareness and knowledge about best practices for preventing harassment and abuse in sports for athletes (ages 13-18 years).

The main aim of HALT project is to develop the awareness about harassment and abuse in sports among athletes (ages 13-18 years), academic experts and sport sector stakeholders, to sensitize the target groups about harassment and abuse in sports, to support sports people to (a) recognize and (b) avoid harassment and abuse and to increase sport stakeholders’ awareness about the benefits of using Online Communities by:

  1. Developing Online Communities of Practice (CoP) for awareness and knowledge about harassment and abuse in sports among athletes, academic experts and sport sector stakeholders to enable synergies and collaborative learning about state-of-art about harassment and abuse prevention in sports (http://haltvm.phed.auth.gr/)
  2. Sensitizing the target groups about harassment and abuse in sports by creating a short movie, available in the online CoP (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeTxu3ZMPJg&t=90s)
  3. Designing serious game using realistic scenarios in order to engage users, mainly young athletes, in critical situations which will help them to be aware towards harassment and abuse in sport (http://games.csd.auth.gr/halt/)
  4. Developing a whistleblowing service to make a report which acts as an early warning system and any adult or young person with concerns about a colleague, fellow athlete or themselves being at a risk, can use it (http://halt.phed.auth.gr/whistleblowing/map_gr.php)

HALT is a project that has already a big and active community of user’s (more than 1200 till now), where the digital tools and the educational material are addressed to athletes aged 13-18 years old.

According to the need’s analysis, two specific needs have been emerged:

  • N1: To support/mobilise the child athletes to (a) recognize and (b) avoid harassment and abuse in sport.
  • N2: To enable knowledge sharing and the emergence of best practices on child athlete safeguarding by developing e-learning material for sport stakeholders.

It is clear that there is a NEED to support child athletes (aged 5-12 years old), so at the end, athletes from the beginning of their athlete career till their adulthood will be supported to (a) recognize and (b) avoid harassment and abuse in sport.

Main aim of the proposed project HALT4Kids, is to develop the awareness about harassment and abuse in sports among child athletes (ages 5-12 years), coaches, athletes/former athletes, physical education students, physical education teachers and sport sector stakeholders, to support sports people to (a) recognize and (b) avoid harassment and abuse in child athletes by Designing and Creating digital tools and education material for child athletes such as: (1) a digital storytelling (ST) to promote awareness and identification of harassment and abuse in sports in child athletes aged 5 to 8, (2) a serious game (SG) using realistic scenarios in order to engage young athletes aged 9 to12 in critical situations which will help them to be aware towards harassment and abuse in sport and (3) a mobile application (MA) for child athletes as a protective measure against harassment and abuse in sports, and (4) by developing Communities of Practice for awareness and knowledge about harassment and abuse in child athletes among coaches, athletes/former athletes, physical education students, physical education teachers and sport sector stakeholders.