"<< Background >>In April 2020, the French Ice Sports Federation and the French sports movement were faced several scandals involving sexual violence against young athletes within their organizations.According to data collected via the hotline launched in 2020 by the Ministry of Sports, 48 sports federations in France are concerned about claimed cases of sexual violence and 72% of those implicated are sports educators. The victims are mainly underage. Similar abuses have been encountered throughout Europe. Sexual violence covers all situations in which a person tries to impose sexual behavior on another person. This violence can take various forms such as sexual or sexist comments, insistent invitations, blackmail, threats, pornographic messages, or images. This can lead to verbal, physical, or psychological violence, degrading the victim's self-image. Sport is an environment in which children, teenagers, and young adults are particularly exposed to sexual violence for a number of reasons listed by the Council of Europe: the existing relations of power and dominance between adults and children, or physical contact and enclosed spaces (showers, changing rooms, carpools, etc.). These situations put these young practitioners in a vulnerable position. Based on this observation, the sport movement, which is an essential place of life and socialization for these groups, must play an active role in the protection of its young populations as the society as a whole. The sports movement should reinforce its preventive actions and take all necessary measures to fight sexual violence on a massive scale. Like other sports, ice sports suffer therefore from this scourge which does not apply only to France. They include disciplines (sometimes requiring sensual clothing and movements) that mainly affect a very young female public. On average, participants start at the age of 5 (high-level sports start at the age of 12). Given these specificities, they may present specific risks. A targeted collective response must make it possible to respond to this situation by promoting conditions for a protective environment within ice sports organizations.<< Objectives >>The project ""Safeguarding for Young European Skaters (SAYES)"" uses sport to provide children, teenagers, and young adults, as well as their sports supervisors, the necessary knowledge and prevention tools to protect themselves from sexual violence in ice sports. To this end, it will primarily target young athletes practicing ice sports within official structures: figure skating, ice dancing, synchronized skating, long track speed skating, and short track speed skating, within official structures. Junior to senior athletes will thus be the target priority of the activities. The project will endeavor to implement prevention actions aimed at younger participants (under 13 years of age), given the exposure to risk that they may already be facing.The socio-educational leaders represented by the sports supervisors will also be involved in the project's activities. These supervisors are in direct contact with the young participants. It is, therefore, necessary to accompany them and equip them so that they can carry out their profession while integrating as well as possible the problems and risks of a sexual nature that may arise, within or outside their sports structure. Representatives of affiliated sports structures (federation, league, or ice sports club officials) will be made aware of the link (even if it seems indirect) between their role and the protection of young athletes. Mindful to build on existing experience in order to guarantee the effectiveness of the ""Safeguarding for Young European Skaters (SAYeS)"" project, the multidisciplinary consortium has conducted a study and critique of existing European projects on the subject and the state of the art. The objective is to extend and translate into concrete, practical and innovative tools this work which today contributes to limiting the risks for the identified target groups. The SAYeS project has the following main objectives:- To evaluate the specificities, the structuring, and the capacity of ice sports organizations to protect their young participants from sexual violence in order to limit the risks;- To raise awareness and sensitize people to the subject of sexual violence in ice sports;- To perpetuate direct interventions, in a climate of trust, with supervisors and young people<< Implementation >>To meet the objectives, activities will be carried out and co-constructed by a multidisciplinary consortium with a real capacity to act and spread good practices associated with the project. These activities will take place from 01 March 2022 to 31 December 2024. The consortium will first carry out research on the treatment of sexual violence in the partner countries, in Europe, and in ice sports and then translate its findings. This first activity will help to meet the objective of assessing the specificities, structuring, and capacity of ice sports organizations to protect their young participants from sexual violence. The team will then take part in raising awareness and sensitizing the ice sports public, but also beyond. They will raise awareness about sexual violence via information sessions among the main national and international ice sports players and the creation of communication and awareness-raising tools for young practitioners.These awareness-raising sessions will take the form of an international conference during a major event in 2022 and then during national conferences in the countries of the partner federations in 2023. They will make it possible to highlight the necessary commitment of all.Communication and awareness-raising tools aimed at young athletes, using young athletes and appropriate media, will also be produced by all the partners. Finally, it will be necessary to perpetuate direct interventions, in a climate of trust, among coaches and young athletes. To do this, the coaches will be trained, and the young ice sports players will be made aware of this through specific and innovative content. This will be a pilot intervention in France, which will allow a new, more specific approach to be tested, better adapted to the target audiences. Best practices for disseminating the intervention (face-to-face and digital) in European ice sports federations will also be shared widely. The project will be divided into three distinct phases:- the scientific study and its translation into an action plan in 2022;- the implementation of information and awareness-raising sessions and the development of permanent tools until August 2024;- the dissemination of the tools within the partner federations, the European and world ice sports in the second half of 2024<< Results >>The project's activities should lead to concrete, measurable results that meet the three objectives. During the three phases identified, the results produced at each stage will feed the production of the following results. Thus, during the scientific study phase, the consortium will produce a study presenting the specificities of ice sports that can put young athletes at risk. A proposal for an action plan and prioritization of approaches for the partner federations and youth professionals involved in the project will be produced. This will help clarify the needs of the organizations and guide the content of the various results that will follow.As a common thread, the exchange sessions during conferences, as well as the communication actions, will contribute to raising awareness among a very large public beyond the target audiences. The international conference ""Fight against sexual violence in ice sports"" of the 2022 World Skating Championships in Montpellier and the national conferences in the country of the federations, in 2023 will produce concrete content that can feed the general reflections and the appropriate approach to best deal with the subject. Still, with this objective of general mobilization and dissemination of information, videos promoting the project, an awareness guide, information spaces on the subject available at major international events, or messages inviting young athletes to protect themselves, relayed by young ambassadors, will help raise awareness of young practitioners of European ice sports and beyond. Finally, nine pilot and innovative training sessions will be organized in France. On the basis of this result and all the previous results, a deployment plan for interventions will enable the associated federations, but also other European and international national federations, to rapidly implement appropriate, effective, and applicable training and awareness sessions. This tool aims to contribute to freeing the speech of the young populations and to train them in their reception. An e-learning module aimed at young ice sports enthusiasts will also make it possible to disseminate a concrete, permanent tool adapted to its target. All of the results will be presented in a final evaluation report and a dedicated magazine to disseminate the tools and raise awareness beyond the target audience. Thus, while the consortium involves four different countries, the role of the partners, their day-to-day responsibilities, their diversity, and the activities implemented as part of the project can lead to results that reach far beyond the priority audiences and the targeted geographic area."