On Wednesday morning Liam Choo-Foo, President of the board for the Swift Current Broncos, announce a new policy regarding additional player safety. Choo-Foo said, “At our last board meeting there was a motion was put forward and passed unanimously by our board, and that motion read, to support the implementation of the Safe Places Program for all Bronco personnel in positions of authority, and board members working directly with players. This will include the board, our hockey staff, our office staff as well as billets.”

The board felt it wanted to be the leaders in the city in implementing this policy to make sure all players are protected and safe. The goal of the board is to make The Swift Current Broncos a premier hockey club. Choo-Foo feels that supporting this Swift Current designed program with the assistance of Sheldon Kennedy, will show everyone how seriously the board takes this.

Safe Places came about because of incidents like Graham James and the other coaches who have had inappropriate contact with youth, a fact that Choo-Foo did not hide from. He said, “ It felt like when Hockyville came and Sheldon was a big part of that, the rising ovation he received at the rink it almost felt like it made it ok to start to talk about this again. It’s almost like it’s a black cloud or a secret the community hasn’t know how to deal with. By bringing it up front and allowing people giving them permission to speak about this I think has been very positive.”

The organization will have its entire staff certified. The Board, all front office staff, all hockey staff including coaches and trainers and even billet families will go through the training process. This will be beneficial as anyone who has been certified has that for all programs so if they coach hockey or help out with a school team the Safe Places certification process is accepted by all.

Mayor Jarrod Schaffer was on hand as well to thank the Board and The Broncos organization for being a leader in the community by adopting this policy. Mayor Schaffer working with Sheldon Kennedy developed the program to keep kids safe in the community by setting a standard certification program for anyone directly involved with or having a position of authority over kids. When asked if this was a proud moment for him, with the adoption of the program by the broncos, he said, “Well as Sheldon often said, this is a new program in Canada, its new in the way its packaged aspects aren’t exactly new we’ve seen great leadership through Hockey Canada but no better place than Swift Current for this type of leadership initiative to start and no better organization than the Swift current Broncos to come on board and show their leadership and willingness to endorse it. I can’t stress the importance of groups like the Broncos and the Indians in Swift Current, that are so high profile that attract so many people and are such a great big part of what swift current is all about to endorse this program and give it legitimacy.”

Schaffer has been in contact with other communities to inform them on how the program works. It is going to be running in Maple Creek and Cabri soon and in larger centers in Saskatchewan.