Coach confers with rugby players

Why MAAPP

Safe settings
spark sport
success

The U.S. Center for SafeSport, America’s federally authorized independent safe sport organization, created the Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policies (MAAPP) to help young athletes be safe, supported, and strengthened.

Coach confers with rugby players

What makes maapp work?

The MAAPP makes sport environments safer by:

limiting one-on-one interaction

The MAAPP’s “observable and interruptible” standard for one-on-one contact between adults and youth athletes helps reduce risk.

ensuring proper training

By requiring certain adults to get SafeSport™ Trained, the MAAPP sets a common baseline to help adults and organizations know what actions are inappropriate and what safeguards are needed.

Increasing Accountability

For U.S. Olympic and Paralympic entities and Adult Participants, policy violations can lead to penalties outlined in the SafeSport Code.

Why it Matters

Abuse and misconduct can occur at young ages and leave lifelong scars. Prevention and attention makes sport communities healthier and helps athletes thrive.

53%

Surveyed athletes having unwanted sexual experiences who said some or all happened when under age 18

34%

Surveyed athletes who reported mental health impacts as a result of sexual harm experiences

11+ million

Members in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement, for which the MAAPP is required

Informed by parents, athletes, and experts throughout sport and varied fields related to abuse prevention, the MAAPP is a gold standard for reducing abuse and misconduct in sport settings—one that leagues, associations, and recreational entities across America should adopt and champion.

Ju’Riese Colón
CEO, U.S. Center for SafeSport

Get Started

get trained

We offer free live virtual MAAPP trainings tailored for stakeholder needs, as well as more than a dozen abuse prevention courses at safesporttrained.org.

resource library

You’ll find the full MAAPP and dozens of helpful resources to help make the MAAPP’s application clear in varied settings.