Birchwood Archery is committed to providing a safe, respectful, and welcoming environment for every young archer, family, coach, and volunteer on our range. This page explains the practices we follow to protect the youth in our programs.
For every private lesson and any one-on-one interaction between a coach and a minor, a second adult — a staff member, volunteer, or the participant's own guardian — is always present. No coach is ever alone with a participant who is not their own child. This applies without exception, at every lesson, every time.
Canada's sport system has developed shared national standards for preventing and responding to maltreatment in sport, including the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS), administered by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) through the Canadian Safe Sport Program. While these standards are formally mandatory only for federally funded national sport organizations, Birchwood Archery voluntarily draws on their principles — clear standards of conduct, protection from abuse and harassment, and safe reporting — because we believe every local club should hold itself to them, not just the ones required to.
Sarah King has provided the following public certifications for release:
Additional coaching staff (as well as Ms. King) have also completed a Vulnerable Sector Check through the local police service. In keeping with standard privacy and security practice, these checks are verified and kept on file rather than posted publicly, since they contain sensitive personal information — the same approach used across Canadian youth sport and other youth-serving organizations.
Every coach or volunteer working with minors at Birchwood Archery is required to hold a current Vulnerable Sector Check. As the club's current sole primary coach, Sarah has completed hers — and this same standard applies to any future coach or volunteer who joins.
Supervision follows two ratios depending on the format: private lessons run under our Rule of Two policy, with a second adult always present. Group lessons are supervised at a minimum of 2 adults for every 6 youth participants.
If you ever have a concern about the conduct of a coach, volunteer, or another participant, please contact us directly and privately at archery@sarahking.ca. All concerns will be taken seriously and handled with discretion.
Photos or video of participants are only used on this website, in our gallery, or on social media where a parent or guardian has given consent at the time of registration. You may withdraw this consent at any time by contacting us.
