Safety at The Hague Hornets
We find it important to provide a safe environment when it comes to playing rugby and hosting events and socials. For that reason, physical and social safety are high on our list of priorities. Down below you can read what efforts we make for this, which are overviewed by our club president.
Physical Safety
Rugby is a contact sport, and injuries can always happen. However, we strive to minimise such instances as much as possible to keep our members healthy and fit. We aim to achieve this through various means.
First of all, we make use of the Activate Program, provided by World Rugby. This is a set of exercises, done during each training session, that have proved to lessen soft-tissue injuries and concussions to rugby players.
Secondly, we have various members of the club trained in first aid. Thanks to this, we can provide first aid when needed: during games, trainings or even during our club socials.
Additionally, we have an extensive first aid bag for each team, an AED present at our pitch, and all our captains, coaches and club referees are acquainted with the concussion recognition protocol.
Lastly, we are currently working towards establishing connections with physiotherapists to further our knowledge regarding rugby specific injuries and provide accessible help for any of our injured players.
Social safety
Through our amazing sport, rugby, we have created a friendly and diverse community of students. To make sure everyone feels welcome and safe in this community, we have taken a few different measures.
To start, all new members must sign our code of conduct upon joining the club. In this contract, they declare they will not discriminate or display any other forms of unacceptable behaviour towards anyone in any way. Transgression of this will have serious consequences as we apply a zero-tolerance policy to this.
Secondly, multiple people from our board and various committee’s follow various training courses about social safety and pursuing a responsible bar policy. With this, we want to increase our awareness about possible risks and how we as a club can adequately deal with them.
Furthermore, we encourage all members to reach out if something has happened or is on their mind, either to their captain, the board or our external trust person. And lastly, all people working (voluntarily) for this club, are in possession of a declaration of the Dutch ministry of Justice, stating that they are of irreproachable behaviour.
Trust person
In case of any incidences taking place, our members can contact our external trust person, Paola.
We urge you to contact Paola, however, only in the case where all four of the below points are met:
if an incident has taken place which is in conflict with our code of conduct or the law
during club activities (eg. trainings, socials, games, etc.)
between members of the club
and if you do not want or are unable to discuss this with one of the board members or your captain.
Paola has followed a course from the Dutch Sports Union, NOC*NSF, regarding safety within a club and providing help with incidents as defined above. You can reach her via trustperson@haguehornets.com
