Child and Volunteer Protection Advocate (CVPA)

The Regional CVPA’s role is to oversee child and volunteer protection in the region, including registering volunteers, performing Regional volunteer screening, and serving as a resource for the Region for good faith reporting of child abuse.

The Regional CVPA plays a vital role in AYSO’s promise to provide a safe, fair, fun, positive family environment for youth soccer. In return, AYSO wants to ensure all its volunteers receive the maximum protection under the Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 and therefore requires that all volunteers:

The primary responsibilities of the CVPA includes:

• Screening Volunteers at the local level.
• Working with the Regional Board to ensure all approved volunteers are registered and assigned to their specific positions.
  Working with the Regional Coach Administrator, Regional Referee Administrator and Regional Commissioner to ensure that all coaches, referees and volunteers are properly trained and certified and that they receive an annual Safe Haven protocol review.
• Adhere and act within the bylaws, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and guidelines of AYSO.
• Serving as a contact for child abuse, child protection concerns.
• Working with the Regional Commissioner to ensure mandated reporting of suspected child abuse.
• Providing child and volunteer protection guidelines.
• Promoting safety and injury prevention.
• To maintain the recommended adult-to-child supervision ratio of 1:8 or less, that is one adult for every eight or fewer children and two adults (one of whom may be the coach and one of whom should be of the same gender as the group) present at all times. For the protection of both the children and the volunteer, no volunteer should permit himself or herself to be alone with any child or group of children (except his or her own child) during AYSO-sponsored activities.
  
  AYSO CVPA Job Description