Case · Sports Confederation of Greenland
We started with the parents on the sideline — and the record checks came along
The clubs had three things to put in place: a child protection policy, an
emergency plan, and criminal record checks. They felt they had it under control.
3 formal requirementschild protection policy, emergency plan, record checks
KalaallisutGreenlandic as the default language — Danish has to be chosen
More than agreeda parents’ video, templates and certification on top
The material in Kalaallisut — Greenlandic is the default language.
What did not work
The job came as part of Ataatsimoorluta Aalasa, a collaboration between the Sports
Confederation of Greenland, Paarisa (under the Greenlandic National Board of Social Services) and UNICEF Greenland, aimed at
strengthening conditions for children in Greenlandic sports clubs.
When we spoke to boards and coaches the picture was clear: they did not experience the formal
requirements as their problem. What was pressing for them was something else entirely — handling
parents on the sideline.
The author Nick Shackleton-Jones describes two basic forms: push sends information
out whether or not anyone asked for it. Pull starts from the need the audience
experiences itself, and lets them draw the information towards them. A requirement sent out as a requirement is
push in its purest form — and that is why it so often ends up as something somebody “sent out”.
A friendly Trojan horse: we started where the need was greatest, and
wove the requirements into it.
What was built
Short explainer videos the boards could send straight to the parents. The formal requirements
were woven into them. The clubs
experienced the material as something they could use, and the confederation got policies and
emergency plans in place.
Beyond the agreed “workshop-in-a-box” it became a parents’ video, online guides with
templates for the child protection policy and the emergency plan, and a certification and diploma process, so
the clubs could show they had things in order. The material is distributed through a learning platform
and exists in Greenlandic and Danish, with Greenlandic as the default.
The client’s words · translated from Danish
“You do not do it 80 % either — you do it 100 %, and that just means so much.”
Mette Aarup Crusell, Paarisa
Why this is the general pattern
When a requirement is not met, the obvious move is to repeat it more clearly. That works,
if what is missing is capability. Here what was missing was meaning: the requirement was not what
the recipient experienced as their problem. As long as that is the case, the requirement competes with something
that feels more important — and loses.
The answer was not to make the requirement clearer. It was to find the place where the audience
was already reaching for help, and let the requirement come along.
What we cannot claim
We do not have figures on how many clubs subsequently got their record checks in
place. What the case shows is a different way in to the same obligation — not a measured
rise in compliance.