T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA), through its Safe­guard­ing De­part­ment, host­ed a land­mark ses­sion on Thurs­day at its Cou­va of­fice to sig­nif­i­cant­ly ad­vance play­er care, well­be­ing, and cross-sec­tor col­lab­o­ra­tion in sport.

​The day’s pro­ceed­ings cul­mi­nat­ed in a ma­jor step for­ward for play­er sup­port with the for­mal ad­vance­ment of a Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing (MOU) be­tween the TTFA and The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus. The MOU strength­ens co­op­er­a­tion in safe­guard­ing, re­search, ed­u­ca­tion, and play­er wel­fare.

​The ses­sion be­gan with Mod­ule 1 in Play­er Care and Well­be­ing, led by Dr Cheryl-Ann Boodram, lec­tur­er in UWI’s De­part­ment of Be­hav­iour­al Sci­ences. Her pre­sen­ta­tion, “Play­ers/Ath­letes’ Be­hav­iour in the So­cial En­vi­ron­ment – Why Mat­ter­ing Mat­ters,” ex­plored the cru­cial psy­choso­cial fac­tors in­flu­enc­ing ath­letes’ be­hav­iour.

Dr Boodram and TTFA vice pres­i­dent Jame­son Rigues each ad­dressed the gath­er­ing on the shared goals of the MOU. The ses­sion al­so saw the for­mal dis­tri­b­u­tion of in­stru­ments of ap­point­ment to mem­bers of the UWI/TTFA Safe­guard­ing Steer­ing Com­mit­tee, pre­sent­ed by Rigues. The com­mit­tee will guide pol­i­cy de­vel­op­ment and im­ple­men­ta­tion in safe­guard­ing and ath­lete well­be­ing.

In his re­marks, Rigues de­scribed the part­ner­ship as “a trans­for­ma­tive mo­ment in the evo­lu­tion of foot­ball and so­cial de­vel­op­ment in T&T,” em­pha­sis­ing that the MOU rep­re­sents much more than a signed doc­u­ment.

“It is a shared com­mit­ment to the holis­tic de­vel­op­ment of our ath­letes, the strength­en­ing of our com­mu­ni­ties, and the ad­vance­ment of sport as a ve­hi­cle for so­cial change,” Rigues said.

He fur­ther ex­plained that the agree­ment be­tween the TTFA and UWI seeks to in­te­grate sports so­cial work in­to the fab­ric of foot­ball de­vel­op­ment.

“To­geth­er, UWI and TTFA will co-cre­ate poli­cies, frame­works, and pro­grammes that pri­ori­tise the psy­choso­cial well-be­ing of play­ers—from youth ath­letes to na­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives—and ex­tend care to their fam­i­lies, coach­es, and sup­port net­works,” he added.

The part­ner­ship will fo­cus on six key ar­eas, in­clud­ing: de­sign­ing ev­i­dence-based play­er care pro­grammes; con­duct­ing joint re­search on the so­cial, psy­cho­log­i­cal, and cul­tur­al fac­tors af­fect­ing ath­lete wel­fare; pro­vid­ing practicum place­ments and in­tern­ships for UWI stu­dents with­in TTFA set­tings; de­liv­er­ing train­ing work­shops for coach­es, par­ents, and ad­min­is­tra­tors; and ad­vo­cat­ing for na­tion­al guide­lines on play­er care and well-be­ing.

Host­ing con­fer­ences and pub­lic fo­rums on men­tal health, re­silience, and sport for de­vel­op­ment.

“This agree­ment re­spects the au­ton­o­my of both in­sti­tu­tions while en­cour­ag­ing joint fund­ing pur­suits, eth­i­cal re­search prac­tices, and shared in­tel­lec­tu­al con­tri­bu­tions,” Rigues not­ed. “It is a frame­work built on trust, trans­paren­cy, and the be­lief that sport can—and must—be a force for good.”

He con­clud­ed by call­ing on all stake­hold­ers to em­brace the part­ner­ship with “bold­ness and pur­pose” and to “cham­pi­on the well-be­ing of ath­letes not just on the field, but in every as­pect of their lives.”

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Me­di­a­tion Ser­vices Di­vi­sion, Min­istry of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, were al­so in at­ten­dance and de­liv­ered brief re­marks be­fore pre­sent­ing Con­flict De-es­ca­la­tion Cer­tifi­cates to par­tic­i­pants.

The event cul­mi­nat­ed with the sign­ing of a Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing (MOU) be­tween the TTFA and the Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (NTT), sig­nalling a shared na­tion­al com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing ath­letes and el­e­vat­ing stan­dards of care across sport­ing dis­ci­plines.

“Safe­guard­ing is not an iso­lat­ed func­tion; it is a col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ty that must be em­bed­ded in the cul­ture of sport. To­day’s col­lab­o­ra­tions re­flect the TTFA’s ded­i­ca­tion to build­ing safer, more sup­port­ive spaces for our ath­letes,” said TTFA pres­i­dent Kieron Ed­wards.

Steer­ing Com­mit­tee Mem­bers and Ap­point­ments

Dr Cheryl-Ann Boodram – Lec­tur­er, De­part­ment of Be­hav­iour­al Sci­ences, UWI, St Au­gus­tine – Ap­point­ed as Co-Chair

Gary St Rose – Safe­guard­ing, Play­er Care and Well­be­ing Man­ag­er, TTFA – Ap­point­ed as Co-Chair

Ar­lene Paul – So­cial Work­er, TTFA – Ap­point­ed as Mem­ber

Dr Akash Dhanai – Med­ical Doc­tor (Sports Med­i­cine), TTFA – Ap­point­ed as Mem­ber

Dr Anand Ram­per­sad – Head and Lec­tur­er, Acad­e­my of Sport, UWI, St. Au­gus­tine – Ap­point­ed as Mem­ber

Sher­lan Cabralis – Lec­tur­er and Co­or­di­na­tor, Sport Man­age­ment, De­part­ment of Man­age­ment Stud­ies, UWI, St. Au­gus­tine – Ap­point­ed as Mem­ber

Gem­ma All­sop-Cal­liste – So­cial Work­er – Ap­point­ed as Mem­ber