The T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) and the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus, have signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing (MoU) aimed at trans­form­ing the ap­proach to play­er de­vel­op­ment, well-be­ing, and safe­guard­ing in T&T foot­ball.

The sign­ing took place last week at UWI’s St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus and es­tab­lish­es a col­lab­o­ra­tive part­ner­ship that will in­te­grate sport so­cial work meth­ods, re­search, and prac­tice in­to the foot­ball ecosys­tem.

A re­lease from the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion yes­ter­day states that the ini­tia­tive un­der­scores a shared com­mit­ment by both in­sti­tu­tions to pri­ori­tise the holis­tic de­vel­op­ment of ath­letes, en­sur­ing that their men­tal, emo­tion­al, and so­cial wel­fare stand along­side per­for­mance and re­sults.

“The sign­ing of this Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing be­tween the TTFA and the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies rep­re­sents more than a part­ner­ship on pa­per—it is a part­ner­ship of pur­pose, of vi­sion, and of shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. At its heart, this col­lab­o­ra­tion cen­tres around some­thing we at the TTFA con­sid­er fun­da­men­tal: the well-be­ing of our ath­letes.” Jame­son Rigues, vice pres­i­dent of the TTFA, said.

“For too long, the con­ver­sa­tion in sport has been dom­i­nat­ed by per­for­mance, re­sults, and rank­ings. While those things mat­ter, they can­not and should not come at the cost of the ath­lete’s over­all health, dig­ni­ty, or fu­ture. To­day, through this MoU, we are send­ing a clear mes­sage: that in Trinidad and To­ba­go, our ath­letes will be seen, heard, and sup­port­ed—not just as per­form­ers on the field, but as whole hu­man be­ings.”

Through the agree­ment, UWI’s De­part­ment of So­cial Work will pro­vide spe­cialised ex­per­tise and pro­fes­sion­al sup­port, while TTFA will fa­cil­i­tate hands-on op­por­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents to gain prac­ti­cal ex­pe­ri­ence in ar­eas such as play­er care, case man­age­ment, safe­guard­ing, and com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment.

This col­lab­o­ra­tion will al­so ex­tend its im­pact na­tion­al­ly, as TTFA’s Safe­guard­ing De­part­ment—com­pris­ing 35 of­fi­cers—will ben­e­fit from en­hanced train­ing and ca­pac­i­ty-build­ing ini­tia­tives, with rip­ple ef­fects across oth­er na­tion­al sport­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions al­ready en­gag­ing with TTFA’s safe­guard­ing pro­grammes.

TTFA and UWI plan to host the coun­try’s first-ever Safe­guard­ing Awards next year and will recog­nise in­di­vid­u­als and or­gan­i­sa­tions cham­pi­oning ath­lete wel­fare. In ad­di­tion, the part­ner­ship will see the launch of a Na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Ath­lete Well-Be­ing and Safe­guard­ing, along­side joint re­search projects aimed at shap­ing pol­i­cy and prac­tice across the sport­ing land­scape.

“Safe­guard­ing is about pro­tect­ing the ath­lete’s fun­da­men­tal right to play in a safe and re­spect­ful en­vi­ron­ment. Ath­lete well-be­ing goes a step fur­ther—it is about max­imis­ing the ath­lete’s po­ten­tial, us­ing best prac­tices that place the play­er at the cen­tre of the process. The two go hand-in-hand, and both are es­sen­tial if we are to build a tru­ly mod­ern, eth­i­cal, and em­pow­er­ing sport­ing cul­ture,” added Rigues.

The TTFA and UWI be­lieve this land­mark agree­ment will set a new stan­dard for ath­lete sup­port in Trinidad and To­ba­go, en­sur­ing that play­er care is wo­ven in­to the very fab­ric of the na­tion’s sport­ing cul­ture.

Key ob­jec­tives of the MoU in­clude: De­vel­op­ing poli­cies and frame­works to sup­port the psy­choso­cial well-be­ing of play­ers and their fam­i­lies; De­sign­ing a com­pre­hen­sive ev­i­dence-based play­er care pro­gramme, with a fo­cus on youth ath­letes and vul­ner­a­ble groups; Con­duct­ing joint re­search in­to so­cial, cul­tur­al, and psy­cho­log­i­cal fac­tors im­pact­ing play­er wel­fare; Cre­at­ing practicum place­ments and in­tern­ships for UWI stu­dents in the ar­eas of sport, so­cial work, and ath­lete sup­port; De­liv­er­ing train­ing work­shops for coach­es, ad­min­is­tra­tors, and par­ents on re­silience and ath­lete well-be­ing and; Host­ing con­fer­ences, sym­posia, and pub­lic fo­rums to ad­vance pol­i­cy di­a­logue and prac­tice in safe­guard­ing, men­tal health, and play­er de­vel­op­ment.