Springboard: An interactive education tool to prevent gender-based violence against girls in gymnastics

Gymnastics is a highly gendered sporting environment with a history of documented violence in all its forms against the girl child who represents over 75% 10 million gymnasts in Europe. Girl gymnasts are at high risk of violence and denied basic child rights. There is compelling evidence of the psychological and physical effects of violence on girl gymnasts which include disordered self-image and body dissatisfaction, self-harming (Ryan, 1995), disordered eating, stunted growth and puberty, life-long debilitation and death. The main goals of the project are: To prevent gender-based violence (GBV) in all its forms against girls in gymnastics by creating, implementing, evaluating and sustaining an effective online education tool; to change social norms and behavior and empower girls in gymnastics to stand up and call out against GBV; to increase bystander intervention and reporting of GBV in gymnastics; to provide any European country with a scalable, effective and sustainable primary intervention tool.