Here are some suggestions for getting involved with ABW and returning character-driven behavior into the sport experience.  For more ideas, please contact us and ask one of the program directors or education director for assistance.

Join ABW:

1. Register your child as a member of ABW; all information is kept in strict confidence and is used only by ABW to send you newsletters and information about ABW events.
2. Adopt the Code for Living for your child as the standard expectation of behavior.
3. Visit our website regularly to keep up-to-date and find new resources for your child.

Teach the Code:

1. Use the ABW website “Tip of the Week” to obtain ideas drawing on current events in sport to teach the Code to your children.
2. Discuss the ABW newsletter that contains articles that encourage and reinforce your children’s decision to live by the Code.
3. Download ABW curriculum guides and use them as resources for talking about the Code.
4. Download ABW educational materials that provide stories and suggestions about sport behavior for your children to read.
5. Send your children to an ABW regional sport clinic to develop their sport skills under the guidance of coaches and athletes that incorporate the values of sportsmanship into training.

Promote the ABW message:

1. Ask your child’s coach to promote sportsmanship and to model the values stated in the Code for Living to their team.
2. Demonstrate sportsmanship to visiting teams at all competitions.
   1. Create banners welcoming opponents and fans to your facility
   2. Ask home team fans to stand and applaud as visiting team is introduced as well as the home team.
   3. Thank the officials after each competition
3. Distribute the Code to your child’s coaches and related staff.  Encourage everyone to sign it and distribute materials (Code for Living, Curriculum, posters, newsletter, etc.), encouraging them to use them.
4. Hang ABW posters in your child’s athletic facilities.
5. Encourage your child and all teammates to organize and participate in a community service project.

Get nationally involved:

1. Sign up your child for Star Players, an ABW program that awards stars toward a bronze, silver, or gold medal for completing a set of activities based on the Code.  Participants that reach the gold level may attend a summer sport camp with ABW athletic advisory members, interact online with professional athletes, and compete for college tuition grants.
2. If your child serves as a captain, enroll your child in ABW’s Captain Certification program through which they can earn a captain certificate and a patch for their letter jacket by completing a set of activities based on sport leadership.  Participants that receive exemplary commendation are entitled to serve as leaders at a summer sport camp presented by ABW athletic advisory members.
3. Encourage your child to volunteer for Courts for Communities, an ABW that enables them to contribute to improving the lives of others as volunteers on the construction of a playfield in selected rural and/or urban areas across the country.  Travel, housing, meals and two-weeks of supervised work and social activities are provided by ABW staff.
4. Consider enrolling your child in Athletes Abroad, a program through which athletes and coaches have the opportunity to live and train with other athletes around the world.  Travel, home-stay accommodations, a training program, and several social-cultural amenities are provided by ABW staff.