Helping refugee and émigré skaters and coaches?

[Query]

Many times that there is a conflict between nations, a lot of people leave the countries involved, for safety, or because they disagree with their government's actions.

I suspect there are a significant number of skaters and skating coaches in the countries involved, for whom one of these things is true.

Athletes and officials from one of the countries involved have been banned from IOC and ISU events, which might help motivate desires to change residency and citizenship. In today's coaching environment, where many coaches teach students from many countries, it is quite possible that some of the skaters and coaches from one of the countries have been friends, colleagues, coaches or students to people from the opposing country. That makes it even more likely that many of them those from the invading country disagree with their government's actions.

Perhaps we, through our skating clubs and rinks, might consider helping them. I'm sure many of the skating refugees and émigrés and would appreciate any help they can get on housing, emigration, employment, and for some, citizenship. Many left in a hurry, and did not have time to learn how to get jobs, such as coaching jobs, in safer countries.

I recall there was a time when many of the Eastern European economies collapsed, when many skating clubs and rinks actively recruited the coaches and skaters from those countries, to coach at their facilities. I myself took lessons from one such coach, who would not normally have been teaching someone at my low level. That coach, was actively recruited by both a rink I skated at, and by a club I was in, as were other coaches from those countries. The club helped the coach to find students, so they could almost immediately make a good income, and the rink had them teach group ice dance class, that attracted a great many students, with a wide range of abilities.

In addition, the rink made a deal with that coach, in which the coach invited their most competitive students, all Olympic contenders, to teach 15 minute private lessons (at $1/minute - a typical rate at the time in the area for good coaches) during a session to people taking the group ice dance classes, which was more or less supervised by the coach. (They also created a significant number of ice sessions dedicated to ice dance.) I do not know whether those student coaches all had appropriate private coaching credentials - which tends in the USA, at many rinks, to be obtained through a lengthy accreditation and more or less apprenticeship - but I guess they were effectively teaching as apprentices to the main coach. In addition, though I'm not sure of this, they may not have needed to get insurance from skating organizations, because the rink was a multi-sport facility, which obtained insurance through ordinary insurance companies, rather than through skating organizations. (Incidentally, many of the skaters, coaches and clubs that used the facility also obtain their own insurance from skating organizations.) Those student coaches, in turn, got experience coaching under supervision from their coach, which might have helped with future careers. And they did not have to spend as much time at it, as ordinary coaches, who are often expected to teach many low level group lessons before they are allowed to teach privates, at many rinks.

Such a program might be perfect for competitive skaters who wish to change citizenship – they would have local job experience, and a source of some income, but need not take a great deal of time out of their busy training schedules.

These sorts of things could perhaps be arranged for refugees and émigrés, fleeing the current conflicts and bans.

I realize that some of you might hold jobs where you are expected to keep low profiles, and might be unable to take sides in International conflicts. And I also realize that some of you have very strong feelings regarding the conflict, and may not want to help anyone from at least one of those countries. But helping refugees and émigrés doesn't have to imply taking a political side. After all, most of them are people who are trying to avoid the conflict, rather than participate it.

(BTW, I may cross-post this to another skating discussion board.)