First Considerations of Developing a Policy
- Fit Your Context: Although it is useful to consult examples from other congregations, do not use a policy that was not created for your church. Your policy must fit your individual church environment and programs, and it must be something that all leaders, volunteers, and participants are able to follow. Take time to weigh the unique risks and benefits for your congregation.
- Consult with Your Leaders: Each church program, ministry, or associated group should be represented and consulted while creating a policy. Creating a policy may take longer this way; however, there are worthwhile benefits gained through an engaging process. By having these extra viewpoints, you will have a good understanding of how these ministries function at the ground level and what risks or limitations they present.
- Tips for Staying on Track While Developing Your Policy: Have your safe church team create a schedule or timeline that will provide some structure to maintain productivity as you work on your policy. Consider working on manageable chunks of the policy at a given time; it can be overwhelming to think about every last part of your policy. If you have many members who are assisting at the beginning stage, it may be beneficial to have one person put parts of the policy in writing to be considered by the team. This process may also be helpful for more tangible feedback, and collaborating by means of shared-document tools such as Google docs can be especially helpful. Also consider other methods that will allow your team members to use their strengths—for example, assigning different components of the policy to the attention of smaller groups that will then present back to the larger team. When you finally have a draft of your policy developed, you may wish to ask neighboring churches, or your classis safe church team, to provide feedback from a fresh perspective.
- Seek Counsel: Policies should be reviewed by your church legal counsel and/or your insurance carrier. These representatives are sources of invaluable information and are trained to look for “worst-case scenarios” and ways to avoid them. In addition, they can make sure that policies are compliant with national, provincial or state, and local laws that apply to churches, which vary from place to place.
- Post it! Consider posting your policy on your church website, and have copies of it in visible in easily accessible spaces in your building. This will let people know that you care about maintaining an abuse-free environment for everyone and will remind your congregation to be aware of your safe church/abuse prevention practices.
Philosophy
Why establish a child safety policy? What is the biblical foundation for the policy? How might this policy reflect our church’s vision? Who will benefit from this policy?
A safe church policy is not simply a document to fulfill the requirements of insurance. Safe church practices are followed by a covenant community to protect and ensure that the value of each person is honored, and to create an environment where people are free to worship and grow free from abuse. In addition, such policies help churches respond with compassion and justice to incidents of abuse, which can foster healing for individuals and the community.
To help start your policy development, we have made available other congregations’ examples of “Philosophy of Policy.” You can find numerous examples in our Appendix section. We encourage you to create a philosophy of why you have a policy that reflects your unique community.
Definitions of Abuse
What type of abuse does the policy address? Does your community have a common definition of abuse? How does the definition reflect various kinds of abuse? And how might the definition vary, depending on whether a child, youth, or vulnerable adult is involved?
When drafting a safe church policy, it is crucial to clearly define some important terms. Clear definitions will assist in identifying and preventing abuse.
Legal definitions for abuse vary from state to state and from province to province. We encourage each church to incorporate current legal definitions into its policy, including the age of legal consent. For information in the U.S., visit childwelfare.gov/topics. If you are looking for Canadian definitions and laws, you can start at the Canadian Welfare Research Portal.
While it is wise to outline your state’s definitions, you are not limited merely by them. We encourage churches to define all types of abuse in order to take steps toward prevention. The various types of abuse you may want to define could include sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and spiritual abuse. It may also help to define the terms child, youth, and vulnerable adult.
It is important to note that at the core of every kind of abuse is an imbalance of power, in which the one who has the power takes advantage of the other. Power comes from various sources; we are not all on an equal playing field. Children are almost always under the power of someone else. Adults also may have various kinds of vulnerabilities, including mental and physical conditions. Inequalities may also be created by differing positions in the church, as well as by societal inequalities related to socioeconomic background, gender norms, or language barriers, etc. It’s important that we never minimize the authority that is vested in any leadership position in the church. Special consideration must be given to leadership and ordained positions in the church, including, but not limited to, minister of the Word, commissioned pastor, youth pastor, elder, deacon, and other ministry leaders. To learn more about power and control, become familiar with the Power and Control Wheel, used extensively by many to understand the dynamics of power in abuse situations.
Background Checks and Screening Leaders
What criteria will be followed to screen and select volunteers and staff? Is the process the same for all volunteers and church leadership? Who obtains and reviews the application/screening materials? Who approves the applications? After the screening process is completed, how are screening materials stored? When do periodic re-screenings need to happen?
One important component of abuse prevention is holding ministry leaders to high standards. Appropriate screening for staff, elders, deacons, ministry leaders, and volunteers is essential. Along with an application, an interview, and reference checks, a criminal background check should be part of the screening process, especially for leaders who work with children, youth, and vulnerable adult populations. Properly screening your leaders will require some effort, time, and money; but if you’ve ever dealt with the horrific impacts of abuse, you will understand that these efforts are worthwhile.
Each congregation must weigh the risks, benefits, and costs in determining which positions should require interviews, reference checks, and background checks. The resources from Brotherhood Mutual Insurance on Who to Screen may be helpful.
Once the screening procedures are outlined, decide how you will keep records of the screening materials. Make sure to re-screen your staff and volunteers on a regular basis, every 2 to 5 years, to ensure the safety of the congregation. Some limited background screening services are free for nonprofits—for example, the Michigan State Police offers ICHAT: a state-wide internet criminal history access tool. However, a state background check has limits; consider using that in conjunction with a national background check.
The following organizations have been successfully used by CRC congregations and ministries to help secure background checks:
Protect My Ministry is committed to helping faith-based organizations maintain a safe environment so that they can focus on fulfilling their mission. Protect My Ministry offers a process, products, and solutions that work for churches.
Plan to Protect prioritizes abuse prevention and vulnerable sector protection. Plan to Protect equips your team with effective and customized policies, procedures, and training.
ScreeningONE offers a comprehensive suite of screening solutions.
myBackCheck provides Canadians the opportunity to obtain background checks online and share them wherever they work or volunteer.
HireRight is a global agency for a very broad reach.
Training Volunteers and Leaders
How will this policy be implemented? What are the core elements of your policy that need to be taught regularly? How often will trainings take place? Who will be facilitating the trainings, and who will be required to attend?
Having an approved written policy is not enough. An annual “refresher” training is recommended for all leaders and volunteers, while it is recommended that those who are new to the policy be given a more specific orientation to the policies they are being asked to follow. There are so many ways to teach a policy to staff, leaders, volunteers, parents, and sometimes even kids or vulnerable adults themselves! Try integrating case scenarios or even “graded” quizzes into your trainings to pique the interest of your audience.
