Screening Toolbox: Reference Checks
By checking a candidate’s references, you can obtain additional information about applicants and help verify their previous work and volunteer…
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Home / Policies & Procedures / No One-Size-Fits-All for Child Protection Policies
No matter how large or small a youth-serving organization is, or what services it provides, every organization shares the desire to keep children/youth safe from harm. Your policies and procedures for child safety and abuse prevention should serve as the backbone of your efforts to protect children/youth, and provide an overarching framework that represents your commitment to the safety and well-being of the children/youth entrusted to your care. They should provide a foundation to support all other elements, and lend meaning and credibility to the other safety components and strategies described by Safe Kids Thrive.
Your child protection policies must be developed with your organization’s mission and circumstances in mind. For example, an organization that provides youth mentoring may need to adopt prevention strategies for one-on-one activities between children/youth and staff/volunteers that are different from those adopted for group sports activities. Similarly, prevention strategies for a studio with a single, storefront location will likely differ from those of a statewide agency with multiple dedicated sites and scores of programs.
Either way, well-written policies, procedures, and guidelines provide the means for you to clearly express, in a public way, a commitment to your parents, community, and the children/youth you serve by outlining the steps you take to protect children and youth from sexual and other forms of abuse. They make clear the type of environment you strive to build and maintain, and the safeguards you employ to ensure that all staff, employees, and volunteers are properly vetted and trained to recognize and respond to inappropriate and/or harmful behaviors. Effective policies focus both on the creation and maintenance of safe, preventive environments for children/youth, and on the responsible management of incidents or alleged incidents of abuse.
Screening & Hiring
By checking a candidate’s references, you can obtain additional information about applicants and help verify their previous work and volunteer…
Policies & Procedures
Policies for youth-serving organizations in Massachusetts should clearly identify the duties and responsibilities of all staff, reflect both Federal…
Code of Conduct
Your Code of Conduct should cultivate standards of behavior for staff and volunteers at your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO) which prioritize child…
Screening & Hiring
One way you can help prevent child sexual abuse within your organization is by screening out those at risk to cause harm—before they are hired …
Screening & Hiring
Start with Basic Screening It is very important that all applicants who provide direct services and who are seeking positions of trust—either…
Screening & Hiring
Your Youth-Serving Organization’s (YSO’s) hiring process should include basic screening measures for potential staff and volunteers through…
Training
A Model for Evaluation: Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Every training course needs a method of collecting feedback to ensure a course is…
Reporting
All staff must be aware of the warning signs and symptoms of child abuse and neglect, know how to respond appropriately, and report suspected cases…
Training
Ideally, all children/youth should receive training and education on issues of personal safety and abuse prevention. However, not every organization…
Reporting
The term Human Trafficking is used by Department of Children and Families (DCF) as an umbrella term used to include two specific allegations of…
Customized child sexual abuse prevention guidelines to meet the unique needs of any organization that serves children.
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