What Is a Screening & Hiring Process?
Screening means thorough reference and background checks, including review of criminal and sexual offender records, for all employees, staff,…
Child sexual abuse is a difficult topic. If you find yourself triggered by any of the website’s content, please stop and take the time you need to talk with someone to get support. If you need help now, please contact one of these resources today.
Home / Training / Training Best Practices
To protect the children/youth you serve, your organization needs a comprehensive framework: a set of abuse prevention policies and procedures, enhanced screening and hiring practices, safe physical environment and safe technology standards, codes of conduct, and reporting requirements. But implementing these safety elements and announcing that they are in effect isn’t enough. That is why Safe Kids Thrive recommends that you also provide some form of initial and periodic follow-up training on your prevention strategies for staff and volunteers (and possibly children/youth) at all levels.
To help you get started, we’ve created best practice guidelines so your leadership can think about the elements of effective workplace training programs, and how to adapt and integrate training programs into your environment, culture, and circumstances.
Here’s a set of minimum required safety standards that your organization should consider when thinking about training your staff and volunteers:
When selecting or designing a training program, it’s important to build or to look for products that reflect good teaching and learning practices, and offer participatory, interactive problem-based learning experiences that actively engage the learner. Effective programs present information from a positive viewpoint, encouraging healthy behavior rather than forbidding poor behavior, help participants to feel responsible for dealing with the problem, and teach and encourage intervention behaviors. They sometimes even use role-playing to help trainees find comfortable and appropriate ways to express their discomfort with another’s behavior, or to come forward and report suspected child maltreatment.
Whether your organization is large or small, one of the best ways to get started is to seek out and consult with local area social service providers like the Department of Children and Families, the regional Child Advocacy Centers, the Children’s Trust, the Office of the Child Advocate and others included in our Resources. These agencies and others can provide a wealth of local expertise about training options, informational materials, and curricula that have demonstrated effectiveness—and can help save a lot of time as you formulate a training strategy that’s right for your organization.
Screening & Hiring
Screening means thorough reference and background checks, including review of criminal and sexual offender records, for all employees, staff,…
Training
Ideally, all children/youth should receive training and education on issues of personal safety and abuse prevention. However, not every organization…
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…
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…
Policies & Procedures
Policies for youth-serving organizations in Massachusetts should clearly identify the duties and responsibilities of all staff, reflect both Federal…
Safe Environments
Ensuring a safe environment for children includes targeting the five major areas of safety: visibility, access, supervision and communication,…
Safe Environments
Your youth-serving organization may provide transportation to children and youth—either on a regular or occasional basis. If you’re a larger…
Sustainability
Collaboration is “a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organizations to achieve results they are…
Reporting
Staff and volunteers at the YSO (Youth-Serving Organization) should be proficient in discussing abuse and responding to disclosures of abuse. YSO…
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…
Customized child sexual abuse prevention guidelines to meet the unique needs of any organization that serves children.
Learning Center Registration
Sign up for an account and start your learning experience.
Free Online Assessment
Let us help you find out where to start.