Grounding Training Programs in Informing Frameworks
The approaches in the chart below can provide frameworks that make your organization most effective when training adults and/or children/youth….
Home / Code of Conduct / About Mission Statements & Codes of Ethics
Keep in mind that a Code of Conduct is limited; it usually refers only to the most common and expected behaviors staff/volunteers may encounter each day. One of the ways to guide staff and volunteers in their response to situations and behaviors not covered by your Code of Conduct is through developing a Mission Statement and Code of Ethics.
Whether your YSO is large or small, you’re probably familiar with the concept of a “Mission Statement”—a short, foundational statement designed to capture the reasons why you exist, and what you hope to accomplish. A Mission Statement should motivate and inspire your staff and leadership toward the “higher goals” of your YSO, and can also help guide the day-to-day activities of your organization.
A Code of Ethics is a close cousin of the Mission Statement. It expands upon your Mission Statement by describing your YSO’s “character” more fully and expressing a set of ethical standards for everyone to follow. Your Code of Ethics can be very broad, describing your vision and guiding principles, what you aspire to accomplish, and how children and youth will benefit from your efforts. It should also reflect a commitment to child/youth safety.
Depending on your size and available resources, you may have only a Mission Statement or a Code of Ethics, or even a combined document. There are no strict rules, but each can be used to help guide the decision-making of your staff and volunteers in their day-to-day interactions with coworkers, children, and youth—especially in any unique or unexpected situations that lack clear direction.
National Level:
Local Level
Smaller, more locally affiliated organizations can also develop mission statements. An example of the mission statement of a small, privately owned business (a dance studio) reads:
Goals in Support of Mission Statements:
Immediately following its Mission Statement, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (above) provides a set of statements about what it intends to provide to the children it serves in order to attain the goal its Mission Statement outlines:
The dance academy also combines its Mission Statement with a set of similar goals:
Ethical Principles that organizations may wish to reflect within a Code of Conduct:
1 50 example mission statements: (https://topnonprofits.com/examples/nonprofit-mission-statements/)
Training
The approaches in the chart below can provide frameworks that make your organization most effective when training adults and/or children/youth….
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…
Code of Conduct
For your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO) to ensure the safety of the children it serves, there must be a set of principles to guide the environment…
Safe Environments
Standards should be implemented to ensure safe physical spaces for children, such as clear sight–lines and visitor procedures. To ensure child…
Code of Conduct
Your Code of Conduct will be unique to your organization, based on your size, purpose, location, staffing, ages served, additional vulnerabilities…
Screening & Hiring
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Training
Once you have identified your training expectations and standards and have researched current and available local and national training, explore…
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
Finding staff and volunteers you can trust to work with children includes additional steps beyond interviewing and checking references. …
Code of Conduct
Your Code of Ethics helps to guide the behavior and decision-making of your staff, volunteers, and participants by clarifying the standards and…
Customized child sexual abuse prevention guidelines to meet the unique needs of any organization that serves children.
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