Research and Identify Trainings
Staff and volunteers must be trained on child abuse prevention, including the signs and symptoms of child abuse. In order to identify and vet these…
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Home / Code of Conduct / Writing a Code of Conduct: Additional Risk Areas
Your Code of Conduct will be unique to your organization, based on your size, purpose, location, staffing, ages served, additional vulnerabilities of children and youth served, and many other variables. You should consider all of these variables as you create or adapt your Code of Conduct.
For instance, a large youth-serving organization that hosts all activities on-site may have as a part of its Code of Conduct:
(Name of Organization) does not expect that staff will share their personal contact information with members. In the event that cell phone numbers need to be shared to ensure communication during a field trip or other event, cell phones are available from the Executive Director. Note that all communication should be program-related. On the rare occasions where staff members share personal contact information with a member or parent, a supervisor must be notified. Please see the “Cell Phone Policy” in Employee Handbook.
On the other hand, a mentoring organization in which frequent personal communication between mentor and mentee is expected would have a different guideline on sharing personal information. In both cases, the expectation is set that there are appropriate and inappropriate ways to communicate with youth, they are clearly spelled out, and they’re shared widely.
Here are some additional circumstances to consider:
Training
Staff and volunteers must be trained on child abuse prevention, including the signs and symptoms of child abuse. In order to identify and vet these…
Reporting
Who Are Mandated Reporters? Massachusetts law defines a number of professionals as mandated reporters (for the full list, see MGL Chapter 119,…
Policies & Procedures
Sample Self-Audit Form for YSOs You can use the following “Self-Audit” form to take an inventory of your youth-serving organization’s abuse…
Training
Parents and other caregivers need to receive, at a minimum, the same level of prevention education as their child/youth. Parents can be strong…
Screening & Hiring
Criminal background checks are an important tool in your screening and selection process—and you should ensure that you’re aware of any federal,…
Safe Environments
Creating a safe environment starts with assessing your youth-serving organization’s situation and the physical spaces you use for programming and…
Policies & Procedures
In order to create concrete and detailed Policies and Procedures at your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO), it is necessary to analyze what policies…
Code of Conduct
Your Code of Conduct will provide your staff, volunteers, and others responsible for children and youth with very specific guidelines that will…
Screening & Hiring
State and federal laws and regulations require specific types of screening and background checks—particularly criminal and sexual offense records…
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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