Basic Requirements of Screening and Hiring
Your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO) should create protocols for the application, interviewing, and screening process. Each step of the process…
Home / Screening & Hiring / Screening Toolbox: Marketing & Recruitment Materials
Finding and retaining a qualified and diverse workforce is one of the greatest challenges for youth-serving organizations like yours. Given the competition for support and staffing, you may be concerned about scaring people off with early discussions about background checks and screening. But balancing marketing with safety is easier than it sounds. In fact, clear statements about your commitment to keeping children safe can not only help deter applications from individuals who may pose a risk, but also appeal to the types of individuals you’re hoping to attract. It can provide you with a strategic advantage over other youth-serving organizations that do not undertake the same level of protection for the children and youth in their care.
Your safety-focused policies, procedures, and tools can also be attractive to employees and volunteers because these structures serve to protect them as well. Materials and statements on your website, job and volunteer postings, and advertising that demonstrate your awareness of child safety issues, express your serious commitment to safety, and describe the steps your organization takes to keep children from being harmed, will also be attractive to parents who seek out services or activities for their children.
Your recruitment and marketing materials should:
Here’s an example of the kind of statement you can make to express your organization’s commitment to safety in your materials:
“This organization is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and youth accessing our services. We have taken steps to educate our staff about the risks related to child sexual abuse, instituted policies and practices to protect children from the risk of child sexual abuse, and trained our staff and volunteers about proper reporting requirements.”
Screening & Hiring
Your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO) should create protocols for the application, interviewing, and screening process. Each step of the process…
Reporting
Recognizing Abuse & Neglect The minimum required safety elements for you to prepare leadership, staff, and volunteers to recognize, respond…
Screening & Hiring
By checking a candidate’s references, you can obtain additional information about applicants and help verify their previous work and volunteer…
Code of Conduct
It’s essential that interactions between your employees/volunteers and the youth you serve are appropriate and positive, support positive youth…
Screening & Hiring
Finding staff and volunteers you can trust to work with children includes additional steps beyond interviewing and checking references. …
Screening & Hiring
State and federal laws and regulations require specific types of screening and background checks—particularly criminal and sexual offense records…
Training
When it comes to training your volunteers, there is certain core content that is critical to include in a comprehensive training program to…
Policies & Procedures
Sample Policies & Procedures You can find examples of policies and procedures from organizations whose mission is to serve and protect…
Policies & Procedures
Your Policies and Procedures must be continuously referred to throughout the year. At a minimum, an annual review of all policies and procedures…
Safe Environments
Safe Environment Strategies: Visibility Whether or not you can control the design of your space, physical safety depends on your ability to…
Customized child sexual abuse prevention guidelines to meet the unique needs of any organization that serves children.
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