Implementing a Screening Policy

To succeed in the goal of protecting your ministry, children, and volunteers/staff from the risks of abuse and allegations of abuse, it is imperative to implement a screening policy that depends on two simple preventative measures: child safety training and church background checks.

A church or ministry should be committed to a policy of zero tolerance for sexual or physical abuse of children. Establishing a screening policy (sample policies and forms) is the first step in developing your child protection and volunteer screening process.

Every volunteer should be required to review basic principles of sound child protection and procedures. Protect My Ministry offers child safety training to accomplish this task. The required training is designed to accomplish two main objectives.

First, protecting your church and volunteers from inadvertently putting themselves in a position where they could be subject to a false claim of abuse. Second, children will be better protected against potential abusers when sound procedures and training are in place. Equipping all those who serve (employees, staff, and volunteers) with sound training, will lead to an atmosphere of appropriate vigilance, in which children will be protected against perpetrators.

Employees, staff and volunteers should be required to pass a church background check. Just like airport screenings, this does not mean that we don’t trust everybody who would come on board; instead it is an exercise of stewardship, recognizing that it would be foolish not to use available technology to cheaply and easily screen and identify those few who could inflict such great harm.