Starting a Child Protection Plan at Your Church

As a children’s ministry director or safety officer, you may be tasked to create a child protection plan for your local church. It may seem like a difficult task to create a child protection plan for your local church. We hope this article will give you some practical steps and resources to help you create and implement a child protection plan in your church.

Please download a sample Child Protection Plan Template.

A common misconception is that child abuse is perpetrated by strangers. This could not be further from the truth. In most abuse cases within the Adventist church, the victim knows their abuser. Therefore, it is so critical that our child protection plan matches the challenge we face.

As you create your child protection plan, start with an external and internal review of your church building. You want to ensure the premises are free of hazards that might injure to the young people. Does it provide a space that facilitates positive activities with sufficient supervision? Work with your church safety officer or facility manager to ensure the facility is adequately illuminated outdoors and indoors. Proper lighting helps provide sufficient management of youth and children’s programs. It acts as a deterrent to someone looking to harm a child.

Children and youth programs should be conducted in a specific area to prevent young people from having unrestricted access throughout the building. Classrooms should have vision panels that allow easy monitoring of the activities taking place in these rooms. Also, all activities should be supervised by a minimum of two adults to avoid one-on-one situations that could lead to inappropriate behavior.

Remember that these guidelines help to protect our children as our priority, and our church’s reputation and the reputation of each volunteer or employee.

Selecting and Screening Volunteers

One of the most critical parts of a child protection plan is the selecting and screening of those working with children. Every employee and volunteer must understand and follow a strict code of ethics to protect the children and youth under their care. These are some of the basic expectations of an organization that conducts ministries for minors.

A six-month waiting period before church members start working with young people is recommended. This would apply to all newly baptized and newly transferred adult members. It allows church leadership time to become acquainted with the individual before they begin working with young people. During this six-month waiting period, you should become familiar with their personality and temperament to decide if they are ideal candidates for children’s ministry.

Every adult that works with children and youth should also go through a screening process. This process starts by collecting some basic information from all the volunteers, including their previous volunteer experience, previous church membership information, and at least three personal references. Adventist Risk Management, Inc. (ARM) has a template form that can be used to collect this information. You should also have an interview with the ministry candidate to gain more insight into their previous work with children and youth.

After this interview, every volunteer should go through a reference check as part of the volunteer screening process. Contact the personal references listed on their contact form, including the pastor and others from churches where they have previously worked with young people. This may be the most crucial part of the screening process because it involves asking critical questions about the candidate.  

The final part of the volunteer screening is a criminal background check. The North American Division has established the Adventist Screening Verification (ASV) process to screen criminal activity records. The ASV process also includes training designed to help the volunteer with the following:

• Identify the signs of abuse in children and youth
• Understand the effects of abuse on young people
• How to report abuse to the appropriate authorities

The ASV certification should be renewed every three years. Ministry leaders should work with their conference and the local church to maintain an updated list for all the volunteers who took the course and their course completion date.  

Program Review and Additional Training

It is essential to review the child protection program at least twice a year. Look at incidents to see how they could have been handled more effectively or avoided altogether. You should also consider whether there are any issues or concerns the child protection plan does not cover. This review aims to develop ways to improve the plan to address new problems.

You should also prioritize on providing additional training opportunities for volunteers who work with children and youth. An excellent place to start is the ARM website that offers several different safety resources that provide in-depth information about child protection. Some of these articles include:

• Appropriate Touch 
• Child Check-In/Check-Out Policy
• Supervision of Children 
• Consent Form Template for Working with Children Online 

ARM regularly partners with local conferences to conduct child protection training seminars, both online and in-person (as appropriate). Check with your local conference to find out when they are offering these training opportunities.

Protecting the children and youth is one of the most sacred responsibilities of ministry. Each of us involved in ministry play a vital role in ensuring that our young people are safe in the church. Creating and implementing a comprehensive child protection program is one of the most important parts of children’s ministry. Visit the ARM website to learn more.