Youth-serving organizations, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “strive to create a safe environment for youth, employees, and volunteers so that youth can grow, learn, and have fun.” Part of creating a safe environment is ensuring that youth are not harmed or abused while participating in organization-sponsored activities. The federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) defines child abuse as any “act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical harm or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm” to a child under the age of 18. While legal definitions vary by state, youth-serving organizations play an important role as caretakers to help protect youth from abuse by staff, volunteers and others while participating in their programs or services.

Benchmark your policy

Youth-serving organizations should create and implement youth protection policies and procedures targeting the behaviors and responsibilities of their employees and volunteers. These policies can include but should not be limited to:

• Employment applications with an applicant's signature, employment chronology, and professional references;
• Initial screening of employees and volunteers through background checks, including criminal record background checks, with follow-up screening every 3-5 years;
• Written procedures addressing incident awareness, recognition of inappropriate behavior, prevention, and incident reporting;
• Policies and procedures to help ensure a client is not alone with an employee, volunteer or other company representative, whenever possible;
• Training and recordkeeping requirements for training activities. Training should include employees and volunteers who have regular contact with children and should, among other things, reference your organization’s intent to actively pursue termination of employment and possible criminal prosecution; and
• Formal communication of all policies to parents and legal guardians of clients, as well as employees and volunteers.

For additional information on developing your policy, see the booklet published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention entitled “Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures.”

Communication strategies for implementing your policy

Employees and volunteers

Any policy is only as effective as the strategies and efforts for implementing, communicating and enforcing it. Put your policy in writing. Once you have a written policy, communicate the policy and reporting process to everyone who interacts with your organization.

When employees or volunteers start work for your organization, part of your orientation process should include a “Statement of Commitment” that clearly outlines your policy and procedures on child abuse. This Statement should be signed and made part of individual staff records for both employed and volunteer individuals. Periodically review the “Statement of Commitment” on the part of all employees and volunteers. Periodically review the “Statement of Commitment” with all employees and volunteers.

Have a process for reporting incidents or suspected incidents internally. Ensure that your employees and volunteers understand your reporting process, including your expectation that incidents of alleged or attempted youth abuse be reported immediately. Also, communicate the involvement of outside local authorities, as appropriate. See under “Reporting” for additional information.

Youth

One strategy for communicating your abuse policy to youth is to conduct an age appropriate orientation for them about the organization’s child protection policies and procedures. For younger children, it may be helpful to have a child friendly/illustrated version of key elements of the child protection policy that is at their understanding level and clearly displayed and accessible. Such key elements of the orientation program might include behavior and communication guidelines and reporting and reaction guidelines.

The community

Your reputation in the community is important. Make sure, as part of implementing your policy, you make your community aware of your “no tolerance” position on abuse and policies on youth protection.

Parents

Parents are an important link in the chain of prevention. When a parent signs up their child to participate in your youth program, this is an opportunity to communicate your child protection policies and procedures to them. You should include a summary of your organization’s policies and procedures on child protection, as well as contact information for your program administrator, to parents at the start of their child’s involvement with the group. You also can include information on the signs of abuse and what actions they can take if they suspect their child or another child is being abused.

Information display

Displaying clearly your organization’s child abuse policies and procedures is an important form of communication. This can help provide easy access and reference to important information by personnel. Emergency and advice telephone numbers should be clearly displayed for easy reference. These numbers should include emergency services and appropriate authorities.

Reporting and recordkeeping

Reporting

Your written youth protection/anti-abuse plan should include procedures on what to do if an individual is concerned about, witnessed or is the victim of an actual or attempt at youth abuse. The plan should have a program administrator and include details on the person(s) to contact in order to report an incident or attempted incident. Some organizations include a toll-free hotline to report the incident in confidence. In all cases, your plan needs to comply with federal, state and local laws on child abuse. Some states require any suspected case of child abuse be reported to the appropriate local authorities. Contact information and telephone numbers should be kept up-to-date and be clearly displayed, for instance in a poster, in a common area for easy reference.

Know if you are a state-mandated reporting organization. If you are, follow the reporting mandates and guidelines under your state law.

Recordkeeping

Organizations should have a recordkeeping system for child protection issues and case histories. Information must be stored in a safe and secure location, whether written or electronic, due to the confidential nature of the information being stored. The information should be accessible only to essential personnel. Your written policy should have a clear procedure on information storage and sharing of information.

Training strategies for implementing your policy

A good training program can help educate and provide awareness of child abuse and an understanding of your policies and procedures designed to help reduce the risk of abuse. It also should provide an understanding of the chain of responsibility for protecting children and your process for reporting an incident.  

Training on your youth protection/child abuse policies should be incorporated as part of new employee and volunteer orientation, as well as part of periodic education of all employees in your organization.

Employees and volunteers

Your training program should review your policy, instruct on the importance of never allowing youth to be alone with an employee or volunteer, and teach staff and volunteers how to prevent, recognize and respond to the signs of child abuse.

Additionally, reference your organization’s intent to actively pursue termination of employment if abusive behavior is substantiated and that the employee or volunteer could be subject to possible criminal prosecution.

Training exercises

Various types of training can be leveraged to help youth serving agencies and organizations educate staff and volunteers in the recognition and prevention of, and response to, signs of abuse.

Major goals of abuse/youth protection training programs include, but are not limited to:

• Increasing awareness of child abuse to staff, volunteers, youth and parents;
• Engendering confidence in reporting an incident, with the understanding that it will be handled appropriately and sensitively and with local authorities in compliance with state laws;
• Teaching prevention strategies, such as not allowing any youth to be alone with a volunteer or employee; and
• Providing new skills to recognize and respond responsibly to allegations of child abuse.

Training can be held in a variety of formats, including, but not limited to:

• Group settings. Group meetings can be led by a trained facilitator. Topics would cover your policy, signs of abuse and your reporting process. Role play also can be made part of the training. Training in a group setting is an excellent way to put everyone, including potential perpetrators, on notice that your organization takes prevention seriously.
• Individual settings. Individual training and education can include online webinars, as well as policy and procedure quizzes.

Recommended training topics include, but are not limited to:

• Facts about the problem of child abuse
• Types of situations in which child abuse may occur
• Signs of abuse
• Simple, yet effective strategies for protecting children from abuse
• Importance of talking about the prevention of abuse with children and other adults

Closing

Youth serving organizations need to effectively implement their child protection policies and procedures in order to help provide protections for youth and help reduce the likelihood of workers and volunteers of abusing children who participate in the organization’s services and programs. Effective implementation includes training and communicating the organization’s program statement, policies and procedures to all parties, including staff, volunteers, youth, parents and the community.