Pensacola District Online
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
   |
Safe Sanctuaries
There are many people who ask, "Why does my church need a Safe Sanctuaries policy?" A Safe Sanctuaries policy and procedures is a policy of the church for the prevention of abuse in the church. Such a policy will enable the church to do ministries in a safe manner. These policies include policies such as windows in all classroom and office doors, two adults in each classroom with children, youth, and vulnerable adults, and background checks. Safe Sanctuaries policies and procedures are not able not trusting those who lead and assist in ministry with children, youth, and vulnerable adults, but it is about establishing procedures that will allow the ministries to happen in a safe manner for the protection of the children, youth, and vulnerable adults. Each church not only needs a policy and procedure but needs to follow the policy and procedure. Having a policy and not following it will not protect the ones it is designed to protect.
If your church does not have a policy you may do several things…. You may download the conference policy from the conference website (www.awfumc.org) and adopt the conference policy. You may download the conference policy and adapt it to fit your congregation. This does not mean you can take things out of the policy but you can add to the policy. Or you may create your own policy from scratch. If your church decides to create their own policy make sure it covers at least all that the conference policy covers.
Once a policy is adopted by the Administrative Council the Trustees are the administrators of that policy. The Safe Sanctuaries policy and procedures need to be evaluated at least every two (2) years to make sure it is up to date and that it fits the ministries of the church. The Annual Conference up dates their policy at Annual Conference every two years. If you adopt the conference policy you need to make changes to your policy every two years as well.
After adopting a policy you need to follow this policy. Not following a policy will not protect your children, youth, and vulnerable adults. Following the policy also involves doing background checks. The Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference recommends that each church utilize Trak-1 Technologies for background checks. If your church has not registered with Trak-1 you can do so by going to www.umcpact.org. Once you are the UMPact website you will need to go to the Ministry Protection tab. Go to the background check tab. This will redirect you to the online registration for Trak-1. You then proceed through the online registration. If you choose not to do online registration, contact Chad Stair at chad.stair@trak-1.com. He will help you get registered through Trak-1. Background checks with Trak-1 are $9.00 each and background checks with a motor vehicle registration check are $14.50.
If you have any questions about Safe Sanctuaries policies and procedures or about background checks please do not hesitate to contact Rev. Leigh Meekins at the Conference Resource Center. You can reach her at 334-356-8014 (or toll-free # 1-888-873-3127) or leigh@awfumc.org. See also here regarding BACKGROUND CHECKS.
 AWF Conference Safe Sanctuaries Policy, Adopted by 2007 Annual Conference; Revised June 2009
|
|
