SAFEGUARDING POLICY Changes
Changes to the Children/Youth Portions of the Safeguarding Policy
It is important to read the entire policy in full, but if you're curious about the updates on children and youth, please note the highlighted sections below.
In addition, this video highlights in further details the changes throughout the policy outlined below and includes an overview of the updated portions for safeguarding adults.
The policy now includes six steps to prevent and address abuse and misconduct, rather than five (pp. 8-9). Read more.
Organization:
The interacting guidelines are now organized into sections for all minors, additional guidelines for children (diapering/bathroom procedures), and additional guidelines for all youth.
Monitoring and supervision guidelines are now immediately following the interacting guidelines for adults (so all the interacting guidelines are together).
Two-adult rule:
There is renewed emphasis on the two-adult rule, meaning it's mentioned in three places: the policy outline, at the beginning of the interacting guidelines for all minors, and in the monitoring and supervision guidelines. This reflects the idea that it is by far one of the most important strategies we employ in protecting children/youth.
The two-adult rule has been slightly modified to accommodate the needs of our churches and situations where it is not possible to provide two adults in a single space. There must still be two adults supervising children and youth at all times.
Inappropriate displays of affection:
This list has been updated slightly. For example, "kissing on the lips" has been updated to just "kissing."
Other sections pertaining specifically to youth include some updated language for clarity:
Social media/communication
Sexually-oriented communications
Transportation
Overnight events
In addition:
There is an entirely new section under the interacting guidelines for youth: Discipleship, Spiritual Direction, and Pastoral Counseling.
Responding and reporting procedures in cases of misconduct or abuse towards a minor have been significantly updated.
Churches are now required to adopt a policy regarding registered sex offenders in their congregations.