A few weeks ago, I wrote about how we “weave a basket” when designing children’s programming. We shape elements to carry content, but also to hold the children in the container of our church culture. Some of these elements may bend and be flexible—various games or activities can be adjusted to work well for the individuals we have from week to week. However, when weaving a basket, there are some elements that must create a strong, rigid frame. Our guidelines for keeping children safe are that kind of piece.
Teddy Yesudasan, Katie Winkler, and I designed a safety training last year for Kingdom Kids and BG Youth volunteers. Our goal is to weave open communication into our programs so that we keep our children safe from abuse.
To make the guidelines simple and easy to recall, you will see these letters as the backbone of our safety training: SPQRS.
Share the love:
Show hospitality to all children and youth in our programs, and avoid partiality or favoritism. Children should expect equal treatment from the adults who work with them. This guideline can prevent grooming behaviors so often used by predators.
Physical contact:
We need to foster an atmosphere where physical boundaries are always respected. Children can expect to be heard if they ever say “no” to any contact or express physical discomfort in a situation.
Questions:
All children, youth, and adults should feel free to express concerns and ask questions. Whether someone has questions about safety, protocol, or programming, we want to make time to foster a culture of good communication.
Reporting:
If anyone experiences or observes an interaction that causes concern, we want to encourage people to speak up. Reports will be taken seriously. We are all part of creating a safe culture.
Supervision:
For the safety of children, youth, and adult volunteers, the default is to always be in a group of three or more people. No young person should be alone with an adult.
Our desire is to broaden these conversations to the whole church body, not just youth, children, or volunteers. You can all help build a safe culture.
