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Hello!
As our church we are in the process of revising our church safety policy. Our insurance company recommended this video from ChurchMutual Insurance company. While helpful in giving guidelines to teachers, youth leaders, and staff, it also provides a lot of policy suggestions for leaders and councils.
While the policy recommendations are helpful, I'm looking for a video that we could show that is specifically directed to teachers, volunteers, and staff at the beginning of the church school year. Have any of you found good suggestions?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Comments
So glad to hear that you are revising your church safety policy. Another helpful website is Brotherhood Mutual, you can find their safety resources here, including Reducing the Risk, which includes information for training. The materials may be used all together, for a more comprehensive training program. Or, video segments may be used individually along with other information.
Safe Church Ministry understands that policy is an important part of abuse prevention. We have policy resources on our Safe Church website. We include a power point presentation, which can be adapted and used for your own context. We also have important resources about child sexual abuse, which is good information for teachers and youth leaders to know.
Thanks, Bonnie! Very helpful. I appreciate the resources. The powerpoint presentation is a helpful overview to show to my leadership.
I'm still wondering if there is a video focused for teachers and volunteers that could outline specific boundaries. Perhaps it doesn't exist.
I'm wondering if a slide presentation might be more applicable.
I was hoping to find something that we could show consistently from year to year that would not be dependent on one individual to present. My thought would be to outline our policy via a handout and then show a brief video affirming the key principles of child safety.
We will take this comment into consideration as we create more resources that are applicable across ministries.
Also, your yearly training idea sounds really good as well! While I wasn't able to find a quick video, I was able to find this document with some child sexual abuse essentials from brotherhood Mutual as well.
One other opportunity that we strongly recommend is a program called Circle of Grace. It would take the place of normal Sunday curriculum for a few weeks that is normally done on a Sunday. Many churches have found it to be an active, interactive way for teachers/ volunteers and children to process openly about safety, sexuality, and abuse. It integrates boundaries with faith in an incredible and age appropriate way for each grade level. More information can be found at our page: crcna.org/SafeChurch/circle-grace.
Hope this is helpful!
Eric
Great video for church leaders with wonderful suggestions for policy and procedures. Thank you.
I would like to recommend Safe Haven's Church Certification Program (http://safehavenministries.org/certification/) if you are interested in help creating policies and procedures specific to your church. While mostly directed at domestic violence, Safe Haven has many available resources.
Our world is a scary place.
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