Baltimore-Washington Conference
Safe Children and Youth Procedures
The Baltimore-Washington Conference is committed to ensuring that all children and youth involved in local church or annual conference ministries may participate in an environment of safety and security. To that end, all conference agencies shall follow the procedures outlined below, and local churches shall develop and implement policies and procedures to protect the children and youth in their care.
I. Annual Conference Paid and Volunteer Staff
The procedures included in this section apply to paid and volunteer staff secured by the annual conference for annual conference ministries and events.
Each conference-secured paid or volunteer staff will complete the following forms and return them to the appropriate agency office.
- Volunteer Application
- Kroll Background Check permission form
- Conference Sexual Misconduct form
- Three Reference Check forms
The applications will be processed and online background checks will be conducted through Kroll Background America. This check is based on name, Social Security number, birthday, and address.
Any volunteer that may be driving children or youth for a conference program, again secured by the conference, shall also submit their driver's license number and a driving record will be checked through Kroll as well.
If any "flags" appear either through Kroll or the references, all references will be contacted and interviewed with more detailed questions by the appropriate conference staff person. After all references are interviewed, a determination will be made as to the appropriate course of action.
The background check will be conducted every 5 years if the individual serves consecutive years. If the individual does not serve consecutive years, the background check will be conducted after each "break" in service.
Note: If a local church is responsible for the children or youth (e.g., children or youth are in the care of local church volunteer counselors at an event or retreat), the local church's safe sanctuaries policy is to be followed in the recruitment and oversight of those volunteers. The guidelines for local church policy and procedure are outlined in section II.
II. Local Church Policy and Procedures
Every local church in the Baltimore-Washington Conference shall develop and implement a safe sanctuaries policy for protecting children and youth involved in the ministries of that church. The print resource, Safe Sanctuaries by Joy Melton (Discipleship Resources), is the recommended standard for developing these procedures for the local church. Each congregation shall name an existing committee or a task force to develop and implement a policy, addressing the following (see page 4 of Safe Sanctuaries):
- Recruitment, screening, and hiring procedures all staff, volunteer and paid.
- Basic procedures and practices for safe ministry.
- Storage and handling of forms and data.
- Response to allegations of abuse.
- Plan for caring after abuse.
- Develop and implement a review process of all procedures and process for making procedural changes.
- Training all workers with children and youth in requirements and procedures.
- Periodic review of policy procedures, and practices.
- Certifying at the charge conference annually that a policy has been developed and is in use.
- Ensuring that the sexual misconduct questionnaire is used in conjunction with safe sanctuaries policy and procedure and the certification report is filed each year at charge conference.
In addition, it is recommended that local church boards of trustees consult with their insurance companies regarding their particular requirements for liability coverage.
