Establishing a Plan: A fourfold strategy


Awareness and commitment must be turned into a workable plan than can be effectively implemented. Policies and procedures must be put in place to safeguard against child sexual abuse. There are four critical areas to pay attention to:


1. Selecting and Screening Church Workers 2. Supervising Church Workers 3. State Reporting Obligations 4. Responding to Abuse Allegations


The following recommendations are based on legal and practical


advice. Many of these recommendations are being successfully used in churches to reduce the risk and liability of child sexual abuse. Some of these may work well in your church or organizational context and others may need to be adapted to your specific needs. In all cases you should have an attorney review your plan before implementing. Reporting obligations, for example, vary from state to state, and you need specific knowledge of your state’s law.


1. Select and Screen Church Workers


It’s one thing to create a screening program (over 75 percent of churches screen their paid workers and volunteers), but it is another thing to make it work. Every church has committed members who will express sincere reservations about screening. In formulating screening procedures, attention must be given to the full range of concerns that may surface as a result of implementing a screening process.


Note: All workers require screening: paid and volunteer. To ensure adequate safeguards that rise to the level of reasonable care, every church should implement an effec- tive screening program. The way in which the screening is


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