Protecting Children

Safe Church Plan approved

A “Safe Church Plan” is being instituted at Northlake, in the interest of being pro-active in protecting our children and youth. At its May meeting, the Church Council approved this document that outlines the steps the church will take to minimize the possible risks associated with working with children and youth. This plan covers chaperones, permission forms, background checks, etc., and is available for those who are interested.

Coming Up: There will be training classes in August. Also, a confidential blanket background check will be done for all who volunteer or think they may volunteer with our children or youth.

Having such a plan is highly recommended by the ELCA. Northlake’s Safe Church Plan was developed over an extended period with input by a variety of Northlake members and staff.

July 2007

Northlake’s Safe Church Plan Training Event

As we minister to children and youth, it is our obligation to see that they are treated with the same love and respect that Jesus used to welcome them. To this end, much effort has gone into developing a “Safe Church Plan”, which was written by current and former staff members and various church members. The end result is a strong and workable policy, and the Church Council has approved its implementation. The plan applies to all church-related activities that involve children and youth. It is designed to:

Educate staff and volunteers about their role in injury and abuse prevention.
Provide general procedures that reduce the risks of injury and abuse.
Implement a method of effective response should an incident occur.

Anyone who works in any way with young people (including teachers, activity leaders, chaperones, etc.) should plan to attend a training session for the Safe Church Plan. A training event has been scheduled for Wednesday, September 5, from 7 - 8:30 p.m.

A sign of the times - and recommended by the ELCA and our insurance company - we will now be doing background checks on all individuals working with children and youth. The process for this will be shared at the training session in September, also.

This is a valuable tool to be used for the protection of our children and youth and the individuals working with them. It also serves to protect the church, by having an established consistent policy to deal with any issues that may arise.

Thanks for adding the September 5 training event to your calendars!

Site last Updated on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 22:53