What is Screening and Hiring?
Finding staff and volunteers you can trust to work with children includes additional steps beyond interviewing and checking references. …
Home / Code of Conduct / Developing the Code of Conduct
For your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO) to ensure the safety of the children it serves, there must be a set of principles to guide the environment of the site and the behaviors of staff and volunteers. Your YSO should develop a Code of Conduct laying out the standards for ethical behavior centering on child safety.
When developing a Code of Conduct:
Include a Mission Statement and Code of Ethics describing the vision and guiding principles of the YSO and commitment to keeping kids safe. Your Code of Ethics should clearly define the core beliefs of your organization related to ethical standards and child safety. The Code of Ethics is used as a resource to guide staff and volunteers when facing situations that are not specifically outlined in your Code of Conduct but are essential to maintaining your organization’s standard of safety.
Gather input from leadership, staff, volunteers, parents, and children on the day-to-day behaviors important to them. The stakeholders in your community are familiar with the needs of children and families and are essential resources to improve your Code of Conduct. They may also provide valuable insight into your specific organization and the needs of children in your community.
Provide guidance on behaviors that are appropriate, inappropriate, and harmful as well as the consequences for breaking the Code of Conduct. Describing each type of behavior provides a guide for staff to understand which types of behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable at your organization. Your list should provide physical and verbal behaviors as well as situation-specific behaviors such as being alone with a child and social media communication. The Code of Conduct should state that all breaches of the Code should be reported to leadership at your organization and clearly define the lines of communication to do so.
Check parent and partner organizations for suggested models and integrate licensing, certification, and regulatory requirements. In some cases, staff and volunteer behavior standards may need to be in compliance with licensing, certification, and regulatory requirements. Check which standards apply to your organization.
Include child abuse reporting laws and the consequences for failing to report. You should clearly lay out your state’s legal standards and process for reporting child abuse. This should encompass what types of behavior, including suspicions and allegations, to report. Additionally, it should lay out the negative consequences for not reporting.
Creating a Code of Conduct should include participation from all stakeholders and outline your YSO’s mission to uphold child safety. Your Code of Conduct outlines all staff and volunteer behaviors, provides step-by-step guidance on reporting, and the legal standards of safety. The Code of Conduct provides a reference point for staff and volunteers on your organization’s standard for appropriate and responsible behavior.
Screening & Hiring
Finding staff and volunteers you can trust to work with children includes additional steps beyond interviewing and checking references. …
Monitoring Behavior
Develop a culture of child safety at your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO) using your Monitoring Behavior protocol that includes leadership-driven…
Reporting
You can help protect the children you serve by maintaining an environment that prioritizes both preventing child abuse before it occurs and—since…
Safe Environments
Along with site safety, visibility issues, physical access, and security procedures, supervision is a critical aspect of creating and maintaining…
Screening & Hiring
To strengthen your screening and hiring process, you can use the questions in Thinking About Risk to make decisions about what additional background…
Reporting
Staff and volunteers at the YSO (Youth-Serving Organization) should be proficient in discussing abuse and responding to disclosures of abuse. YSO…
Screening & Hiring
Criminal background checks are an important tool in your screening and selection process—and you should ensure that you’re aware of any federal,…
Screening & Hiring
A written application provides you with the information you need to assess the background and interests of applicants for your organization’s paid…
Code of Conduct
Your Code of Conduct should cultivate standards of behavior for staff and volunteers at your Youth-Serving Organization (YSO) which prioritize child…
Training
Ideally, all children/youth should receive training and education on issues of personal safety and abuse prevention. However, not every organization…
Customized child sexual abuse prevention guidelines to meet the unique needs of any organization that serves children.
Learning Center Registration
Sign up for an account and start your learning experience.
Free Online Assessment
Let us help you find out where to start.