Training Contractors, Consultants, and Interns
Training Contractors, Consultants, and Interns When it comes to training your contractors, consultants, and interns, there is certain core…
Home / Safe Environments / Safe Environment Strategies: Technology
In the past, youth-serving organizations needed to worry about safety only within the physical environment—the building(s) where their services were provided. Today, the environment extends beyond physical spaces into the virtual realm—a world that lacks geographic and physical boundaries. Electronic and social media have become a significant part of everyday life—especially for children and youth. In just a few years, they have profoundly changed the nature of communication, and are already a preferred means of communication among children and youth. Undoubtedly, new social media technologies, tools, and devices will continue to expand in type and grow in sophistication and usefulness.
The skills learned in social networking—such as cooperation, collaboration, the management of information, organization, and communication—are key skills for children and youth as they seek future employment and prepare for professional work in our totally connected world. At the same time, social media can and has been misused and employed to facilitate communication among youth and between adults and youth in inappropriate ways that violate boundaries and lack the standards of visibility or accountability. The 24/7 nature of social media communications blurs many boundaries as our formerly private spaces become more public—and questions of liability for organizations like yours cannot be ignored. That’s why your efforts to build a safe environment must take the cyber-environment into account.
Your organization should consider adding social media policies or statements to your safe environment frameworks, including these elements:
Training
Training Contractors, Consultants, and Interns When it comes to training your contractors, consultants, and interns, there is certain core…
Policies & Procedures
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Screening & Hiring
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Policies & Procedures
Whether your organization is evaluating an existing policy or creating a new one, we’ve provided a convenient Child Sexual Abuse Prevention (CSA)…
Training
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Screening & Hiring
By checking a candidate’s references, you can obtain additional information about applicants and help verify their previous work and volunteer…
Policies & Procedures
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Reporting
Mandated reporters are required to immediately report suspicions of child abuse and neglect to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families…
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…
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…
Customized child sexual abuse prevention guidelines to meet the unique needs of any organization that serves children.
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