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Home / Screening & Hiring / What Is a Screening & Hiring Process?
Screening means thorough reference and background checks, including review of criminal and sexual offender records, for all employees, staff, volunteers, and community members whose potential employment or volunteer service involves direct contact with or the potential for unmonitored access to children (including individuals who provide transportation to children). Screening for child sexual abuse should be purposefully integrated into your standard screening and selection process for both paid and volunteer positions. All candidates for a particular position should undergo the same screening process.
Beyond employees and volunteers, it may also be appropriate to ask vendors and contractors for your organization to provide evidence that a background check was completed on any individual they send to provide your services. A background check may not be necessary if the vendor or contractor is not providing direct services to children and youth, is restricted to the area where the service is being provided, or can either be accompanied or observed. In each case, adults in your organization should know that vendor/contractor personnel are on your premises and that children/youth are not to be permitted near the workspace unaccompanied.
It’s important to note that employee and volunteer screening and selection are important, but aren’t by themselves a guarantee of safety—so they should be integrated with the many other measures and efforts we describe as part of a broader plan to prevent child sexual abuse at your organization. You must also continue to maintain vigilance and ensure that all staff members, employees, and volunteers receive adequate training, supervision, and management support to fulfill the organization’s mission. Staff screening can be time-consuming, and fees may be associated with some background checks—but that cost would be significantly exceeded by the cost of your failure to screen, should subsequent harm come to children you serve.
A well-designed screening process, in combination with the other practices outlined on this website, is an investment in the future of your youth-serving organization and the safety and wellbeing of the children and youth you serve.
Training
Once you have identified your training expectations and standards and have researched current and available local and national training, explore…
Screening & Hiring
Your Youth-Serving Organization’s (YSO’s) hiring process should include basic screening measures for potential staff and volunteers through…
Policies & Procedures
Sample Policies & Procedures You can find examples of policies and procedures from organizations whose mission is to serve and protect…
Safe Environments
Along with site safety, visibility issues, physical access, and security procedures, supervision is a critical aspect of creating and maintaining…
Code of Conduct
Your Code of Ethics helps to guide the behavior and decision-making of your staff, volunteers, and participants by clarifying the standards and…
Safe Environments
Safe Environment Strategies: Visibility Whether or not you can control the design of your space, physical safety depends on your ability to…
Code of Conduct
Your Code of Conduct will provide your staff, volunteers, and others responsible for children and youth with very specific guidelines that will…
Code of Conduct
Your Code of Conduct will be unique to your organization, based on your size, purpose, location, staffing, ages served, additional vulnerabilities…
Reporting
Thinking of children or youth as capable of sexually abusing other children or youth can be difficult to consider and challenging to address. In…
Reporting
Who Are Mandated Reporters? Massachusetts law defines a number of professionals as mandated reporters (for the full list, see MGL Chapter 119,…
Customized child sexual abuse prevention guidelines to meet the unique needs of any organization that serves children.
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