I received the following inquiry recently:

I have been asked by a local pastor to develop guidelines for the protection of youth on church related activities. I was wondering if the National Association has anything already prepared in this area.

This is one of the functions of the SCM–to provide resources for youth workers in the local church. We also seek to enable youth workers to share resources with other youth workers. If you have a written safety policy, please pass your ideas along to SCM @ Randallhouse.com

Here is part of my response:

As a youth minister, I generally had parents sign a “Hold Harmless Agreement” that was designed to do three things: 1. Inform the parents of the activity; 2. Document that they were aware and gave permission for their children to attend; 3. Help them assume responsibility for any accidents that may have occurred and dissuade them from suing the church. Hold Harmless agreements are not an iron-clad protection from being sued, but it is a helpful legal document in the event of an accident.

Your policy should stress that parents be fully informed of the event and every aspect of it. This means everything must be well-planned in advance and you stick with the plan. No deviation from the plan is allowed unless “Plan B” was listed as an option and parents were informed and approved. Youth workers must understand they are entrusted with certain authority by the parents, but they should not make decisions “for” the parents.

It is also wise to include a ratio of sponsor to students in the policy. This would likely vary from event to event. This could be patterned off ratios used by your local school system. In fact, much of the policy could be borrowed or patterned from the school policy.

One very important element of having a written policy is to follow the policy. Deviating from a written policy could be worse than not having a written policy.

Contact your church insurance company for suggestions. They probably already have some recommendations. The following web links may also provide some useful information:

www.churchmutual.com/index.php/choice/risk/page/intro/id/21

www.brotherhoodmutual.com/pdf/dBench/db14-1.pdf

www.guideone.com/SafetyResources/Shared/fs_youth02.pdf

www.guideone.com/SafetyResources/Shared/sm_childprotect_sample.pdf

www.guideone.com/SafetyResources/Churches/youthindex.htm

www.ChristianLaw.org (CLA will review church policies and offer their recommendations)