Plan to Protect Part 1
March is our focus month for Plan to Protect. I have written 3 kidZvillage Newsletters concerning this vital policy and they will be emailed out in my absence. I’m out of the office from March 12 – 31st and will respond to all emails and phone messages when I return.
Week 1 What is Plan to Protect?
Why even bother?
Formation of Church Protection Policy
Week 2 The Maintenance of Plan to Protect Policy
Review of the Basic Policy
Week 3 Reporting of Incidents
Week 4 Big or Small Church, lets do it and do it right
Ideas for Teacher Training
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Ugh ! Plan to Protect. Often that’s how we feel when we hear the words however that shouldn’t be our response at all. The policy truly is a blessing to us, our churches, all our church member’s (that includes our kids) and newcomers to our church. When we begin to see the policy for all the benefits it brings to our church we will breathe a sigh of relief knowing that, as we implement or update it’s protecting us all!
What is plan to protect?
It’s a church policy, not ‘just another program’.
For insurance companies is a church requirement, it’s not something that is just ‘really nice to do’.
For all the church members, board members and our church staff it’s a protection against legal liability.
For our children is a mandate from the Bible, not just an option… God requires us to do all we can to protect children, and not cause even one to stumble, spiritually or personally… ever seen a millstone…?
Plan to Protect is all this and more… only if done WELL and COMPLETELY.
Problems tend to occur in one of two places, with the formation of church policy and/or with the continuing efforts of maintaining this policy, both steps are equally vital in ensuring protection for our children and our church.
Formation of Policy
Churches have numerous policies, from the vital to the more mundane churches run (behind the scenes) on the policies that are created. The PAOC in conjunction with various partners has developed a Plan to Protect Policy. A document that is legally sound and acceptable to insurance companies. This policy can be purchased from the National Office thereby giving you the copyright to develop and personalize it for your church community. You can uncover more information by going to the PAOC national website at www.paoc.org Church Policy can be a very tedious paper to develop on your own however it is totally acceptable to do so. In developing policy on your own however you will need to have it approved both legally and by your insurance company prior to its implementation. This can be both costly and demand many man hours. We have attempted to condense this process by providing you with a starting point. Keeping in mind that the purchased Plan to Protect policy is just a starting point. It then requires tweaking and commitment from boards, pastoral staff and members before implementing and establishing it as a church policy. These approvals are important steps to ensure its success as the church will possibly see changes as to how the children’s ministries programs are run and what their responsibility is in regards to those changes. This needs to be communicated up front and ‘signed off on’ to ensure a successful implementation.
Things to remember and take to heart…
1) The worst thing that you can do is to have plan to protect as a policy, and not do it…
Legally you are putting yourself in a position of premeditated negligence. A very difficult position should an incident occur.
2) Remember that this is your church policy and your church must own it in all aspects of the word.
3) This is not a Children’s Ministry Program it’s a church policy. The buck stops at your Sr. Pastor.
If you are anything like me I jump on board when something is new… take care of all the details and love to see a project take shape and begin… when it comes to the day to day however I often loose interest. That’s where many of our churches are right now. In the late 1990’s they jumped on board, established their policy, trained their workers, took the pictures for badges… and now 4, 6 or 8 years later… Ummmm well, not so eager. Things have slipped and probably if they re-read the policy they would be shocked at what they agreed to and are NOT doing now. Don’t fool yourself, don’t think that it’s not going to happen in your town, at your church. It makes me feel sick to hear of and see the negligence of our plan to protect policies and our careless maintenance. Leaders and workers fall through the cracks, ‘common’ we say ‘everybody knows Joe’. We are in need of volunteers and the policy can wait… meanwhile children’s lives are being scarred and we are not protecting those who we promised to protect. Please don’t say or even think that it doesn’t happen. 1 out of every 4 girls and 1 out of every 6 boys will be exposed to a form of sexual abuse, in our schools, in our churches, in our community programs its happening… that’s where it happening. We make ourselves vulnerable in terms of our need for volunteers and our casual attitudes because of this, kids are getting hurt on our watch. As a church and the body of Christ we need to do all we can by consistently protecting them.
TO DO THIS WEEK
Re-read your church Plan to Protect Policy. Use a yellow highlighter to indicate all the areas where you may not be following the policy. Use another color to indicate the policy that you would like to see revised or removed with proper approval. Create an action plan, involving the people required to ensure that you are seriously looking at and actioning the negligence discovered. Take the time, its better to discover your action items now then have an insurance company point them out when you are attempting to have them cover you for the millions of dollars in a lawsuit!
Have a great week serving Him
Pam
Children's Ministries Director
Western Ontario District P.A.O.C.
Office 905.637.5566 x206
Home Office: 905.476.0053
Cell: 905.467.7288