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Safe Sanctuaries is the title of the guidebook to “Reducing the Risk of Child Abuse in the Church” written by United Methodist deacon and lawyer Joy Thornburg Melton and published by Discipleship Resources in 1998. “Safe Sanctuaries” is the name commonly given by local United Methodist Annual Conferences and local churches to their individual efforts to make conference and local church programs both welcoming and safe for children.
Is there a set standard of care that local churches must follow?
Although Safe Sanctuaries is a guide published to help local congregations in planning, Safe Sanctuaries, Discipleship Resources, The United Methodist Church, and the Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church which maintains this website are not engaged in legal, accounting, or other professional advising services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a professional advisor should be sought. Safe Sanctuaries does not establish a standard of care for churches. Each local church makes its own decisions and determines what is best for it. Safe Sanctuaries and this website of the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church are intended only to provide information that may be helpful to churches.
Why conduct background checks and interviews of existing employees and volunteers?
Implementing a child protection policy across every church ministry and with every staff member or volunteer who has regular and direct contact with children sets a uniform standard. It demonstrates that background checks are not targeted or random. Uniformity of treatment helps guard against any misunderstanding or resentment that might otherwise arise.
That depends. For example, you need to do a physical facilities review for child safety and protection. This may include installing windows in doors to classrooms and offices, an integrated fire alarm and smoke detector system and emergency lighting, and window guards in classrooms for small children. Costs will vary according to your facility’s size and configuration. There is also the expense of doing State Police checks and PA Child Protection Service Agency clearances. Currently, each of these clearances costs $10. Safe Sanctuaries manuals are reasonably priced at Cokesburg and are also available from District Offices.
What if you find these expenses difficult to manage?
It is likely that you will not be able to make all of the improvements to your physical facility at one time. Instead, you may need to create a ranking of these improvements in terms of highest risk to children and begin there. It may take you several years to accomplish all the projects. For example, you might budget for one project a year. You might consider asking persons to donate to these projects, ask volunteers to fund the cost of their own clearances, or conduct a comprehensive “Safe Sanctuaries” fundraising campaign emphasizing the need to make your church a safe and welcoming place for all of God’s children.
What training resources does the Central PA Conference of the United Methodist Church make available to local churches?
In 2002, the author of Safe Sanctuaries, Joy Thornberg Melton, provided training in three locations in the CPC. She is also currently scheduled for four more sessions. An edited videotape of her presentation that follows the order of topics in the Safe Sanctuaries guide is available from the CPC.
Where can we access sample forms and documents?
What if we encounter difficulty or have questions in implementing a “Safe Sanctuaries” policy and program in our congregation?
You may refer any questions to Karen Nick at knick@cpcumc.org or Tom Salsgiver at tom@cpcumc.org
Who will handle the administration of a Safe Sanctuaries policy in the local church?
The Administrative Council will assign someone to be responsible to administer the policy. This can be a paid staff member or a volunteer. The Staff person is accountable to the Staff-Parish Relations Committee. The Volunteer is accountable to the Administrative Council. The policy administrator is responsible to give an annual report to their supervisor.
When two United Methodist church youth groups join together in a retreat off-campus, must each group provide their own Safe Sanctuaries compliant chaperones or can they join together to come up with the correct ratios of men & women chaperones?
The two groups can combine chaperones to produce the requisite #. Even if all the chaperones were from one of the sponsoring churches, that would be ok as long as there were enough --and all the chaperones were Safe Sanctuary compliant . (It might help churches hindered by the lack of sufficient willing, compliant chaperones to offer events like this to their youth.)
How can we promote awareness of our church's Safe Sanctuaries program?
One way to promote child protection awareness at your church is create a banner(s) to display in you children's ministry area reminding people of your local church's policy and its implementation. A stand-alone display or bulletin board or a booth at your annual ministries fair is another idea. Don't forget to ask your church newsletter's editor to include articles that you submit from time-to-time promoting your child protection program, highlighting children's safety issues and educating your readers about the needs of children in general. Click to See Photo
How should we handle a situation in which a child makes sexually suggestive remarks to another child? The explicitness of the remarks cause us to suspect the possibility of abuse.
After consulting Childline, we were told that statements made to another peer (under age 14) do not constitute Child Abuse and are not the jurisdiction of Childline.
Two plans of actions were suggested by Childline..
1. Talk to the parents of Child A (who made the remarks) and talk to the parents of Child B (to whom the remarks were made).
2. Make a report Childline who will give the report to Children and Youth Services.
What we learned.
1. Take careful notes of each conversation. Keep in an Incident File forever.
2. Bring in the parents of Child A and Child B separately. Consider carefully before even thinking of bringing the two families together. It can end up in a blame game. No my child didn’t say that and yes, your child did. Nobody wins.
3. Offer education (such as the YWCA Body Rights Program) to the children and offer assistance to each parent (give the name and telephone number of an education specialist at the YWCA). Suggest ways each parent can speak to their child about this sensitive issue.
4. Affirm that everyone is a truth-teller and everyone is innocent.
5. Involve persons only on a need-to-know basis. (such as Sunday School teacher, Children’s minister, Safe Sanctuaries minister, pastor).
6. Do not assign blame. Only state the facts to each family.
7. Expect each family to have many different emotions, from disbelief, to anger, and frustration. Affirm their right to have these feelings.
8. Assure parents that you will work with them to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
9. Help parents understand how important it is to keep the lines of communication open with their children. There shouldn’t be anything their child can’t tell them.
10. Help parents understand that abuse can happen to any child at any time. Vigilance and open communication are important.
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