Sexual Abuse Risk – An Effective Safety System
Southeastern District LCMS – November 29, 2021
*Presented by Gregory Love, JD. – Founder and Director of MinistrySafe
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A Complete Child Sexual Abuse Safety System
Sexual Abuse Awareness Training
Ability to add Church-Specific Training Content
Background Checks and Training in Use
Skillful Screening Process - Forms and Training
Program-Specific Safety Policies
Editable Screening Document Templates
Onboarding and Support
Bulk User Imports
Tiered Administrative Access
District-Wide Reporting Tools
Protect children in your ministry from sexual abuse
USED BY LUTHERAN CHURCHES NATIONWIDE
We are grateful for the resources MinistrySafe provides for our schools to increase awareness and provide training to better protect our students. As a volunteer at my children’s Lutheran school, I was able to go through the training from a parent’s point of view, and it was extremely beneficial. It is something all our congregations/schools throughout the LCMS should include in the orientation of staff and volunteers. And the individuals at MinistrySafe are great to work with… don’t hesitate to reach out to them!
In our broken world, children are threatened on all sides. MinistrySafe helps organizations reduce the risk from those threats by thoroughly training organizations to see threats that may be in their midst as well as those seeking to use our organizations to prey on children. Few things are more vital than soberly examining how we protect our children from these predators. The Cleveland Lutheran High School Association readily recommends the trainings offered by MinistrySafe and their processes for implementing best practices to keep the safety of students at the front of our minds and at the center of our actions.
I appreciate the tools provided to our North WI District schools through MinistrySafe. Greg’s passion for keeping kids safe has provided a price point that makes sense for ministries of any size to train staff and volunteers. I am hopeful we can continue to expand the use of MinstrySafe throughout our North WI District schools and churches.
APPROVED BY MAJOR INSURANCE ENTITIES
We can’t reduce a risk that we don’t understand.
The single most important step a ministry can take to protect children from sexual abuse is to train ministry workers to understand the problem. When staff members and volunteers have an awareness of the basic characteristics of the sexual abuser, the process by which an abuser selects and prepares a child for abuse, and key indicators of abuse, they are better equipped to recognize and prevent abuse in ministry programs.
Keeping the wolf out of the sheep pen.
The Skillful Screening Process encourages an applicant with inappropriate motives to ‘self-select out’ of employee or volunteer pools by utilizing forms and processes meant to elicit a high-risk response. Skillful screening helps intake coordinators and interviewers recognize high-risk responses on applications, reference forms, or during an interview.
Rooted in the ‘grooming process’ of the offender.
Policies should be rooted in the grooming process of the preferential offender to be truly effective at preventing child sexual abuse. Policies must be succinct, understandable and tailored to ministry programs. Remember, policies are what you do, not what you say you do.
Necessary, but NOT a stand-alone screening tool.
Criminal background checks are no ‘silver bullet’ because more than 90% of sexual abusers have no criminal record to find, and they know it. Notwithstanding this reality, background checks have become a child-serving standard of care. In addition, STAIR STEP, GROOMING and PLEA-DOWN offenses are common, and should be known to ministry screeners.
Ensuring ongoing child protection compliance.
Preventing sexual abuse requires a cohesive system of checks and balances designed to operate with efficiency and consistency.
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*Though Gregory Love and Kimberlee Norris are attorneys, the information and Training provided
by MinistrySafe is not intended as legal advice and should not be relied upon as legal counsel.