Youth & Family Ministries

Dear Members and Friends,

At this month’s meeting, our Church Council took a tremendous step forward regarding the safety of Zion and its youth.  The Council agreed to team up with Plan to Protect, a company that is dedicated entirely to organizations adopting and maintaining the most up to date safety training, policies, and procedures.

I think we can all agree that we value the safety of our students and our volunteers. That part seems like a no-brainer.  We want everyone to be safe at church, right? The tougher part is implementing and following the new standards of safety.  In the near future, Zion will start training on safety policies and procedures.  Every volunteer who works directly with our students (teachers, shepherds, adult leaders, etc.) will be required to participate in the training and will need to agree to abide by the new policies for student safety.  There is a great possibility that our volunteers will also be required to submit to a background check as well.

Now I know what you may be thinking … “background checks?  Mandatory training? I ’m not doing all of that!  It doesn’t seem worth the effort!  Sorry Miss Courtney, but I’m out!”  Wait! Before you jump to those thoughts let me explain a few things.

If we think of the new child safety measures being put in place as a ministry to our families, and not a bunch of barriers, we can start to see the big picture.  As a volunteer, you may be thinking that all of this seems unnecessary – after all, Zion is fortunate that nothing bad has happened in the past. However, in the case of child endangerment, it is much smarter for us to be proactive than reactive.  We want to take measures to prevent the possibility of abuse from ever occurring under our watch.

A policy and training will help keep not only our students safer, but also our volunteers.  Volunteers will know how to handle certain situations and be able to identify when a student is being hurt, harming themselves, or hurting others.  With training and safety standards, parents can rely on the fact that their children are in the care of trained caregivers.  Parents will also be able to take part in the training, to better help their children and our volunteers.

Our partnership with Plan to Protect is not intended to make our volunteers jump through a bunch of hoops.  We are so appreciative of the men and women who step forward to help teach our students.  Instead, Plan to Protect is being introduced to the congregation as a commitment to our families that we care about our children and value the service our volunteers provide. 

I encourage everyone in the congregation to attend a training class when they are made available.  The information shared during these events is absolutely life-changing to a child who is vulnerable to being hurt.  Parents, grandparents, volunteers, and even our older students (high school) are invited to participate in this ministry.  I encourage you to open your hearts and your minds.  Please think not of the new ‘obstacles’ a volunteer must ‘pass’, but of the new opportunity to prevent harm to the most vulnerable members of our congregation.  I applaud Zion and our ability to adapt and change in the face of our every changing world.  Together, we are working to better ourselves and our community.

With great appreciation,

Miss Courtney