Child Protection - Youth Workin' It

How To Deal With Unacceptable Behavior At A Youth Retreat

January 29, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

Q: The last time I planned a youth retreat, we had a young person who had completely unacceptable behavior throughout the weekend. It disrupted the entire event, but he had to remain at the retreat center as we didn’t have enough volunteers to take him home and his parents wouldn’t come to pick him up.

What’s the best thing to do if something like this ever happens again?

A: It’s always a shame when one young person spoils things for the whole youth group. There are two steps you can take though to help ensure that if this does happen again, you can deal with it effectively.

1. Have A Youth Behavior Policy In Place

I’m not sure if you already have a youth behavior policy – if not, get one put in place for the retreat ASAP. This would detail some examples of unacceptable behavior so that both your youth and their parents know what’s expected of them.

You’re not going to be able to put together an exhaustive list, but some rules that you may wish to include would be things like:

No alcohol or drugs
Boys aren’t allowed in girls’ rooms and vice versa
No pornography
No weapons
No violence

This policy should be provided to both the young people and their parents, also giving an idea of what consequences can be expected. Some behaviors may have a zero tolerance policy, so discovering a weapon would have an automatic consequence of the youth being sent home.

Other behaviors may result in warnings, such as a verbal warning, then a reminder warning, then being sent home. This gives the young person an opportunity to correct their behavior and shows that you’re fair in how you deal with situations.

Read this post for more ideas on how to deal with youth behavior and putting the policy in place. In particular, make sure both the young people and their parents sign an agreement to the behavior policy in advance of the youth retreat. This means they know for certain what will and won’t be accepted.

2. Have A Youth Removal Team

As you mentioned in your question, you had no way of taking the young person home following their unacceptable behavior. It can be hard getting enough volunteers to help with a youth retreat in the first place, so you often can’t spare any to take a young person home, particularly as this might mean that you’d have unsafe ratios.

The solution to this problem is to have a youth removal team in place beforehand. This would consist of two or three volunteers who aren’t at the retreat, but who are on call to come to the retreat center in the event that you need them to take a young person home.

For child protection, we’d recommend having two people take the young person home, at least one of which should be the same sex as the youth.

Having this team in place will help ensure that there is minimal disruption to the youth retreat and means that the rest of your youth group don’t miss out on an exciting weekend due to the behavior of just one person.

Question: Have you ever had to send a young person home from a youth retreat due to their behavior? How did you deal with it? We’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below.

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How To Put In Place A Child Protection System For Your Organization

October 17, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

It’s always been important to have a child protection system put in place at your organization, whether you’re a youth worker in a church, school, non-profit or anywhere else.

This has taken on even more importance recently, following the high profile cases of Jerry Sandusky in the US and Jimmy Savile in the UK.

This week’s Best Of Youth Workin’ It therefore looks at ways that you can put in place a child protection system for the safety of your young people, as well as for the protection of yourself and your volunteers.

1. Adult To Youth Ratios – One of the basics of child protection is ensuring that you have adequate ratios of volunteers to young people. This post looks at what kind of ratios are best practice and provides three reasons why this is so important.

2. 4 Steps You Can Take To Promote Child Protection – This post has four important steps that you can put in place to make sure that the youth in your care are kept safe.

3. How To Handle Disclosures Of Abuse – Dealing with something as serious as child abuse can catch you off guard, so it’s vital to know in advance how to handle disclosures of this kind. This post looks at how to handle this situation, whether the abuse is alleged against one of your volunteers or someone completely unconnected with your youth programs (e.g. parents).

4. What Should I Do With A Volunteer Who Had A Relationship With A Young Person – Carrying on from the previous post, this gives more specific advice on how to deal with volunteers that have an inappropriate relationship with a young person.

5. You Gave Your Teens What?! – This was one of the earliest posts on the Youth Workin’ It blog and looks at one way of ensuring that you maintain appropriate boundaries with your youth.

6. Stop Giving Youth TMI – This post also looks at how to have appropriate boundaries with young people, particularly in this new era of social media where it’s easier than ever for lines to get blurred between professional and personal relationships.

Question: What tips do you have for putting in place a child protection system for your organization? We’d love to hear your advice in the comments below.

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Adult To Youth Ratios – Youth Work Q & A

January 24, 2012 By Shae Pepper 2 Comments

Q: What should be the adult to youth ratios used in youth work programs?

A: The best advice I have is to check the child protection policy of your organization. Youth work organizations will often have a minimum amount of workers expected to be present with youth, expressed in the form of an adult to youth ratio.

Most of the ratios provided by other agencies refer to younger children. This is because younger children are particularly vulnerable and require more care and attention to their needs.

In the UK, the NSPCC recommends Ages 9 – 12: 1 adult to 8 children and Ages 13 – 18: 1 adult to 10 children. These are merely guidelines, however they are definitely what I recommend and have used as best practice in all of my youth work experiences.

10:1 is the maximum adult to youth ratio that I will work with when older youth are involved. There are a few reasons for this:

Safety – If youth are playing games and doing activities, there is always a greater risk for harm than just sitting and listening to a speaker. Having someone else there will allow for control of the group and first aid to be administered in an emergency.
Child protection issues – You need to protect yourself and your youth. By having extra adults around, you’re providing less opportunities for allegations to be made or abuse to occur.
Building relationships – You can’t possibly build relationships with 20 teenagers on any kind of level that matters, if all you’re able to do is crowd control. By having more adults, you’re allowing time for more interaction with all the youth present.

Another issue to consider when deciding on adult to youth ratios is whether your youth group is mixed gender. While one leader may be appropriate for up to 10 youth of the same gender, young men and women have different needs. Therefore, whenever the group is mixed I recommend having two adults (one male and one female) for the program.

Unfortunately, for both the UK and US the information provided (with the exception of the NSPCC) relates to daycare and small children. If you’re working with children younger than 10 in the US, check out the state licensing standards for your state.

Remember – what’s most important is the safety of the youth in your care and yourself. Take the appropriate steps regarding adult to youth ratios to make sure everyone is protected.

Question: What adult to youth ratios do you use when working with young people? Let us know in the comments below.

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Youth Work Photo Release Form

November 23, 2011 By Shae Pepper Leave a Comment

When it comes to working with youth, there are a lot of permissions required. Permissions for trips, lock-ins, service trips, medical consent and photo release.

A photo release form is an easy document to create and will provide you with the protection you need so you can use youth photos safely and with their permission.

Three key pieces of information that you need on your photo release form:

The name and signature of the youth and the name and signature of their parent or guardian.
What the photos will be used for and where they will be used. Usually this is for youth program or event promotion and could include print and online sources.
The types of permission being allowed. You can use a catch-all authorizing use in all media/print for your organization or you can provide tick-boxes indicating which forms of media the pictures are allowed for, such as Facebook, blogs, leaflets, flyers, websites, etc.

Here is an example photo release to get you started.

Question: What sorts of events do you need a photo release for in your organization? Let us know in the comments below.

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How To Handle Disclosures Of Abuse

November 22, 2011 By Shae Pepper Leave a Comment

Q: What should I do if a youth tells me they’ve been abused?

A: You may find yourself in a situation where the rules you and your organization have about confidentiality may no longer apply. When a youth discloses about abuse to you, you have an obligation (both legal and moral in my opinion) to tell someone about what happened.

As a youth worker, or youth work volunteer, it’s your role to advocate for the youth in your care and give them the best possible chance in their lives. This includes keeping them safe.

One of the best things you can do is to know your organization’s guidelines, policies and procedures on how to handle disclosures of abuse. If your organization doesn’t have those in place, this is your first opportunity for advocacy. It will help provide support for you, your volunteers and the youth you work with.

When a disclosure happens – or is about to – remember the following:

Remind the youth that you will have to tell someone. If they’re asking you to keep a secret, you need to remember your professional boundaries and prepare the youth that you may need to tell someone about what you’re told. This is not to discourage them from sharing but it will help your relationship with them, as they will (hopefully) not feel betrayed when you tell the appropriate members of staff and/or law enforcement about the disclosure.
Do not look shocked. No matter what any youth tells you, do not look shocked, nervous, upset or angry. These may be involuntary body language reactions to the allegations of abuse you might be hearing, but you need to work hard to keep your composure. By reacting, you may project feelings of disapproval onto the youth, instead of about the incident, leaving the youth that is disclosing with feelings of shame. You also might inadvertently stop the disclosure as the youth feels uncomfortable talking any more.
Remember details without taking notes. Do your best to absorb as much information during a disclosure as possible without sitting there writing down notes. While it may seem like an important step to ensure you get all the details correct, you may stop the disclosure which is the last thing you want. It may have taken years for a youth to build up the courage to share about their abuse; by stopping them to grab a paper and pen, you might cause them to rethink their decision. Listen carefully and at your first opportunity make notes about the incident.
Do not ask leading questions. Encourage the youth to share information without asking leading questions that may hinder any further legal action. ‘Can you tell me about what happened?’ is a better question than ‘Did they do ‘x’ to you?’ Just let them share their story.
Do not decide if what you have heard is abuse or not. Your role in a disclosure is to report. Allow the police or other law enforcement officials to determine if actual abuse took place. Take your youth seriously, do not rely on past patterns of distrustful behavior, and follow your organization’s policies and procedures about what to do in the case of abuse disclosure.
Be prepared to advocate for your youth, even if your organization will not. As a mandatory reporter, it’s your role to move up the ranks in your organization to ensure the proper steps are taken to report and end the abuse. If you believe abuse happened and the management or administration at your organization do not do anything with that information, you then have the responsibility to go to law enforcement officials yourself.

Abuse of a youth, or their friends or family or by a youth is a serious matter. Disclosing about abuse will be a painful process, but if handled correctly, you have the opportunity to make it a little bit easier

Question: What advice would you give about how to handle abuse disclosures by youth? Please share your thoughts on best practice in the comments below.

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