Safety

For The Children has served over 100,000 campers and mentees with over 125,000 volunteers since 1985. Our camps and mentoring clubs were designed to uniquely serve children who have been abused, abandoned, and neglected.

Our volunteers are drawn to serve some incredible children, they happened to be a vulnerable population who have already been hurt or wounded. FTC has enacted numerous policies and procedures to safely serve over 8,500 children per year with over 13,000 volunteers in over 200 locations. Although no one can give an absolute guarantee of safety, we are dedicated to making every FTC experience fun and safe.

We are encouraged that across our culture, youth serving organizations such as sports teams, school districts, day care centers, churches and camps are doing more than ever to create a safety system for children to thrive. With diligence and care, FTC will continue to work with each community for the safety and success of each child in our programs.

With that in mind, the FTC Child Protection Plan is extensive. It is designed to qualify eligible volunteers, identify inappropriate behavior, and limit the impact of abuse.

It includes, but is not limited to, the following:

National criminal background checks.
Written applications
30-minute interviews with volunteers
Initial and annual refresher training for all volunteers
Sexual abuse prevention training
Stringent policies and accountability designed to avoid private one-on-one situations
Age-appropriate information for the children about safety, personal boundaries and reporting
Training key leaders in screening and interview techniques
Educating all volunteers to report inappropriate or questionable behavior
Regularly updated training of leaders through National and Regional events
Regularly updated training materials provided for local volunteers
Working closely with Social Services to follow their protective policies and procedures in additional to those listed by FTC

Our goal is to make sure every child is safe and protected in our organization. We know that children are society’s most prized possessions, and we take our responsibility very seriously.

1 The Advocacy Center. "The Facts About Youth Sexual Abuse." Accessed February 21, 2014, www.theadvocacycenter.org