View all Best Practices

Select A Best Practice to View:

  • 1. Form a Child Safety Committee
  • 2. Create Opportunities for Community Dialogue
  • 3. Screen Employees and Volunteers
  • 4. Assess your Space
  • 5. Implement Guidelines for Interacting with Youth
  • 6. Train Adults
  • 7. Support Victim-Survivors
  • 8. Develop Protocols for Responding
  • 9. Empower Youth
  • 10. Maintain & Evaluate your Child Safety Program

Screen Employees and Volunteers

אֵיזֶהוּ חָכָם?  הָרוֹאֶה אֶת הַנּוֹלָד

Who is wise? One who foresees the future consequences of one’s acts. (Babylonian Talmud Tamid 32a)

Why Screen Employees and Volunteers?

Best Practice 3: Screen Employees and Volunteers focuses on screening practices recommended for youth-serving organizations. This Best Practice is rooted in the Talmudic maxim describing a wise person as one who foresees the future consequences of their actions; the work is designed to help you develop a level of proactive vision as a central component to welcoming new adults into your organization’s team. Although your organization may already have a screening process, this step will help you incorporate questions about child safety into the written application, interviews, reference checks, observations, and background checks. Through video simulations, worksheets, guides, and more, you will be introduced to these five steps of the hiring and screening process as a way to assess candidates and identify red flags. You’ll learn helpful follow-up questions and next steps.

In addition, since youth-serving organizations tend to engage children and teens in a variety of settings, whether inside a building, on field trips, in the homes of community members, or elsewhere, this Best Practice expands to include volunteers, additional employees with access to children, hosts, contractors, and individuals in roles specific to your organization.

Screening Employees and Volunteers Includes the Following Steps:

  • Goal

    1

    Learn about Screening
  • Goal

    2

    Create a Screening Plan
  • Goal

    3

    Implement Screening Measures

Tools to Guide You in Implementation:

  •  
    Pre-Practice Survey
    Survey
  •  
    Guide: Screening Overview
    Guide
  •  
    Guide: Screening Principles
    Guide
  •  
    Worksheet: Whom Should We Screen?
    Worksheet
  •  
    Sample Screening Requirements
    Sample
  •  
    Guide: Written Materials
    Guide
  •  
    Guide: Interviews and References
    Guide
  •  
    Training Videos: Simulated Interviews
    Video
  •  
    Worksheet: Simulated Interviews
    Worksheet
  •  
    Guide: Observations
    Guide
  •  
    Guide: Background Checks
    Guide
  •  
    Post-Practice Survey: Best Practice 3
    Survey

Join the Campaign Today.

By joining the Aleinu campaign you will receive access to our do-it-yourself toolkit containing resources for adopting and implementing best practices to ensure the safety of children in your care. Your YSO will join other organizations all working to implement two or more best practices each year over the next five years.

Join Now