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Energizing and Equipping Local Churches
in Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World
Safe Sanctuaries
The Central Texas Conference voted in 2005 that each local church in the Central Texas Conference must have in place a SAFE SANCTUARY ABUSE PREVENTION POLICY no later than May 1, 2006. The policy must be maintained in an easily-accessible location within the local church and available for review by district or conference personnel if requested. A link to a model local churches may use in preparing their individual abuse prevention policy is listed below.
In addition, local churches should be intentional to train all persons who have contact and leadership with children and youth about their policy and safe sanctuary guidelines and procedures. It is recommended that this training be offered every year to insure that new persons receive the training and to remind experienced teachers about all the issues and reporting protocol. A recommended resource for developing/updating your policy is “Safe Sanctuaries: Reducing the Risk of Abuse in the Church for Children and Youth” by Joy Thornburg Melton and can be ordered from Cokesbury stores at (www.cokesbury.com).
A resource for obtaining background screenings for volunteers with children and youth is LexisNexis. Through our partnership with LexisNexis, United Methodist churches in the Central Texas Conference can obtain background verification and other risk management tools – including identity verification, national criminal search and a 49-state sexual offender registry search. LexisNexis offers additional searches based on your needs, such as county criminal searches, driver license verification, credit reports, education or employment verification. To read more about the services visit www.volunteerselectplus.com.
If you would like to sign your church up with Lexis Nexis, please contact the following and mention that you are affiliated with the Central Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. For the most accurate results on your background checks, you should run both the national criminal history and the address verification.
Lexis Nexis contact information:
April Anderson
2600 Thousand Oaks Blvd, Memphis TN 38188
866/432-7241 ext.122
Scott Childers
651/437-3372
Safe Sanctuaries, Conference Abuse Prevention Policy in Spanish
Safe Sanctuaries, Local Church Model Policy
For questions or concerns, contact:
Rev. Dawne Phillips
Director of Missions, Central Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church
464 Bailey Avenue, Fort Worth, Texas 76107-2153
800/460-8622
817/877-5222
817/338-4541 (fax)