Safe Environment

First Church provides a safe environment for its members by following procedures as outlined in the Personnel Manual.

First Church wishes to provide security and safety for all members, with particular emphasis on young people. It is the policy of First Church that volunteers, as defined below, as well as members of the staff (ordained or otherwise) must complete a questionnaire when dealing with young people and/or vulnerable adult members of First Church. These questionnaires will be kept confidential.

Volunteer Questionnaire Procedure

The following categories of staff and volunteers must fill out the questionnaire:

• All teachers who work with children in church school or work with disabled adults.
• All adult leaders of youth retreats, family camp or other outings.
• All van drivers.
• All full and part-time church staff, except exempted nursery school staff.
• All volunteers on ministries or committees who have unsupervised direct responsibility for, or contact, with children, youth or disabled adults.

The following categories of staff and volunteers will be exempted from the questionnaire:

• All full and part-time nursery school staff who have been approved by the State of Conn.
• All church volunteers who serve on ministries or committees who do not have direct responsibility for, or contact with, children, youth or disabled adults.
• All volunteers for one time special events which are supervised by one or more approved volunteers.

The form should be returned to the Business Manager. If the form has not been received within 30 days of the receipt of the form by an individual who has assumed the responsibilities of working with these children, youth and/or vulnerable adults, the chair of the appropriate ministry or the Senior Pastor will follow up. In the unlikely event that the appropriate ministry or committee chair or pastor finds the volunteer to be uncooperative or unacceptable for the specific type of volunteer work involved, that person will be offered the opportunity to be reassigned to work which is supervised.

The individual’s privacy will be respected and protected. The individual has the right to appeal the decision to the Church Council or a subcommittee thereof. All written information developed during this process and all results will be kept by the Business Manager in a confidential file for five years. Such information will be available only to the Senior Pastor, the Moderator, the Senior Deacon and the individual involved.

If the Personnel Committee agrees that the individual is not acceptable for the type of work involved, the matter will be communicated to the Senior Pastor, the Moderator, and the Senior Deacon. The Personnel Committee may recommend to the Church Council that the individual’s participation in the activity be limited or prohibited.