Australia Mission Centre Children’s Minister, Kass Unger, will be providing three online sessions of Child and Youth Protection Training this November/December. This is a requirement of all leaders in congregations, staff, priesthood members and those engaged in ministries for and with children and youth as part of the registered child and youth worker process. Even if you do not fall under one of these categories, we encourage all members to undertake the training to help create safe spaces for children and youth. While many people have completed similar training in their work lives, it is a requirement of every organization to have their own process for ensuring their volunteers are aware of child protection and the needs within their circumstances.
Child and youth protection training is a 90 minute course that can be completed in a live online Zoom session. The training sessions will be provided via Zoom on the following dates:
Tuesday 18th November 7.30-9pm
Thursday 27th November 7-8.30pm
Sunday 7th December 6-7.30pm
If you need to complete this training, please contact Kass Unger at (0450 015 277) or kunger@cofchrist.com.au and let her know which of the above dates you are able to attend.
Child and Youth Worker Registration Process
To work with children in Community of Christ, you need to be a registered child and youth worker. There are a number of steps in this process that are outlined below as well as a little of the timeline as some may be working with a deadline. The steps don’t have to be completed in this order, but there are some steps that will be held up by others:
Application form and declaration. This needs to be signed before a justice of the peace, so it can take a little longer than expected to complete. The originals must also be posted to Kass Unger at 12 Taylor St West Pennant Hills NSW 2125
Two references. These need to be completed by someone not related to you, that you have known for more than a year. These can either be collected and sent to Kass, or sent directly from the referees.
Complete the child and youth protection training discussed above. It takes about 90 minutes
Complete an interview with Kass. This mostly covers your experience (aka what experience do you have and what would be your strengths with children and youth) or to do with the training (what are some of the prevention strategies we put in place to reduce opportunities for child abuse to take place). It normally takes less than 5 minutes. This can be scheduled anytime after the training has been completed.
Working with children check/blue card/ teacher exemptions. Each state has its own process for a government child safety check. Some of you might already have this. I need a copy of it (or your details) so that we can verify it at our end. If you don’t have it, it is about 15 minutes online and a trip to verify your documentation. In NSW, that is Service NSW. For volunteers, it is free. This is a step that you can get started on right away. If you need, Kass can send the appropriate link for your area to get this started.
The last couple of steps are all backend and can’t be started until the first five steps are completed. They can take a couple of weeks, as it passes through a couple of sets of hands from leadership withing Australia and recording in Headquarters in the USA.