Written policies are essential to effective sexual abuse risk management. They help communicate your commitment to abuse prevention to your employees, volunteers, consumers, and the community at large. Additionally, these policies define acceptable behavior within the organization—what is permitted between your staff and youth or vulnerable adults and what is not.
You must ensure your policies are appropriate for the nature of your programming. Praesidium’s policy analysis reviews your organization’s written policies and compares them to best practices and proper abuse prevention standards. The policy analysis also reviews supporting documents to ensure nothing written contradicts your overall abuse prevention efforts.
Does your policy state that you do not accept anonymous reports? Do you only require one reference in your screening process?
Our model policies help to establish clear expectations for creating safe environments and outline acceptable and unacceptable behavior for employees and volunteers.
Policies and procedures addressing professional ethics/boundaries/interactions with clients may be contained in employee or volunteer handbooks, Codes of Conduct, and disciplinary or de-escalation materials. They may address physical interactions, verbal discussions, and self-disclosure, whether team members can be alone with one client and how to manage those interactions, electronic communications or social media, and favoritism or gifts.
Ensure that your organization's expectations are clear - Download Praesidium's Model Policies today!
Copyright Praesidium 2024| The information contained herein is for educational purposes to assist in the prevention of organizational abuse. However, it must be noted that no system can guarantee prevention of abuse. This information is not legal advice, either expressed or implied. Consultation with qualified legal counsel is recommended. This information is provided “As Is” without warranty, express or implied. The reader assumes all risk for reliance thereon.
