Youth ministry is risky business

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Youth workers have known it for years. Working for the church is risky business--on many levels.

Think for a moment about what can go wrong when you're with youth in or outside of your church. Every threat you just imagined is a risk. The good news is that most of them can be managed.

Risk management probably isn't in your job description, but it may be one of the most important jobs you do. In youth ministry, there is nothing more crucial than the health and safety of young people. Often the success of an event or trip is measured this way: No one got hurt. Or, if someone did get hurt (as so often happens during youth events and trips), it was handled well.

This Help Sheet will focus on the business of risk. Risk management is not just looking for trouble, it's looking for solutions that can make your church/youth group more effective. Risk management leads you to consider the potential down sides of apparently good ideas.

In their book, No Surprises, controlling risks in volunteer programs, Charles Tremper and Gwynne Kostin suggest a five-step process for risk management.

Step 1: Look for risks

Learn to look at your activities critically, being honest about what you see.

This is the most difficult and frightening step in the risk management process because it causes us to acknowledge the reality of risk. A risk is anything from serving food that may be contaminated to youth adventure trips that may be dangerous.

Each time you plan an event, take time to do a risk evaluation. When possible, visit the site of your activities, looking for risks and barriers. Ask yourself these questions:

• What and who is at risk?
• What could go wrong and how will those situations be addressed?
• Do the employees and volunteers possess the skills and judgment necessary to perform the tasks they are assigned?
• What local, state and federal laws impact the activity and have we complied with them?

Your church's insurance company may have a checklist that will assist you in this assessment. If not, create one and keep it on file as evidence that you made an attempt to be proactive.

Step 2: Evaluate your risks

After you have listed all of the potential risks, evaluate them in light of your mission.

Each organization has its own level of comfort with risks and its own aversion to known risks. For instance, while some youth ministries focus on trips and adventure programing, others may steer clear of taking youth beyond church walls. Be aware that traveling internationally brings an additional set of concerns of which you should be aware.

Ask yourself:

• Which risks can be tolerated?
• Which risks require the purchase of insurance?
• Which risks can be reduced or controlled?
• Which risks are too great to bear?

Involve other church leadership in answering these questions, especially those who understand both risk and the high-energy needs of the youth culture. Often, churches have lawyers on their membership rolls or a church insurance lawyer who may be contacted.

Step 3: Decide how to control your risks

With your risk assessment in place, determine how you will control the risks. Tremper and Kostin suggest these four options:

1. Avoid danger

   Don't do something that is beyond reasonable risk. If you have to contact Lloyds of London to get insurance, it may be too risky.

2. Modify activity

   Reduce the chances of harm and property damage by taking precautions at every point of your activity. This may mean that you alter your activity slightly, but you will maintain your integrity with sponsors, insurers and participants. The view may be better at the mountain summit, but it may also be breathtaking from part way up.

3. Transfer responsibility

   What used to happen with a handshake now often requires a contract. This is not all bad. Contracting for services shifts responsibility from your church to the service provider. For instance, hire a bus service or caterer instead of taking on those responsibilities to save money. Purchasing insurance also minimizes your risk. It may not reduce your risk, but it reduces liability.

4. Retain risks

   Sometimes you choose to "just do it." In those cases, make sure you are prepared for the consequences. We must accept some risks to accomplish anything in life.

Step 4: Implement your strategy

Implementing a new risk management program may meet with resistance, especially among volunteers.

What have been acceptable practices and behaviors may no longer be tolerated. Volunteers may no longer say only "yes" to the invitation to ministry, but may have to undergo more scrutiny than in the past. Carefully plan how you will introduce your new program to the church council and/or congregation and proceed with compassion and patience.

Remember that youth ministry isn't the only program in the church that needs review. Be as broad-based as possible, involving people and programs where risk exists. Implement a training program that includes all volunteers, making expectations for their role in risk management clear. Risks can include physical, sexual and emotional abuse or other dangerous situations which could result in harm.

Consider these programs/positions that involve children, youth and adults:

• Sunday school and Vacation Bible School teachers
• nursery attendants
• confirmation teachers and mentors
• choir directors
• scout leaders
• church day care
• Stephen Ministries or Befriender programs
• senior citizen programs
• volunteer maintenance committees
• bus drivers

Step 5: Review and revise regularly

Risk management plans should be reviewed when situations warrant review, and on an annual basis. Give the responsibility for review to those who wrote the plan and who are responsible for its implementation, including your insurance provider, a lawyer and other professionals.

Emergency procedures

Make emergency procedures a priority item in designing a risk management program. Staff and other adults should know the plan for handling specific emergency situations, such as:

• a personal injury
• a severe storm, fire and flood
• lost or runaway young people

The plan should include these and other details:

• who is responsible for coordinating an emergency response
• accessible emergency phone numbers
• health history and permission-to-treat forms
• first aid kits
• first aid training and rehearsal

Recruitment and screening

Because of youth ministry's reliance on volunteers, your risk management plan should include a volunteer policies and procedures manual. Start by defining the volunteer. What we normally think of as a volunteer may actually be called a "gratuitous employee," which carries different liabilities. Learn how your state legally defines a volunteer and then write a definition for your church. The pure volunteer is a rare person because of a narrow definition. Pure volunteers usually surface in a rescue or good neighbor situation and are seldom found working in a social service organization. An example from the Children's Home Society of Minnesota is:

A volunteer is one who
chooses to act in recognition
of a need, with an
attitude of social responsibility
and without concern for monetary profit.

Next, use these tools to reduce the risk of potential litigation:

• Write job descriptions. Job descriptions legally establish boundaries for volunteers and the church. Keep the descriptions simple, but make sure they are specific and measurable.
• Create an application form. Request information that will help you assess the volunteer's ability to perform the duties outlined in the job description. Include a personal interest inventory.

  If your church is large enough to have a volunteer coordinator on staff, this person may do an initial screening and you may conduct a more in-depth interview. In most cases, there will be just one interview. This is part of the process that may make people uncomfortable and even upset. Don't let that resistance keep you from doing it. Most volunteers who sincerely want to share their gifts and who care about a program will not mind the scrutiny if it is presented in a positive manner.

• Establish a file on each volunteer, into which will be placed all paperwork pertaining to the volunteer. Keep it in a secure location. This is considered confidential information.
• Design an assessment form to rate volunteers. Make sure the assessment form matches the job description and be consistent in recording ratings and responses.
• While it may not be easy to do so, request character references. Written references may be followed up with a telephone call, especially if questions arise. You may also want to consult your state and local policies regarding criminal background checks. These are becoming standard operating procedure in organizations in which volunteers are working directly with youth and vulnerable adults.
• Before asking volunteers to commit to a task, make sure they know what you expect from them and what they can expect from you. Volunteers should expect you to support them through regular communication, clearly defined supervision, performance appraisals and ongoing training. Under the law, they have the right to work in a reasonably safe environment and within their job description.
• Open the lines of communication by outlining expectations at a mandatory training and orientation session for volunteers. Provide as much information as possible in writing. Should you ever have to legally defend yourself, written records are helpful. Record significant information in your volunteer's file.
• Request an evaluation from each volunteer following an event or series of events. This will help you be a good steward of your people resources, as well as increase the effectiveness of your activities. Evaluations, job descriptions and all other related paperwork also communicate to volunteers the importance of their position.

Are you exhausted? You're probably thinking, "I wasn't hired to provide this level of sophisticated administration." This brings you to the first risk you encounter: asking your church to recognize the importance of this work and then providing you with the resources to do it. Can you or they afford not to?

For more information, contact the Nonprofit Risk Management Center
1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036
202-785-3891 or
fax 202-833-5747

Contributed by Heidi Hagstrom, Director for the ELCA Youth Gathering.
Chicago, IL

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Permission to reproduce for local use. Copyright © 2000 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. ELCA Youth Ministries. 1-800-638-3522, ext. 2447.