Screening and Risk Management

This forum is for discussion of volunteer screening and other risk management strategies for youth mentoring programs.

Overnights - mentors & mentees

Posted Mon, 01/09/2012 - 12:47 by traininginstitute

Just had an inquiry from a program that is reviewing their policies regarding mentor/mentee overnights. They do allow overnights with signed consent from all involved and some other precautions. Anyone else out there allow mentors and mentees to have overnights together? If so, are you willing to share how you handle them or any written policies?
Thanks!

Checks in New York State

Posted Tue, 09/13/2011 - 06:51 by gesing5

For those agencies who are located in NY State what are you using to run checks on your mentors. Due to state regulations and since there is not a Legal Law Statute for mentoring organizations we are unable to conduct Fingerprints. We do run a Lexis Nexis check but were wondering with the end of Safety Net if we should do more. So please if you do more than a Lexis Nexis and are in NY State let us know what you do
Thanks
Amanda

Not sharing why mentor cannot be rematched

Posted Tue, 03/22/2011 - 10:38 by BNoonan

We have a mentor candidate that has recently applied to mentor with our program after several years of being engaged in a neighboring city's mentor program. We called this program because we were told by the candidate they would not rematch him after his recent mentee moved.The program stated it is their policy not to share why a mentor cannot be rematched.
This was an unexpected response. We are curious what advice others may have to offer given this scenario.

Ending of SafetyNet

Posted Fri, 03/04/2011 - 11:16 by Ken1947

Does anyone have an alternative method to use now that SafetyNet will possibly not be able to perform background checks? I understand the end date for SafetyNet will be March 11th (applications must be received in Alexandria Virginia by that date).

Red-Flags re: Number of Matches per Mentor

Posted Fri, 01/14/2011 - 10:25 by tammyvega

Would you consider it a red flag for a mentor to ask to be matched to 8 or 10 or more youth? He intends to meet with them individually, but we are concerned about matching him to too many youth at one time. What are your thoughts?

criteria for accepting mentee's into a mentor program

Posted Thu, 07/29/2010 - 06:07 by crawfordky22

I am working with a work group on starting a mentoring pilot in the state of KY for older youth in foster care who are about to age out of the system. We are trying to develop criteria for accepting referrals for youth wanting to be a mentee. Any suggestions of criteria for acceptance into the program and what priority this criteria should have would be greatly appreciated.

Screening

Posted Fri, 07/16/2010 - 09:22 by gesing5

WE have a potential mentor who does not want to give us his social security number. He did fill it out for the FBI fingerprint b/c we mail that out and do not keep it in house. In addition to the FBI fingerprint screening we conduct a internet baised screen on our mentors at their match anniversary every year to satisfy our funders.
Has anyone had instances where a potential mentor was leary or refused to give thier social security number? And what did you do in those instances?

Blacklists for youth-serving nonprofits

Posted Mon, 05/03/2010 - 10:44 by Michael Garringer

In the wake of the massive judgment against the Boy Scouts of America for negligence in a child abuse case, Youth today has posted a fascinating article looking at the viability of blacklists, listings of banned volunteers, for nonprofits serving young people. Such lists can be a way of mitigating problems with the typical criminal records and sex abuse registry checks that are now common practice at nonprofits.

MENTOR to host Webinar on Screening and Background Checks

Posted Thu, 04/29/2010 - 12:00 by Kristi Zappie-F...

MENTOR is pleased to join with Friends for Youth's Mentoring Institute to present a webinar on incorporating SafetyNET and SAFE Practices in Volunteer Programs on Thursday, May 6, 2010 from 1:00 - 2:30 pm, EST. Sarah Kremer, Program Director for Friends for Youth's Mentoring Institute, will discuss the research on the characteristics and behaviors of child molesters and highlight recommended tools, red flags, and monitoring processes.

Liability Release

Posted Tue, 04/27/2010 - 11:44 by communityconnections

I am interested in knowing what the typical policy mentoring programs operate under regarding liability releases. We have our mentee's families sign a release at the time of application, but also require one each time they participate in an activity. Is it necessary to have the duplication for each activity participating in?

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