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In reply to the discussion: So I have a story for you: [View all]wnylib
(21,447 posts)Several years ago I was a paid tutor for a church outreach program to help native Spanish speakers learn English. I worked with adults, so application and references were enough at that point.
But the church also had an after school latch key program for kids and a Big Brother/Big Sister program. They asked me to tutor a 7 year old girl who needed a lot of help learning to read. She was a native English speaker but came from a very dysfunctional family. The tutoring was at the church when many other people were present, so there still were not yet any additional screenings for me. But then the girl asked me to be her Big Sister when the one she was assigned to moved away.
At that point, I had to take a standardized psychological exam (don't recall the name of it) which was sent away for evaluation. Then there was a police and court background check for any criminal activity. I had to produce 4 character witnesses and go through a lengthy interview with the church's director of the children's program.
Only after the results of all the background checks, references, testing, and interviews was I allowed to have any one on one alone time with that child.
Most day care centers, schools, and church volunteer positions these days require a minimum of background checks and character witnesses. I don't know about youth pastors. I have had no experience with them since my church never had them. The church I grew up in had a youth group that was supervised by two sets of parents. (My parents were one of the sets.) The pastor dropped in on meetings from time to time, and attended social activities that we had outside of the church.