JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention (ECAP) is saying that it’ll launch its Child Safety Accreditation Program for Christian ministries that serve youngsters on January 9th, 2023.
ECAP was created in 2019 to offer heightened consciousness, accreditation, and extra sources as a way to assist Christian organizations that serve children shield the susceptible in ministry.
Accreditation is an unbiased strategy of compliance verification that determines if a corporation meets outlined security requirements. ECAP awards accreditation to ministries that reveal compliance with Child Safety Standards by a strategy of audit and assessment. The Accreditation Program assists ministry leaders by validating compliance with Requirements that describe the weather of a Little one Safety Program (CPP) that ought to be in place to forestall abuse. The accreditation course of builds layers of safety, leading to peace of thoughts for leaders, dad and mom, and different ministry stakeholders.
Following the mannequin of ministries such because the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) and the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), ECAP hopes to normalize little one safety in ministry, elevating the usual for Christian organizations and their accountability to care for youths.
“ECAP exists to deliver the very best from the world of security and danger administration to ministry leaders in a means that respects organizational autonomy and motivates leaders to tackle Christ’s name to take care of the susceptible and the least of those: youngsters,” mentioned Briggham Winkler, ECAP’s Basic Editor. “It’s our hope that ECAP membership might be a witness to the world, demonstrating God’s love for kids and declaring, ‘This group cares for the bodily and non secular well-being of youngsters.’”
In 2022, ECAP started the Constitution Section of its Accreditation Program, additional helping many organizations that are actually in numerous phases of the accreditation course of. ECAP has refined its course of to incorporate six primary steps: Utility, Self-Examine, Distant Evaluation, Validation Go to, Resolution, and Annual Renewal.
Together with the Program’s launch, ECAP will launch model 1.3 of its Little one Security Requirements with a number of clarifying updates, though the substance of the Requirements has remained the identical. ECAP’s Little one Security Requirements are divided into 5 classes: Governance, Little one Security Operations, Screening, Coaching, and Response.
In keeping with Kevin White, chief working officer of Awana, the launch of ECAP’s Accreditation Program displays how “efficient little one discipleship begins with secure environments. We’re excited to see ECAP’s Accreditation Program launching, which can assist leaders and supply dad and mom with assurance that the ministry they belief with their children’ well-being prioritizes little one security.”
The aim of the Accreditation Program is to encourage each accountability and sustainability in little one safety for ministries that serve children. In keeping with Jennifer Greenberg, abuse survivor and creator of Not Forsaken: A Story of Life After Abuse, “What ECAP gives ministries is credibility. As a mom and little one abuse survivor, figuring out {that a} church has been accredited by an goal third get together provides me peace of thoughts. I do know they’re not simply operating background checks they usually’re not simply checking off bins to appease their insurance coverage supplier. They’re taking actual and proactive steps to keep up security requirements that honor God.”
Afshin Ziafat serves as lead pastor of Windfall Church in Frisco, Texas–ECAP’s first absolutely accredited constitution member. Pastor Ziafat has noticed, “Pastors are to shepherd the flock God has given them by feeding and caring for them in addition to defending them, particularly essentially the most susceptible. I’m so grateful for the providers of ECAP in serving to us create a secure atmosphere for our folks, particularly our youngsters and youth, to listen to the saving information of the Gospel. With the assistance of ECAP Little one Security Requirements, our safety is bigger than it has ever been. Our volunteers can concentrate on the duty at hand whereas being empowered to acknowledge and reply to indicators of abuse in the event that they come up. One other additional benefit of getting gone by the accreditation course of is that our youngsters’s ministry, youth ministry, and neighborhood teams ministry are extra aligned and conscious of our insurance policies, their duties, and learn how to deal with conditions than earlier than the accreditation course of. The ECAP accreditation course of will information these ministries for years to return.”
Alongside the Accreditation Program, ECAP is launching an Affiliate Member Program, which permits like-minded ministries and different nonprofit organizations to hitch them in creating secure ministry environments.
With the intention to assist ministries develop ECAP-compliant Little one Safety Applications, ECAP additionally hopes to start a grant program, particularly for organizations that want to offer for Little one Security, however lack the sources for improvement and implementation. You may assist help this grant here.
To be taught extra about ECAP’s accreditation course of or submit an utility, you’ll be able to go to ECAP’s Accreditation Page, or read an interview with Jeremy Herron, the director of Windfall Youngsters at Windfall Church. Extra resources and articles on Little one Security and Abuse Prevention could be discovered at ecap.net.
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Contact:
Briggham Winkler
Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention
[email protected]
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on this article are these of the authors and don’t essentially mirror the official coverage or place of Faith Information Service or Faith Information Basis.
