IB Launches Free Self-Assessment for Abuse Prevention Policy
IB Launches Free Self-Assessment for Abuse Prevention Policy
The Insurance Board (IB) is pleased to announce the launch of a new on-line, interactive, abuse prevention policy self-assessment. This is a free program aimed at assisting churches to develop and maintain an abuse prevention policy. All churches and related ministries of the United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ and Presbyterian Church (USA) may use the assessment.
“We know,” says Carl Kotheimer, Director of Loss Control & Claims for the IB, “that creating an abuse prevention policy is not easy. We know our churches need help getting started and recognizing all of the needed pieces.”
The assessment, available through a portal on the Insurance Board’s website, is scaled to the size of each congregation and its activities, and will permit churches to weigh an existing policy against specific criteria: policy statements; screening & selection; training; monitoring & supervision; internal feedback systems; consumer awareness; responding; and administrative practices.
Churches will also have an outline of the essentials on which they can address particular needs and engage leadership. The user-friendly tool is confidential and permits churches to partially complete the assessment, return and finish it, or edit your previous assessment.
“When the church completes the assessment, and then develops the policy,” says Kotheimer, “it will be their own, a policy the church can live every day, based on its choices and decisions with much needed guidance.”
The assessment was developed in partnership with Praesidium, Inc. Churches also have access to Praesidium’s training program, known as ARMATUS®, which offers churches the ability to teach their volunteers and employees best practices in preventing sexual abuse.
The IB website can be found at
www.InsuranceBoard.org and houses a wide variety of loss prevention resources for churches. Information on the new on-line self-assessment and the sexual abuse training program can be found under the “SafeConductTM Workbench” under the Safety Solutions menu.