Next Steps

Maintenance of Your Program and Next Steps

Since you’ve made it to the end of this resource, you likely place a high value on child safety in your ministry. That’s an important piece of the puzzle, and we would love to help you build on that to design and implement Proactive Child Safety for the kids in your ministry.

Know going in: Making your ministry safe for kids takes more than just a one-time effort to write good policies. One of the main problems in child safety for ministries is maintenance. Ministry comes with a host of tasks and responsibilities; there are always more things to do than there is time in the day. So, how can a ministry take steps to ensure they will maintain a safe environment for kids?

Engage your Church Staff

Many well-meaning children’s ministry directors see the importance of child safety and want to change their practices, but they try to do it alone. If you want to implement lasting change that will transcend seasons in ministry, engage your church staff. They can help equip you with the resources you need, and their approval will specify clear goals. Getting your leadership on board will catalyze organizational change as the members of your church buy into the vision of child safety.

Encouarge Team Effort

After leadership buy-in, it is extremely important to ask others to join you in the writing and implementation of new policies and procedures. If you try to handle this alone, you will get stuck. Child safety is a collaborative effort. It is extremely important that you have different perspectives to help you see gaps in the Child Safety Program, as well as other people to encourage you to stay the course when the going gets tough.

Pursue Accreditation

We encourage you to pursue accreditation with ECAP. During the accreditation process your organization’s policies and practices are compared to ECAP’s objective: established Child Safety Standards to verify that your program is in compliance with those standards. Your first step is to apply. Once your application is approved, you will begin comparing your current policies with ECAP Standards; and with the help of our staff and additional resources, you will start bringing your organization into compliance.

Become an ECAP Accredited Member

By becoming an ECAP Accredited Member, you are prizing transparency and demonstrating to a watching world that you take child safety seriously. You get objective, quality evidence your ministry protects children, and the peace of mind that comes with knowing your organization is following Child Safety Standards developed by experts in the field.

You can review our Standards for free on the ECAP website. We also encourage you to visit ecap.net/start-here for next steps, where you’ll find assessment tools and the application for accreditation.