Abusers must have access to clients before they can offend, so youth programs should do everything possible to avoid giving access to someone who should not be in a position of trust. While criminal background checks are necessary, less than 5 percent of offenders have criminal records. Comprehensive screening and selection allow youth programs to systematically discover and consider everything they can about applicants.
Youth program administrative staff in charge of screening individuals, potential staff and volunteers, should be aware of the inherent limitations of background checks and should seek to utilize other screening methods, when possible, to include application questions, in-person interviews, and personal and professional reference checks. Missing application information and any personal or professional reference issues should raise “red flags” with youth program personnel and must be resolved by the youth program before an individual is allowed to have direct contact with minors within the program. Effective screening of applicants helps employers select safe and suitable applicants for their youth programs.
Listed below are some good practices for screening and selection.
- Identifies applicants who would create an unacceptable risk if given unsupervised access to youth
- Prevents placement of individuals who lack the time, judgment, or necessary skills and attitudes to effectively interact with youth
- Reduces liability and protect other employees from false allegations of inappropriate conduct
- Rules out potentially dangerous individuals with a history of violent or exploitative behavior
- Ensures applicants are a good fit for your program and goals
- Gauges the commitment level of the applicant
- Allows you to determine whether applicants are appropriate for your program based on your eligibility criteria
Look for four key traits in a prospective employee or volunteer:
- Dependable (keeps commitments, shows up on time, follows through)
- Adaptable (shows the ability to overcome adversity in his or her personal and/or professional life)
- Respectful (adheres to program and family rules, interested in learning about the experiences of others, nonjudgmental)
- Resilient (can handle common youth “testing behaviors” and is not particularly “rejection-sensitive”)
The information a candidate submits on an employment application should accurately reflect the candidate's history. Although some information, like a criminal conviction, may seem like an obvious red flag for every employer, hiring managers should be wary of automatically dismissing candidates without further investigation. What constitutes a red flag can differ by company and position, but the most common red flags are discrepancies and derogatory marks. It’s important for youth program personnel to understand that some red flags are specific to working with youth. Youth program personnel should be mindful of the four red flags below when screening prospective employees and volunteers:
- Under-involvement with adults and over-involvement with children
- History of being abused, neglected, or sexually victimized
- Criminal record, even if seemingly unrelated to crimes against children
- Applied—but was not accepted—at, or “didn’t like”, other local youth-serving programs