Overview of guidance for online programs further details in UUA Online Rules and Policies

1. Ask youth to register for on-line programs, with a kind of verification process including signed parent/guardian permission forms. We don’t want to allow adults posing as youth to join our youth spaces. For UUA programs, verification should must include contact with the youth’s congregation.

2. Verification can include an orientation meeting in which you are virtually face to face. This will allow you to share ground rules before a youth joins and to visually see the youth.

3. Consider how to best reduce the chance that unregistered people will show up in your online space and disrupt it: such as individualized zoom links, passwords, enabling waiting room features, disabling screen-sharing, and locking the meeting once everyone has arrived.

4. Make sure adult leaders are background-checked, and remember to have 2 adults present at all times with youth. Never allow one-one conversations on-line between youth and adults

5. Consider turning off “private chatting” to avoid inappropriate conversations one-one during youth events. Create covenants within programs about where conversations will happen including not having one on one communication between adults and youth.

6. Cap registration—be realistic about your capacity to run an on-line youth activity.

7. Recruit sufficient leaders for your program. For instance, if you will be running breakout groups, recruit sufficient leaders for those breakout groups while leaving enough other leaders to handle other issues.

   • Breakout rooms also require 2 adults. At in person events other adults are present in the space and could easily observe a small group, but this is not possible in an online setting.

   • Breakout rooms can also be led by at least 1 reference checked youth leader.